What is the real deal with chicken?

I didn't know that skinless breast meat was so high in calories!!! I was also surprised to find out that it only rates a B.  I baked some skinless chicken tenders last night with a little Pam and a little bar- b -que sauce.  It seems that one strip without that little bit of sauce is around 230 calories!  Is that true? Is there anything other than fish that is low cal and you can actually eat enough of to feel satisfied?  When it comes to fish - I have issues! If I didn't catch it I usually am not interested in eating it.  Too many years near the ocean I guess.

anyway - please fill me in  on the chicken scene!!! lol

Chicken is an excellent food.... and not high in calories when compared with other meats.  Generic uncooked skinless chicken breast is approximately 125 cals per 100g.  Lean beef steak would be 130 cals per 100g.   White fish is about 100 cals per 100g.   Fresh salmon is about 190 cals per 100g.

Enjoy chicken...

Thank you for the info.  I love chicken - it is easy to cook and tastes great!!! I was bummed when it appeared to be so high in calories.  I'm going to go back to the food log and see if I can find the right entry and tag it. 

Thanks again!

Original Post by tuff_n_nuff:

I didn't know that skinless breast meat was so high in calories!!! I was also surprised to find out that it only rates a B.  I baked some skinless chicken tenders last night with a little Pam and a little bar- b -que sauce.  It seems that one strip without that little bit of sauce is around 230 calories!  Is that true? Is there anything other than fish that is low cal and you can actually eat enough of to feel satisfied?  When it comes to fish - I have issues! If I didn't catch it I usually am not interested in eating it.  Too many years near the ocean I guess.

anyway - please fill me in  on the chicken scene!!! lol

wait - "chicken tenders" - in my mind, those are breaded things that come out of boxes.  there's plenty of added fat, etc. in those.

chicken breast meat is low fat and high protein.  but processed chicken breast meat products - not so much.

I looked up chicken tenders on the food browser.  The first one on the list showed 110 ca. for 3 pieces.  In a questionable situation like this, I usually just get the calorie content from the original package.

No I buy the fresh cut chicken breast meat that is cut into strips.  Uncooked just raw meat.  The stuff the grocery butcher puts in the chicken section.  Last night I was looking in the food log and all I found was high calories for chicken and that has me a bit confused!!!  One strip is around 100g and all I found was 230 calories per 100g.  I wanted to eat 300 to 400 g but at that calorie level I could not.   That just doesn't seem right to me. 

Thanks for the heads up, i really do appreciate the help.  But this isn't prepared chicken so there isn't any calorie info. on the  package. 

Gi Janes calculations seem to be as close as it gets. I would count that then add the calories from the spay you used and the BBQ sauce you used those should have nutrient guides on the package.

Original Post by pgeorgian:

wait - "chicken tenders" - in my mind, those are breaded things that come out of boxes.  there's plenty of added fat, etc. in those.

chicken breast meat is low fat and high protein.  but processed chicken breast meat products - not so much.

 

Chicken tenders get a bad reputation because of breaded and fried chicken "fingers".  The name has become pretty much interchangeable (ah, gotta love US marketing not quite as bad, but still comparable to Kleenex and tissue), but chicken tenders are actually the part of the breast that is a 1" to 1.5" thick strip under the usual chicken breast (the tenderloin).  If you roast a chicken and pull off the breast meat there is a long strip underneath that doesn't come up with the breast.  That's the tenderloin aka "tender".  Of course, restaurants don't use only the tender to make chicken fingers.  They also cut breasts into strips, bread, and fry them.

Chicken tenders (pectoralis minor) at the grocery store usually come in packages of 6-8 tenders and are usually slightly cheaper than chicken breasts, of course, you also get less actual meat, but you may pay less per lb depending on the store, and calorie-wise, they are pretty much equal to the same weight of the actual chicken breast (pectoralis major).

I just read over this post and realized that it's slightly gross.  Sorry to anybody who gets disgusted because of my little two cents.  I love chicken, but thinking about individual cuts of any meat always grosses me out a little bit.

Your post was interesting to me and something I did not know. I live with a hunter - he's the hunter - not me!!! Anyway, I  have seen more than I would like so discussing cuts of meat doesn't really bother me. thanks for the info.

I think that part of the problem comes from the fact that the CC database doesn't list nutritional info. for raw meats.  While somewhat understandable because nobody actually eats raw chicksn, it's really really inconvenient for those of us who weigh our meat before cooking rather than after. From what I can tell, cooked chicken breast has almost twice as many calories per 100g than raw meat just because of the water that evaporates out of it (turning 100 g raw meat into about 50 g cooked meat).

And I didn't know that those little pieces inside the chicken breast were called chicken tenders.  My grocery store calls them chicken fillets.

Make it easy on yourself - switch to turkey breast or bison.  Both are leaner than chicken!

I have been thinking about cooking a turkey over the weekend  - but my town is out of whole turkeys!! things that make you go hmmm.

I often buy the raw tenders like you do.  I just log them as stewed chicken breast skin and bone removed.  I also log by weight and I have found my serving size of 3 tenders is just around 3 oz and less than 200 calories.  I would just log them as chicken breast.  I am sure most results for tenders on CC will give you calories for breaded nugget type chicken.

Original Post by tuff_n_nuff:

No I buy the fresh cut chicken breast meat that is cut into strips.  Uncooked just raw meat.  The stuff the grocery butcher puts in the chicken section.  Last night I was looking in the food log and all I found was high calories for chicken and that has me a bit confused!!!  One strip is around 100g and all I found was 230 calories per 100g.  I wanted to eat 300 to 400 g but at that calorie level I could not.   That just doesn't seem right to me. 

 you wanted to eat 300 - 400g?  well that's your problem, isn't it.  you do realize that 400g is almost a pound.  that's a lot of chicken.

Foster Farms 3 chicken tenders (106 grams) is just over 100 calories

I've got Nature's Basket chicken breasts for 120 calories, low-fat, 26 grams of protein.

You guys have been a lot of help! I might not be reading my scale correctly for starters!  I am glad to hear that it is what I thought low calories and I can eat enough to get satisfied. 

thanks,

You can go to calorieking.com and type in "tyson boneless chicken breast" and you will have an option for both the calorie content of raw and cooked to choose from, whichever method you use to weigh your meat.

That's the brand I buy, but it's pretty standard for other raw chicken breasts too. But also very important... there is a SLIGHT difference in calories between boneless chicken breast and boneless chicken breast w/ rib meat. Read the packages carefully. Added rib meat contains slightly more fat, although I suppose you could always cut it off. I trim all the white bits out of mine anyway. hehe

I did something similar and tagged an entry for 100 g raw chicken - which works if I want to enter that I had chicken for dinner.  It's useless when entering recipes though.  I wind up having to calculate the correct calories based on the raw weight of chicken then guesstimate how much cooked chicken that corresponds to.  Which seems like far too much work to have to do to enter a recipe for a chicken stir fry or chicken curry, for example.

I use either skinless roast chicken breast or skinless braised chicken breast as my calorie-default. The entry for 'tenders' is not accurate at all. One tender weighs roughly 1 - 1.5 oz depending on how large it is and a plain unseasoned uncoated tender has no more calories than the same amount of skinless breast meat.