Some of the advantages of the simultaneous use of surfactants and nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are the increase in the efficiency of injection fluid for sweeping, the reduction of adsorption of the surfactant onto the reservoir rock, the alteration of wettability, and the reduction of water/crude oil interfacial tension (IFT). However, a large amount of nanoparticles required in chemical EOR processes might limit their application. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to synthesize, characterize, and evaluate magnetic iron core-carbon shell nanoparticles that can be recovered and to study their impact on the reduction of surfactant adsorption on the porous media and oil recovery at reservoir conditions. The additional benefit of the proposed method is that these nanoparticles can be recovered and reused after the application because of their magnetic properties. The magnetic iron core-carbon shell nanoparticles were obtained following a new one-pot hydrothermal procedure and were carbonized at 900 degrees C using a teflon-lined autoclave. The core-shell nanoparticles were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, N-2 physisorption at -196 degrees C, X-ray diffraction, Xray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and magnetometry measurements. The magnetic iron core-carbon shell nanoparticles with an average particle size of 60 nm were obtained. The XPS spectrum corroborated that magnetic Fe(0) of the core was adequately coated with a carbon shell. The IFT was measured using a spinning drop tensiometer for a medium viscosity crude oil and a surfactant mixture. The minimum IFT reached was approximately 1 x 10(-4) mN in(-1) at a nanoparticle concentration of 100 mg L-1. At this concentration, the dynamic adsorption tests demonstrated that the nanoparticles reduce 33% the adsorption of the surfactant mixture in the porous media. The simultaneous effect of core-shell nanoparticles and the surfactant mixture was evaluated in a displacement test at reservoir conditions obtaining a final oil recovery of 98%.