Your weekly frugal recipe - Chicken Carbonara

Chicken Carbonara

The Food Stamp Way

Skills	Prep	Cook
What do these meters mean?

Equipment you'll need
Chef knife, cutting board, deep skillet or sauté pan, 4 qt. saucepan or pot, colander, mixing bowl

Serves 4

Ingredient	Amount	Cost
Spaghetti	1 lb	$1.34
Eggs	4	$0.46*
Butter	2 Tbsp	$0.17*
Whipping Cream	1/2 c.	$0.52*
Bacon	4 oz	$0.90*
Onion	1 medium	$0.50
Chicken Breasts	2	$6.16
Grated Cheese	1/2 c.	$0.53*
Parsely	1 bunch	$0.44
Total		$11.02
* Based on price per package divided by amount used.

Price per plate = $2.76

Notes about ingredients:

Butter: Use margarine if that's what's common in your house

Whipping Cream: Half and half is lower in fat and is usually less expensive. When I went shopping, 16 oz of half and half was $1.00 while the same amount of heavy whipping cream was $2.08. 1/2 c. = 4 ounces

Chicken Breasts: Chicken thighs are less expensive. My store has chicken breasts for $3.08 per pound while chicken thighs were $2.26 per pound. Assume 1 pound per chicken breast or about 2 thighs each.

Cheese: Buy solid cheese and grate it yourself for savings

If you use these substitutes, the price for the dish is now $9.11 with a price per plate of $2.27!

Prep Instructions:

Cut the chicken breasts or thighs into uniform strips

Chop the bacon into very small pieces.

Chop the onion into small pieces.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them thoroughly with a fork or whisk.

Instructions:
1.  Bring water to a boil in the sauce pan and cook the spaghetti in it for 10 minutes, or until soft.
2.  While spaghetti cooks, place bacon in sauté pan and cook thoroughly.  Drain off the grease.
3.  Add butter, chicken strips, and onion and cook until chicken is tender.
4.  Drain the cooked spaghetti and add it to the sauté pan.  Add the cream and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir over heat until it begins to boil.
5.  Add the cheese and eggs.
6.  Turn off the heat and stir well.
7.  Top with chopped parsley and serve immediately.

I must also note that I had everything in this recipe except for the half-and-half, so this recipe technically cost me about $0.25.  Herein lies the beauty of having stores of food, but we'll get to that later.  Also, it seems that the portions in this are really large, so you might have some for leftover night which further decreases the price per portion.
What recipe would you like done the food stamp way? Comments? Questions? Tweet to @cookingcheap