Cooking Oil

When adding cooking oil to a pan to cook, say, chicken (or anything really), does it add calories to the meal?

yes, and there is a ratio somewhere but I usually just add all the calories.

I use pam spray a lot of the time, but some things just really need a bit of olive oil.

Yikes, so if I use a tablespoon of vegetable oil to cook a chicken breast, that adds a whole 120 calories?!

Absolutely.  However- you don't have to use oil to cook- you can use a no-calorie cooking spray (and they come in different flavors), or you can even just saute in a little bit of water or stock.

Wow... I can't even imagine how many calories I've added on just from cooking in vegetable oil. What is the purpose of it, anyway - so it doesn't stick to the pan? Flonklar, do you mean water would be an acceptable substitute? Not sure if I have any non-stick spray on hand...

Oil contributes in other ways to the cooking process besides preventing sticking- it also helps cook the food evenly and adds flavor.  IMO, there isn't really a "substitute" for oil, but you can certainly accomplish the task of cooking with other media.

Is it worth it, though, to add 120 calories to a ~150 calorie chicken breast to make it taste better?

Try using just a teaspoon= 40 calories.  I think it's worth it, but I use olive oil instead of bland veg oil.

Original Post by patriciaj102:

Is it worth it, though, to add 120 calories to a ~150 calorie chicken breast to make it taste better?

That is way too much oil for such a small piece of chicken. If I just sear the chicken (or other stuff) what I do is damp a piece of paper towel in olive oil and wipe the hot pan with it. This is to prevent whatever I am searing from sticking. For things like stir fry I add a tea spoon or two of oil (not olive oil), and throw in some diced green onions, ginger, and garlic to get things started. After that I use chicken stock to keep things from burning/sticking.

P.S. there is no such thing as calorie free cooking spray.

UD

Patricia,

I always try to use a spray bottle. They do not cost much (one dollar) and you can just spray the pan with one spray and cook the food. You will be using less oil and the spray bottle is refillable. Restaurants use them when cooking food.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I'm really just starting to learn the basics of cooking my own food - I'm a college student and I recently moved to my own apartment, and I've realized I can't exactly eat healty by simply toasting, microwaving and boiling.

@umneydurak - I think I may have been overestimating - I cooked some chicken tonight and measured out one teaspoon and it was about what I've been using all along. Still, that's more calories than I'd like to add, even if it's a relatively small amount. As for the chicken stock, can you use that when cooking pretty much anything instead of oil?

@nieto - Thanks for the spray bottle idea, I'm definitely going to try it!

Be aware that if you use stock instead of oil, you won't get a nice brown sear on your chicken because the stock boils at a much lower temperature than the oil.  Part of the reason we use oil is that it heats high without burning, so it lets us get that nice caramelization on our meat.  But you could easily get away with 1/2 tsp. or less for one chicken breast.

Also chicken stock only really works for stir frying. I usually add soy sauce, etc so not being "carmalized" is not a big deal for me. *shrug

UD

A word on pam and similar cooking sprays. By fda standards if  a product  contains less then 5 calories/serving they can legally say it is calorie/fat free. If you only use the 1 serving size which is the ridiculous amount of a 1/3 sec spray its an insignificant amount.  Of course how do you measure a 1/3 sec spray :) Tricky underhanded devils

I pretty consistently use about 1/4-1/2 tsp for stir fry chicken, and maybe 1/2-1 tsp for a breast. Remember, once you have your sear on the meat, you can always turn the heat down quite low so that you are still cooking the meat, but the oil still remains in the pan. 

Also be sure that if you are going to use olive oil, NOT to use extra virgin oilve oil for stir frys, browning, etc, as the smoke point of extra virgin is much lower than regular olive oil and the last thing you want to do is to burn your oil. Yuck :(

Which kind of oil is best to use? I've been using vegetable oil, but is olive oil better? (And is there any calorie difference?)

Olive Oil wins by 5 to 7 calories only. (As per CC food log)

It depends on what you are doing. As was mentioned for stir frying you need to use something with high smoking point, since this cooking method requires high heat. Just to grease the pan lightly olive oil or extra virgin will do. Aso different oils have differnt taste so that will give different flavor to the food. Really it just comes down to the cooking method and what flavor you want to be added.

UD

Patricia, the only oil you would count as calories is that which is absorbed into the meat during cooking.  Most of the time I'd guess that would be less than 1/3 of what you use or maybe 40 calories.   Some oils are more suited to frying than others as well.  Olive oil for example, has a low smoking point and is ok for low to medium heat but not medium high or high.   Also, I didn't check your profile but if you don't have any weight issues, I wouldn't worry about the fat added by a little frying.  Frying has gotten a bad name for quite a long time and it's really deep frying that deserves the bad reputation.   So long as you don't do it every day and it's just once in a while, a little fry up can be good for you using healthy fats and lets face it, there's no substitute for the taste of fried food...lol.

Well, I'm not particularly trying to fry the food, it's just the easiest and fastest way I know of to cook chicken in a frying pan. I eat chicken most nights and I always cook it in a frying pan, and I make stir fries fairly often as well which I also cook in a pan.

Up here in Canada Patricia, we generally call anything made in a pan with oil or butter or margarine, "fried"....lol.   It is easy and fast and it tastes good too.  I am a very healthy eater and I cook that way quite often, I just use very little oil and only healthy oils.   Good for you to be concerned and curious at such a young age...it bodes well for your future health and well being!!!