# fresh vs pre-cooked chicken



## nicolelh (Sep 24, 2012)

I love chicken but cooking a fresh chicken breast in the oven for 50 mins every day is not worth it.

So I was wondering if the pre-cooked chicken you can buy is really any different?

I've always bought sliced ready to eat chicken for my pasta bakes and was tempted to just start using them with some salad for lunch instead.

looking at the ingredients has confused me a little though,

Cooked Chicken Breast* , Salt , Stabiliser (Triphosphates) , * Made with 110g of Chicken per 100g of finished product .

wheras chicken breast is 100% chicken and thats it (obviously :tongue: ), but the protein difference per 100g is only 1.5g.

So is is bad for you? I get it has preservatives but for fat loss I dont think it'd make a difference and im not bothered about a chemical or two sometimes.

Is it processed meat? I always thought it was just sliced bits of actual chicken but the fact its made up of more chicken than you end up with indicates otherwise i guess


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## lxm (Jul 26, 2011)

These preservatives wont make any difference for fatloss, more of a personal choice of health if you want to be putting them into your body verus the option of fresh chicken.

You can cook chicken in the oven in 30 minutes of at the right temp (depends if you count pre-heating the oven in your time) Bulk cook 4-5 breasts at a time, fridge. done!

Look at the meat, usually tesco etc do the mini chicken breast fillets, whole chicken breasts, and chicken pieces all pre cooked (note not reformed chicken slices) yes this is 100% chicken breast appart from the preservatives. (Example below)

















Things like chicken snack bites, chicken 'coldmeat' slices etc will be processed and reformed.


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## Bigsinic (Oct 15, 2011)

I personally wouldn't go for the frozen stuff its rubbery when cooked and doesn't taste nice. Google gold standard nutrition, they do steam cooked chicken breasts in 2.5kg bags for £19. Cooked with no added crap made for athletes.


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## Fatstuff (Mar 2, 2010)

+ 

= 3 or 4 meals worth of chicken in one go, tastes miles better than precooked stuff


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## lickatsplit (Aug 21, 2012)

wow, chicken cooking for 50 minutes must be the driest thing ever.

firstly with fresh chicken brest you cook yourself, you know how its cooked, what its been cooked with (oils etc).

Can you not do what most of us possibly do and just cooked your food on a sunday for a whole week?


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## G-man99 (Jul 15, 2008)

Bigsinic said:


> I personally wouldn't go for the frozen stuff its rubbery when cooked and doesn't taste nice. Google gold standard nutrition, they do steam cooked chicken breasts in 2.5kg bags for £19. Cooked with no added crap made for athletes.


Can get 5kg fresh chicken beast for £23.50 from most bulk suppliers and MUCH better quality than a supermarket



lickatsplit said:


> wow, chicken cooking for 50 minutes must be the driest thing ever.
> 
> firstly with fresh chicken brest you cook yourself, you know how its cooked, what its been cooked with (oils etc).
> 
> Can you not do what most of us possibly do and just cooked your food on a sunday for a whole week?


50mins!! Listen to above advice ^^

Maybe look at poaching or even frying

I grill mine and manage to keep them really moist


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## nicolelh (Sep 24, 2012)

I was counting pre-heated time yeh.

I've tried the frozen and they taste pretty awful so I was more referring to the type of chilled chicken lxm posted 

bigsinic, had a quick look, seems pretty good, roughly how many breasts is 2.5kg?

With the cooking a batch for the week. How would you go about this?

Fridge or freezer, leaving it to cool down before putting it in, how to reheat etc

I suck at getting stuff out to defrost and normally end up having to find something else for dinner because I forget to get things out so it's put me off doing this in the past :huh:


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## zack amin (Mar 13, 2012)

nicolelh said:


> I was counting pre-heated time yeh.
> 
> I've tried the frozen and they taste pretty awful so I was more referring to the type of chilled chicken lxm posted
> 
> ...


You could get a George foreman grill pre- marinade meat, takes about 5-10mins to cook! Or shallow fry in evoo takes around 10mins, or boiling takes around 20mins


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## resten (Apr 4, 2012)

zack amin said:


> You could get a George foreman grill pre- marinade meat, takes about 5-10mins to cook! Or shallow *fry in evoo* takes around 10mins, or boiling takes around 20mins


Bad idea mate, EVOO is too unstable for frying. Gives off nasties. Regular OO is fine, or butter/ghee/coconut oil if you want the Rolls Royce of cooking oil


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## Fatstuff (Mar 2, 2010)

resten said:


> Bad idea mate, EVOO is too unstable for frying. Gives off nasties. Regular OO is fine, or butter/ghee/coconut oil if you want the Rolls Royce of cooking oil


crisp n dry


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## zack amin (Mar 13, 2012)

resten said:


> Bad idea mate, EVOO is too unstable for frying. Gives off nasties. Regular OO is fine, or butter/ghee/coconut oil if you want the Rolls Royce of cooking oil


I use the 1 Cal spray anyway tab just couldn't be ****d walking to the fridge to check the name lol


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## MuscleFood (Jul 27, 2012)

1 cal spray and cook for 10-15 mins!


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## NorthernTrainer (Apr 9, 2013)

I just stick 3-4 breasts in the oven inside a dish with a bit of water in the bottom. Do this about 3-4 times a week depending on what else I'm eating besides chicken. Usually try to put 2 of the chicken breasts in a pasta or rice and use 2 for salads etc for later in the day when you're trying not to eat so many carbs.

Works a treat


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## constantbulk (Dec 27, 2010)

roast a whole chicken and have half each day......


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## J1mmyc (Mar 25, 2012)

try iceland chicken breast strips i think 98% breast really nice aswell eat it straight from the bag


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## dtlv (Jul 24, 2009)

I like to buy whole uncooked chickens, roast them and pick em to pieces over the next couple of days... will even then boil the bones for a chicken stock to add to rice or use as a gravy.

One thing that bugs me about supermarket meat (uncooked) is that often a lot of it is water weight which they pump in as part of the process of adding preservatives, and so a lower percentage of the weight is actually meat. I prefer to get mine from a farm shop un pumped with water, but then I'm lucky to have a good farm shop just down the road.

As for pre-cooked chicken, I guess it's ok sometimes but I think you get more bang for your buck by roasting whole chickens yourself.


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