Weighing chicken - Cooked or raw?

Essien

I've gotten into the habit of weighing a lot of what I eat to find the calories and nutritional content, but one thing I'm not sure on is chicken breast.

I find that it could reduce in weight by up to 25-30% from raw to cooked (depending on how it's cooked). This is a real pain as I'm trying to maximise my protein intake and chicken is my main source.

My question in when is it best for me to weigh it? If you do the same, when do you weigh it?

dor843088

Essien wrote: »

I've gotten into the habit of weighing a lot of what I eat to find the calories and nutritional content, but one thing I'm not sure on is chicken breast.

I find that it could reduce in weight by up to 25-30% from raw to cooked (depending on how it's cooked). This is a real pain as I'm trying to maximise my protein intake and chicken is my main source.

My question in when is it best for me to weigh it? If you do the same, when do you weigh it?

You will probably never get a truly accurate method as hydration, depending on how it is manufactured stored and cooked will vary the weight of it by quite a bit. I cook mine in bulk and then weigh it as I use it (cooked).

conzy

I weigh it raw because like you said depending on cooking methods the cooked weight varies a lot.

usually If I buy a 500g pack of chicken I will just eyeball half of it and use the other half another day etc. It doesn't matter if one is 225 and the other is 275 it all works out the same in the end.

rubadub

Wet weight should be more accurate. The labels on fresh chicken should show the correct values for it raw. So if they have pumped it full of water this should not matter, the values shown should all be proportionately lower than usual if everything is above board.

tesco finest pork chops 21.5% protein
http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=267317171

standard is 20.0%
http://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=279428021

the common term used for watered down pork chops is "basted"

conzy wrote: »

usually If I buy a 500g pack of chicken I will just eyeball half of it and use the other half another day etc. It doesn't matter if one is 225 and the other is 275 it all works out the same in the end.

One thing to watch for is that the packs are often not the quoted weight. In tesco I often go rooting for the big packs. I have got packs that weighed well over the quoted size.

Essien

I would mostly weight it raw. One problem is that I buy it from a local butcher, so I just get an overall weight, no nutrient info.