Question about counting calories?

tayloripeterson

For dinner tonight I am making a copy cat Chipotle Burrito bowl. I am marinating the chicken in the recipe bellow:

1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
6 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1 red onion, quartered
1/4 cup olive oil
3 chicken breasts

So my question is, I am not going to drink the marinade (obvi) I am going to let the chicken sit in it over night, and then cook it. But do I count all the calories in the oil if I am not going to be consuming all of the olive oil in the recipe? Does anyone have any ideas on how you would account for this?

The total calorie count for the total above is (for one serving): Chipotle's Chicken Homemade, 1 serving(s) 265cal 16fat 3carbs 28protien 1,257sodium 1 sugar

bcattoes

I would suggest weighing the marinade before you add the chicken, then weighing it again after you remove the chicken. Log the difference.

tayloripeterson

I don't have a scale. I will be purchasing one asap. Not a bad suggestion though! Any other ideas?

EvanKeel

I would suggest weighing the marinade before you add the chicken, then weighing it again after you remove the chicken. Log the difference.

That's probably a better, more exact way of doing it. If I'm being honest about my logging behaviors, I'd probably just log it as a tablespoon of oil and call it a day.

sadrithmora

The scale method is definitely the best, but it's unlikely the chicken will absorb more than 1 or 2 spoons of oil. Not to mention what might get lost during the actual cooking process.

weird_me2

Not sure scale method would be best here, because the chicken will release water in to the marinade because of the salt in the marinade and it could end up weighing more after than before. Couple of ideas:

1) leave out the oil from the marinade and make it a "dry rub" then add a measured amount of oil to the chicken before cooking
2) replace half the oil with water or lime/lemon juice and then count the whole marinade
3) to really save calories, replace all of the oil with a mixture of lime/lemon juice and water

Using only 1/4 C "liquid" to marinate 3 chicken breasts means that most of that is going to stick to the meat - it'll probably be more of a "paste" than a marinade.

Also, with the salt and other flavors, I wouldn't marinate it too much longer than suggested. Sometimes the flavors can get overpowering if you over-marinate. If you want the flavor to be better absorbed, I've found that slicing the meat thin before marinating works great.