Calorie count for chicken drippings?

berfy
berfy Posts: 35 Member
edited November 9 in Food and Nutrition
So, I'm a little confused on the calorie counts for chicken drippings. I roast whole chickens, make broth from the bones, and usually save the drippings separately. When cooled, I remove the fat from the drippings, and will use the juices as a base for a sauce or gravy. The calorie counts I've found for chicken drippings are really high, with a lot of fat. When the fat has been removed, is the calorie count more like that of broth? Or somewhere in between?

Replies

  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    It's likely to be somewhere in between. Even if you chill it (to make removing all the fat easier than skimming), I don't find that it's completely defatted, but is much lower in fat than the estimates I've seen.

    I don't consume enough of the drippings or track with enough accuracy to worry about defatted drippings or homemade demi glace, so I treat them both like stock.
  • berfy
    berfy Posts: 35 Member
    Thanks! That's kind of what I was thinking. I used quite a bit in a sauce tonight and got scared when I tried logging it!
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    If I'm skimming it while warm or room temp (so I can turn it immediately into gravy/sauce), I add a tablespoon or two of fat to my tally. Fridge temp, I get enough of the fat off to not worry about it.
  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    Look up schmaltz in the food database. That's rendered chicken fat. The drippings will also have some water in them both from the bird and whatever you may have added to the pan while cooking, so figure about 50% to 75% of that depending on how much water your drippings have. The water content will also have quite a bit of gelatin in it since skin, bones, and connective tissue are prime sources for it.

    Don't throw away the fat. Besides the gelatin, that's the best part in flavor and nutrients like fat soluble vitamins. Saturated fat has been demonized for way too long. Eat it and enjoy it. I save all my chicken fat and add it to soups and another dishes all week.

    I eat a lot of saturated fat and I find it's helped in both weight loss and my bloodwork numbers have continually gotten better. Fat is good for you despite what conventional medicine continues to hang onto despite studies that show no connections between fat and heart disease or cholesterol levels.
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