Nutrition In Pressure Cooked Chicken With Liquid?

[shannonhb]

In brief: What's the best way to figure the nutritional content of chicken that's pressure cooked? Closest USDA entry? How can I account for whatever fat, protein, other nutrients are in the cooking liquid?

Long version:
I'm cooking chicken thighs with skin on and boneless skinless chicken breasts in an instant pot (separately so I can get the cooked weights).
I cool the liquid (the chicken juices + however much of the initial 1 c of water is left after cooking), scrape off the fat, and use it to cook the liver & to mix with the supplements. To figure out quantities, I have a spreadsheet with usda values for everything (and manufacturer's values for the supplements), so I put in the quantities and use the totals per 1000 cal to compare against FEDIAF's recommendations per 1000 cal of ME.
So it's not perfect, but I'm trying to be as accurate as possible. What are the best usda values to use for the chicken? Raw, braised, roasted, stewed? How do I account for the cooked juices?

mschauer has a post linking usda's info on Nutrient Retention Values, which looks great because they have info on cooked chicken with drippings, but it's only for 17 nutrients. I'm worried about the other nutrients and particularly protein and fat content.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
I'm not one of the members with experience in this, but I wanted to say my hat is off to you for taking this approach! There should hopefully be other members replying for you soon

 

[Wile]

If you have the values for stewed meat that is what I would choose to use since it seems like that cooking method is the closest to what you are actually doing. I suggest balancing the meat with the supplements first separately, then adding the extra ingredients in so that you know what percentage of the final mix they account for weight-wise.

If I am reading this right you are basically just trying to figure out how much extra nutrition is in the left over chicken broth, correct? Maybe you could look up nutrient values for homemade chicken broth separately and calculate it that way? Or just don't worry about it at all and consider it to be extra nutritious hydration. Personally I think it is better to underestimate nutrition rather than overestimate.

 

[shannonhb]

If I am reading this right you are basically just trying to figure out how much extra nutrition is in the left over chicken broth, correct? Maybe you could look up nutrient values for homemade chicken broth separately and calculate it that way? Or just don't worry about it at all and consider it to be extra nutritious hydration. Personally I think it is better to underestimate nutrition rather than overestimate.

Yes that's right, I expect that nutrients are lost to the cooking liquid & juices/fat that come out of the meat.... so I'm recapturing some by using the liquid but no idea how to guesstimate that! I'm not sure how accurate values for chicken broth/stock would be because it'd depend on how concentrated it is.

I agree on underestimating being better! That's been my approach. One concern I have is about calories: if I'm underestimating calories, and I'm checking nutrition by looking at the amounts per 1000 calories, could I end up with less than intended nutrients per serving? This is probably a basic, dumb math question but I can't wrap my head around it!

 

[Wile]

Yes that's right, I expect that nutrients are lost to the cooking liquid & juices/fat that come out of the meat.... so I'm recapturing some by using the liquid but no idea how to guesstimate that! I'm not sure how accurate values for chicken broth/stock would be because it'd depend on how concentrated it is.

I agree on underestimating being better! That's been my approach. One concern I have is about calories: if I'm underestimating calories, and I'm checking nutrition by looking at the amounts per 1000 calories, could I end up with less than intended nutrients per serving? This is probably a basic, dumb math question but I can't wrap my head around it!

Yes, you absolutely could wind up with fewer calories per serving based on volume/weight, so you need to adjust the serving size a bit.

I have this problem when I cook my cat's food as well. I add the broth from the slow cooked meat in after for extra water/nutrition. To get around this problem I have been weighing and mixing the meat/supplements separately since I know for sure what the nutritional content of that portion of the diet is. After the meal is prepared so that it is complete and balanced I then will mix in a measured amount of broth so that I have an accurate reading of how much weight the water adds to the food. If I know that I have to feed 100g worth of calories of the meat and have added in another 30% by weight of broth to the mix, I know to portion out 130g of food.

I'm sure the drippings in the homemade broth add a few more calories to the mix on top of what I have already calculated, but I have decided that it is too complicated to figure out accurately how many more calories are added by me doing this. I basically just treat the broth as if I was adding more water to the mix. You could try to calculate the nutritional content of the broth if you want. My stance is that if up to 10% of a cat's diet can be unbalanced then there is enough room in their diet to accommodate whatever error the broth adds

 

[shannonhb]

Yes, you absolutely could wind up with fewer calories per serving based on volume/weight, so you need to adjust the serving size a bit.

Ah yes, I think my process is similar to yours! I calculate calories and everything else based on cooked weight of each ingredient and then after mixing it all up with the broth, divide the total weight by total calories so I know how many ounces to serve for 100 calories for instance.

It's more the other nutrients I'm worried they may not get enough of, especially ones requiring supplementation. So iodine is recommended at 0.43 mg per 1000 calories, based on cats eating 75 calories per kg bodyweight. Say my last batch had 0.42 mg of iodine per 1000 calories as calculated... but say the broth adds 200 calories (or whatever) so the iodine is really 0.42mg per 1200 cal, which is really really 0.35mg per 1000 cal. I think that math checks out? Not my forte!

The recommended values I'm using have a safety margin built in so it's not a huge worry. But there are a few things like iron and iodine where I always come in just at or a bit before the recommended levels, so if those are lower than I think due to underestimating calories, the cats might not be getting enough?

 

[Wile]

Ah yes, I think my process is similar to yours! I calculate calories and everything else based on cooked weight of each ingredient and then after mixing it all up with the broth, divide the total weight by total calories so I know how many ounces to serve for 100 calories for instance.

It's more the other nutrients I'm worried they may not get enough of, especially ones requiring supplementation. So iodine is recommended at 0.43 mg per 1000 calories, based on cats eating 75 calories per kg bodyweight. Say my last batch had 0.42 mg of iodine per 1000 calories as calculated... but say the broth adds 200 calories (or whatever) so the iodine is really 0.42mg per 1200 cal, which is really really 0.35mg per 1000 cal. I think that math checks out? Not my forte!

The recommended values I'm using have a safety margin built in so it's not a huge worry. But there are a few things like iron and iodine where I always come in just at or a bit before the recommended levels, so if those are lower than I think due to underestimating calories, the cats might not be getting enough?

I think you are overestimating the number of calories that your homemade broth contains. The USDA database estimates that a cup of homemade chicken stock contains 86 calories a cup. There aren't any figures for broth, but it is likely to be much less - especially since you are separating the fat. Most pure commercial chicken broths only contain around 10 calories per cup of liquid. You will be dividing that amount across a number of meals, so calorie-wise it will wind up being a very small percentage of the final meal.

So long as your cats are getting the right daily dose of iodine and iron from the properly supplemented meat portion, a bit of extra broth won't throw things off. Just make sure when portioning it out that you are accounting for the extra weight/volume of broth (however you measure it) when figuring out how much food to give your cats. If there are a few values that are coming in low you can also supplement those items. Low Iodine and iron are easy fixes.

 

[shannonhb]

I entirely made up the 200 cal figure for the broth, but if it's actually a quite small number of calories then you're right, no need to worry about it! My values are generally good, I was just worried that they were too inaccurate since I wasn't accounting for the broth. But now I feel reassured that it's not enough to throw off the figures, thank you!!