Hairy Bikers recipes - Calorie Count

LivingInPuglia

So today I decided to have the Hairy Bikers Spanish-style chicken bake for dinner. Their recipe gives the calorie count per portion as 370. The list of ingredients does not include weight for the 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

So I created a recipe using their ingredients and the actual weight of the boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Checked the values for the chicken thighs in a number of different sources.

And the calorie count came out at 507 calories a portion ...... quite a bit more than it says on the HB recipe.

KateParker01

I agree, I put it through MFP and came up with 470cals per serving. The only way I could get it down to the 370 they state was to have the number of thighs to four - one per person not two. So either they'd have to be very small chicken thighs at 8, or exceedingly well trimmed of all possible fat. That said, even 470-500 is still a good blanced count for an all in one main meal.

LivingInPuglia

I did trim the thighs of as much fat as I could get off. It's good to know you got closer to my count .... I'm going with the higher count (erring on the side of caution). And yes it's a good calorie count for good well balanced meal, but I'm glad I checked the calorie count. I might have been tempted to eat the extra calories if I'd gone with the 370 count!

LivingInPuglia

Despite the confusion with the calorie count (and going with the higher one to be sure), this is fabulous. I was afraid it wouldn't be enough for OH (he gets 1 and a half portions) but it was. And we both loved it. Relatively simple, all cooked in one pan! Definitely on the we'll eat it again list!

KateParker01

It's on my list of things to do from that book too! How did you find the garlic, I was a bit worried it might be too much? I also really fancy the mushroom, feta and tomato stuffed peppers too

LivingInPuglia

the garlic was fine ..... I don't have the book, just found some of the recipes on the internet. The book is on my wishlist!

hannydee

We're making this today for dinner and I've just input the ingredients... Count came to 586 cals per person and that's with using the exact quantities specified. Obviously they have massively underestimated the calories of both the chicken and chorizo when calculating this!

I don't mind too much, as 600 is a typical dinner for me, however I can see how it could be an issue for serious dieters. They should have put everything in weights, rather than saying things like '1 medium onion' - what's a medium onion? I had what I thought was a medium onion in something I cooked the other day. The MFP calorie count for a medium onion was ~35, but when I weighed out my 'medium onion' it was close to 200g, which is ~80 calories... Small inaccuracies like that could really make a difference.

LivingInPuglia

my confusion was they didn't give a weight for the chicken thighs.

I still think it's a good meal, just need to be realistic about the real food values