Ten ingredients and forty-five minutes, worked through one pan after the pasta is drained.
Everything is built on what the bacon leaves behind — one tablespoon of its fat browns the chicken.
Why This Recipe Works
- Crisping the bacon first gives both the fat and the crisp pieces the dish needs.
- A tablespoon of bacon fat carries more flavour into the chicken than oil would.
- Ranch seasoning added to the browning chicken toasts rather than sitting raw in cream.
- Reducing cream and broth together gives a thick sauce without any flour.
- Holding half the bacon back keeps crisp pieces visible on the finished bowl.
Ingredient Notes
- Bacon
- Eight ounces, chopped and crisped. Half is folded through and half is scattered on top, and only the top half stays crisp.
- Ranch seasoning mix
- A tablespoon, added to the chicken as it browns rather than to the sauce. It toasts in the fat instead of sitting raw.
- Penne
- Twelve ounces of tubes.
- Heavy cream and chicken broth
- A cup each, reduced together. No flour anywhere — the thickness comes from reduction and Parmesan.
How to Make It
Penne al dente and drained
Cook penne until al dente and drain.
Bacon crisped, one tablespoon of fat kept
Cook bacon until crisp; transfer out, leaving 1 tablespoon fat.
Chicken browned in that fat to 165°F
Brown chicken in the bacon fat with ranch seasoning until 165°F; add garlic for 30 seconds.
Cream and broth reduced thick and pale ivory
Add cream and broth and simmer until thick and pale ivory. Stir in Parmesan and black pepper.
Penne and half the bacon in, half on top
Fold in penne and half the bacon. Finish with remaining crisp bacon and parsley.
No vegetables
Do not add vegetables.
What Goes In When, and Why the Bacon Waits
8 oz of bacon is cooked in the second step and does not finish arriving until the last one. Everything between those two moments happens in the fat it left behind, in a single pan - and the order is what keeps this a thick stovetop cream.
Before the pan
12 oz PENNE, cooked al dente and drained
Tubes, because penne is what this recipe uses. Cooked first because the sauce takes about as long to build as the pasta does to cook, and drained penne waits perfectly well.
First in the pan
8 oz chopped bacon, cooked CRISP - then OUT
It leaves two things behind and only one of them stays: ALL BUT 1 TABLESPOON of the fat is poured off. That single tablespoon is deliberate - bacon renders a great deal, and a sauce built on all of it goes greasy under a cup of cream.
Into the bacon fat
1 1/2 lb of chicken breast in chunks, with 1 TBSP RANCH SEASONING
Browned UNTIL 165F. The seasoning goes in HERE rather than into the sauce later, and the difference is real: dried herbs and alliums in hot fat bloom and toast, where the same tablespoon stirred into cream at the end tastes powdery. The chicken reaches its safe temperature at this stage, in a pan where it can be checked.
30 seconds later
2 garlic cloves, minced
Half a minute, then liquid. Long enough to lose the raw edge, short enough not to catch in a pan that has been browning chicken.
Then the sauce
1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Simmered UNTIL THICK AND PALE IVORY. Equal parts, and no flour anywhere in the recipe - the body comes from reduction alone, then 1/2 cup of Parmesan and 1/4 tsp pepper stirred in to finish it. THICK is the operative word: reduce it properly before the pasta arrives, because penne will not thicken a thin sauce for you.
Last, and in two halves
The penne and HALF the bacon folded in; the OTHER HALF on top
This is the split the whole recipe has been waiting for. Bacon folded into a cream sauce softens within a minute - fine for the half that is there for flavour, fatal for the half that is meant to be seen. You want CRISP SEPARATE RED-BROWN PIECES SCATTERED OVER THE TOP, and the only way to get them is to keep half of it out of the pan until the bowls are filled. Then 2 tbsp of parsley, and step 6: NO VEGETABLES.
Success Tips
- Pour off all but a tablespoon of bacon fat; more and the sauce turns greasy.
- Let the cream reduce properly before the pasta goes in — penne will not thicken it for you.
- Add the reserved bacon at the very end so it is still crisp when it reaches the table.
Serving Ideas
Six servings in white bowls, penne and chicken chunks in a thick pale ivory cream, heavily scattered with crisp red-brown bacon pieces and chopped parsley.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from the chicken bacon ranch gnocchi?
The starch and the sauce. This is penne in a cream reduced thick on the stovetop; that one is gnocchi from a slow cooker.
Why split the bacon?
Bacon folded into a cream sauce softens within a minute. Half goes in for flavour and half stays out so there are crisp separate pieces on top.
Can I stir in spinach or peas?
No — step 6 rules vegetables out. The parsley is the only green in the bowl.
