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Chicken and leek carbonara
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Andrew Burton
Chicken and leek carbonara
Recipe by Lucy Jessop
Lighten up traditional carbonara with chicken and leeks. This is perfect for using up leftover roast chicken
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 minsTotal time:
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
612Kcal
Fat
23gr
Saturates
10gr
Carbs
56gr
Sugars
4gr
Fibre
6gr
Protein
42gr
Salt
0.5gr
Lucy Jessop
Lucy, our former Food Editor creates lots of delicious meals each month. Her recipes are always packed with flavour and they're super easy too!
See more of Lucy Jessop’s recipes
Lucy Jessop
Lucy, our former Food Editor creates lots of delicious meals each month. Her recipes are always packed with flavour and they're super easy too!
See more of Lucy Jessop’s recipes
Ingredients
- 15g butter
- 1 x 175g pack baby leeks (or equivalent weight normal leeks), finely sliced
- 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
- 150g leftover roast chicken, shredded (or ready-cooked chicken)
- 1 heaped tbsp chopped tarragon leaves, plus extra to serve
- 150g linguine or spaghetti, wholewheat if possible
- 3 medium egg yolks
- 25g Parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve
Step by step
- Melt the butter in a sauté pan, add the leeks with a little seasoning, cover with the lid and cook gently for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the garlic, chicken and tarragon, cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is piping hot.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente – about 8-10 minutes. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the Parmesan and season.
-
When the pasta is cooked, drain, reserving 3 tablespoons of the cooking water. Slowly whisk this water into the egg yolk mixture. Off the heat, add the pasta to the pan with the chicken and leeks, then pour over the egg mixture, toss with tongs for a couple of minutes until a glossy sauce forms, coating the strands of pasta. Divide between 2 shallow bowls and serve straight away, topped with extra Parmesan and tarragon if you like.TipIf you can’t get hold of tarragon, stir some grain mustard or lemon zest into the pasta instead.
Bulk it up
Increase pasta to 100g per person.
Make it veggie
Add 200g pan-fried sliced mushrooms in place of the shredded chicken