Measuring Chicken

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rhetoricians
rhetoricians Posts: 8
in Food and Nutrition
Hello, all! I don't own a food scale yet, so I apologize for the seemingly stupid question!

My boyfriend and I put 10 chicken thighs in a crock pot (skinless) last night with a cut-up onion and a splash of BBQ sauce and let it cook overnight. when we got up this morning, we pulled out the bones and shredded it.

Now I am faced with how to log this in my tracker. I can't just say "1 thigh" because there is no bone, and I can't say "3 oz" or whatever because I have no scale! I was just going to log it as a few slivers of onion, a serving of BBQ sauce and a serving of chicken, but I don't know how much to portion out if I tell MFP I'm eating 4 oz!

Does anyone know what an eyeballed amount (maybe a cup size?) for a serving of shredded chicken might look like?
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Replies

  • Jchambers1130
    Jchambers1130 Posts: 173 Member
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    Anything will be way off, I'd say just stick to the normal first size pile.
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
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    serving-size-cheat-sheet.jpg
  • rhetoricians
    rhetoricians Posts: 8
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    I was going to just measure out a cup of the shredded chicken and log that as 4 or 5 ounces. Would that maybe be approximately right? Haha.
  • Rage_Phish
    Rage_Phish Posts: 1,507 Member
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    Buy a scale, they are cheap
  • rhetoricians
    rhetoricians Posts: 8
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    I plan on it! but I need this in the meantime. :)
  • Rawr1978
    Rawr1978 Posts: 245 Member
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    honestly, I REALLY recommend going and buying even a cheap scale. mine was $20, but I've seen some $5 that work great. I always thought I could eyeball measure, and I was soooo off.
    however, if that's an expense...maybe log chicken strips?
  • rhetoricians
    rhetoricians Posts: 8
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    I've got a scale coming in the mail via Amazon next week. I just need something to figure this out until then.
  • sharonfoustmills
    sharonfoustmills Posts: 519 Member
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    It's not going to be exact, so buy a food scale as soon as you can. I got a really good one at target for 30 bucks.

    when i measured 4 ozs of shredded chicken and then transferred it to regular household measuring cups, it fit into the half cup measuring cup and it was full to the top, I did not pack the chicken down or arrange it to fit, just randomly dumped it in there-- mine was breast though, not thigh, and that might make a difference too (i happened to just have some shredded chicken breast on hand that i made for tacos)

    eta: hope your scale arrives soon!
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    Buy a scale ASAP.

    In the meantime there should be an entry for shredded cooked chicken that is in cups. That should get you in the ballpark.

    But seriously, buy a scale.
  • themelmac
    themelmac Posts: 59 Member
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    I'd be tempted to build a recipe for that via MFP and determine how many servings you think you'll get from the crock pot.

    Use chicken thigh as the ingredient, enter 10, then enter in how much bbq sauce and onions you used. If you think you'll get 6 servings, MFP is going to give you the right calorie amount based on the recipe.

    I don't think you can generally use a cup of shredded chicken because dark meat (like thighs) have more calories and fat than breast meat.
  • Rawr1978
    Rawr1978 Posts: 245 Member
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    or that chart may help.
    I tried measuring shake n bake...it was fail even with the scale, cause I ended up with more breading
  • Jchambers1130
    Jchambers1130 Posts: 173 Member
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    Very true about the thigh part I forgot about that. It will be higher in calories than breast.
  • britzzie
    britzzie Posts: 341 Member
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    When I type "chicken thigh" into the search, an option with a 1 cup measurement is right at the top. And it is MORE than 4oz.
  • Rawr1978
    Rawr1978 Posts: 245 Member
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    I've got a scale coming in the mail via Amazon next week. I just need something to figure this out until then.
    lmfao you're going to get deluged with "buy a scale", and all you want is an alternative while you wait.
  • sharonfoustmills
    sharonfoustmills Posts: 519 Member
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    serving-size-cheat-sheet.jpg

    Okay, that thing could be way off. I can hold in my hand about 1/3 to 1/4 of what my husband can hold in his hand. He would be eating 4 servings thinking it was one serving by this chart.
  • SailorKnightWing
    SailorKnightWing Posts: 875 Member
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    I've got a scale coming in the mail via Amazon next week. I just need something to figure this out until then.
    I'm just going to quote those for everyone saying "buy a scale."
  • rhetoricians
    rhetoricians Posts: 8
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    When I type "chicken thigh" into the search, an option with a 1 cup measurement is right at the top. And it is MORE than 4oz.

    Does it matter that it's shredded and not diced? I can't tell if "meat only" implies no skin, either!
  • mrmagee3
    mrmagee3 Posts: 518 Member
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    I've never been able to get the little *kitten* to stand still long enough to wrap the tape measure around them. Best of luck, OP.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
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    Why did the chicken cross the road?
  • FattieBabs
    FattieBabs Posts: 542 Member
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    Hi I am having chicken thighs tonight. Found one entry on MFP that said 3 thighs = 146 cals. so going with that!

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