Chicken Breast

I bet this question will sound stupid, but oh well here it goes.

When I cook my chicken I nromaly just put a bit of olive oil on my frying pan, not enough to deep fry anything..only around a tablespooon of olive oil.

Is that fried chicken or roasted or what? Ive always been a bit confused with that.

Also does the chicken itself has more calories when it is cooked in certain ways or can I just add the calories of the tablespoon I just used and then add the calories from the chicken? I mean the chicken doesnt go up in calories by itself, but because the olive oil is soaked into the chicken or so?

Say I have 50 grams of chicken (a chicken breast)

and it has around 75 calories.

The tablespoong of olive oil has 90 calories in total...so do I just add the 90 cals and the 75 from the chicken? or is this wrong?

lol I feel pretty stupid asking but I guess Its just to make sure Im not overestimating or underestimating my calories for that specific meal.

thanks!

Sounds about right but may I suggest a really easy, great recipe without the olive oil?

Spray with Olive oil Pam, then sprinkle the chicken breast with your choice of spices.  I like rosemary, maybe a litle garlic, or lemon pepper. Bake at 425 for 35 minutes.  Yummy, tender, moist and no extra oil calories. Try it! I think you will like it.

Barbara

yum sounds great :) I love olive oil tho! and I like having my healthy fats included  :) thanks though! I will definitely try that out ;)

Take the calories for the raw chicken and add the calories for any oil used for cooking.  Log 'raw chicken' and 'olive oil' with appropriate quantities for each.  (A 50g chicken breast?  Are you sure that's not a pigeon?) Chicken cooked in oil will absorb some and when you serve it up quite a lot of the oil will end up on the plate.  A tablespoon of olive oil is more like 120 cals BTW...

I weigh my slices of chicken breast and they are about 50 grams. They are thinly sliced, but I do have about 100 grams or chicken.

I consume around 10 grams of olive oil when cooking...I calculated about 90 calories :S maybe im wrong? thanks for letting me know!

doing it all seperately is always the best.  just keep track of what you put in.  the lowest cal way to cook chicken is to poach it, but that,s mroe for salads or something, since it's very plain.  the worst is obviously deep frying.  but anythign else in between it depends on what you use to cook it/cook with (salsa, soya sauce, etc).  i don't know if you've tried otehr oils, but i LOVE sesame.  good for stir frys or just by itself with a bit of soya sauce (or not...)

I am on Weight watchers, but still love this site

With that said.  Oils are essential part of losing weight as well as just daily living.

We are to get 2 TEASPOONS of good oils like Olive oil a day.  So if you still like your olive oil just use a teaspoon or 2 instead of 1 tablespoon (which has 3 teaspoons in it).

Also when cooking meat like that you probably are NOT getting ALL the oils.  But counting like you do is good as  well.  I like just adding my values separatly instead of adding them together.  THis way I know where all the calories are coming from.

I do not consider it frying, this is how I make my chicken as well. I think frying something, like you said, would need to have a huge amount of oils in it.

'Fried' chicken is cooked sitting in a bath of oil in the pan. It can be deep-fried (entirely submersed in boiling oil in a deep pan) or shallow-fried (sitting in the frypan with an inch or two of oil). It absorbs a fair bit of fat either way, but that's what makes it lovely and crispy and crunchy. I love fried chicken and make it sometimes for a treat, but I'm under no illusions that it's healthy! lol For normal cooking purposes, whether you're frying or not, there isn't really any need to add ANY oil. Add your seasoning to the chicken and then put in some water or broth (or even white wine if you like it) so that the chicken is half-sitting in liquid - I never ever have a problem with dry chicken that way! You can still get it browned at the end, because if you use the right amount of liquid, it runs out when the chicken is cooked and it picks up the caramelising juices and tastes delicious.

'Roasting' means cooking in the oven, with or without oil.

I'd say your method is called "sautee" or "pan frying."  There is 15 grams per tablespoon (more or less) so your fat calculation is probably correct.   And the benefit of olive oil is best when it isn't heated, especially to high temperatures, just so you know. 

kajikit and axonic

I agree with you to a point.  Olive oil IS good for you.  Everyone needs oils.  It helps hair, skin and nails stay healthy.  Its best to get that oil in original form such as from nuts or avocados but those are also high in calories, where as a a teaspoon of olive oil is still good and lower in calories.

As for the heating part.  Olive ol is fine heated.  Flex seed oils are not good heated at all. Infact you are NOT supposed to heat Flex oils as well as some others.  But olive and canola oils are ment to be heated (or can be used cold too). 

And if you want to go the heated route, veggies are best if not heated either but we do that.

Not hear to argue just trying to share my point of view too.

I have lost 30 pounds off weight watchers using there program (about 1 pound a week on average) which says to get 2 teaspoons a day of oils, whether from original forms or from olive oils.  Its worked for me, keeps me satisfied and I have been very successful.

it also depends on whether you're: gaining (so a tablespoon or a dash more is good), losing (so the weight watchers thing is fine) or maintaining (somewhere in between...?)

Original Post by maddogkt321:

kajikit and axonic

I agree with you to a point.  Olive oil IS good for you.  Everyone needs oils.  It helps hair, skin and nails stay healthy.  Its best to get that oil in original form such as from nuts or avocados but those are also high in calories, where as a a teaspoon of olive oil is still good and lower in calories.

As for the heating part.  Olive ol is fine heated.  Flex seed oils are not good heated at all. Infact you are NOT supposed to heat Flex oils as well as some others.  But olive and canola oils are ment to be heated (or can be used cold too). 

And if you want to go the heated route, veggies are best if not heated either but we do that.

Not hear to argue just trying to share my point of view too.

I have lost 30 pounds off weight watchers using there program (about 1 pound a week on average) which says to get 2 teaspoons a day of oils, whether from original forms or from olive oils.  Its worked for me, keeps me satisfied and I have been very successful.

Actually, according to the Mayo Clinic, olive oil loses it's healthy fat benefits if it is heated in cooking.  I was in a research study on the health benefits of olive oil, and the subjects were not allowed to heat the oil at all.

huggitbear

Thanks for the info.  I will bring that to my WW leader, because we just talked about that and heating those oils were fine so that was what I was brought to believe.  There is a science behind weight watchers, but I will look more into it.

Thanks again, my mistake.

Do you know of any oils that ARE good to use when heating up? SInce I cook with it I want it to be benificial. I have a hard time just coating somethings with it, although I could do that I guess.

I didn't say that she shouldn't eat any... but a lot of people say they 'have to' put oil into the frying pan before they cook ANYTHING and it's not actually essential - there are workarounds and they don't have to result in dry (or soggy) badly-flavoured food. I'd rather get my oil in the form of a couple of tablespoons of salad dressing or a little butter than burned to my meat.

kajikit

That is true, before WW I NEVER put oils in the pan, I just used water and seasonings. Boiled it basically till all heated through, THEN let it brown on the outside.  And right before I was about done, I would add a little more water and let it cook a bit to re-juice up the chicken a bit.

But on a side note.  unless the salad dressing is plain oil and vinegar, the oils in lets say ranch or french are NOT the good stuff and you never know how much of the essantial oils you are getting.  SO just beware of that.  I was a huge dowser in dressing, its one of my downfalls.  BUt now I know the difference.

ANd just wanted to let you know, you are looking great.

I found using Chicken Stock with a small amount of olive oil works well. I start the chicken in about 2 teaspoons of olive oil first and when that's gone, I put in a small amount of chicken broth and continue cooking it. I add more broth as needed. It comes out really nice.