Calories in “Chirping Chicken” Chicken

Not too many city girls or guys cook, but we love to “dial for dinner” or grab quick take-out on the way home from work or the gym. I love the horrified/embarrassed look  that I see on many of my clients faces when I ask them if they cook for dinner. I can totally empathize with them as I rarely cook. Getting home from work or gym at 10 pm is not conducive to cooking. So I am always on the lookout for quick relatively healthy meals to take in or order out.

Chirping Chicken restaurants  can be found throughout the city. And even if you don’t have this specific restaurant in your neighborhood, chances are that you have a similar type of rotissiere or BBQ chicken place so you can use this nutritional info as a guide.

While there are many options available on the menu, I was specifically interested in the nutritional content of the roasted chicken.

 
Here were the menu items I looked at:

1. A la carte includes just the chicken (either 1/4 or 1/2) plus pita bread. You can purchase a side of rice, mashed potato or vegetables with this.

2. The “meals” include the chicken, 2 sides, pita bread, and a drink.

In the privacy of my home, I dissected the chicken. First I weighed the entire piece of chicken. Then I pulled off the edible meat and set aside the skin and bone. Yes – I said I took off the skin! The nutritional info I am giving you doesn’t include the skin (which is full of fat, especially saturated fat!).  The majority of the meat was white, however there were some darker pieces as well. So I factored the calories/ grams of fat  as 75% white meat and 25% dark meat. 

 
Nutritional content based on what I found:

– 1/4 chicken  weighed 8 1/4 ounces, minus skin and bones (3  1/4 oz), it weighed 5 ounces. So it had ~ 245 calories and 7 grams of fat.

– 1/2 chicken weighed 16 ounces, minus skin and bones (5 ounces) for a total of 11 ounces of edible meat. So it had  541 calories and 16 grams of fat

– pita bread weighed slightly under 3 ounces and had ~ 220 calories. Fat content is not known, but it is low.

– large side (2 cups)
        -steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) contains ~ 100 calories and negligible fat.
        – starch (rice or mashed potato) contains ~ 400 calories and ~ 5- 7  grams of fat.

– small side (1 cup)
        – steamed veggies (as above) contains ~ 50 calories and negligible fat
        – starch contains ~ 200 calories and 3-5 grams of fat

Chirping Chicken for dinner 

For a city girl trying to watch her weight, I often recommend ~ 500 calories for dinner and for a city guy trying to watch his weight ~ 600-700 calories. Here is how Chirping Chicken would fit in:

City girl:
– 1/4 chicken, pita (or small rice or potato) and large steamed veggie = 545 calories. This would be my first choice. (pic is of city girl knawing on chicken bones)

City guy:
Either as above for 545 calories or 1/2 chicken, pita (or small rice or potato) and large order steamed veggie for 750 calories.

Enjoy!