Chicken - Calorie Content, Beneficial Properties

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

Hen

Chicken meat is deservedly popular due to its taste, beneficial properties and low calorie content.

Description

Chicken is chicken meat, chicken carcass and all its constituent parts. It is impossible to say with certainty when they began to domesticate chickens. According to some sources, the first domestic chickens appeared about 2000 BC in India. Other sources say that domestic chickens already existed 6000-8000 BC in the countries of Southeast Asia, and especially in China. And now wild chickens inhabit the territory of China, Indochina, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. It is believed that the ancestors of domestic chickens were bank chickens, originally from Asia.

Chicken is the most common poultry today. It is grown in almost all countries of the world. The largest chicken producers are considered to be Brazil and the USA.

To get chicken, the bird must be raised at home or in the factory. Those birds that have reached adulthood are subject to slaughter, scalding and plucking. The chicken carcass, completely free of feathers, is ready for cooking and subsequent consumption.

The average weight of a chicken carcass is from 1.5 to 5 kg (depending on the breed). For example, carcasses of dwarf breeds can weigh 0.5 kg. Fresh carcass has slightly yellowish to white skin, well-formed muscles, pale pink meat, and a rounded breast. Young chicken has delicate white skin, and its legs are covered with small scales. The old chicken has yellow skin, and on the legs there are large growths and large scales.

In cooking, chicken is used to prepare hot and cold snacks, first and second courses. Mainly they use meat of meat breeds of chickens (there are also general-use, meat-egg and egg breeds).

For the preparation of broths and soups, it is better to use an old chicken carcass, then the broth will turn out to be fragrant and rich. And for frying cutlets and meatballs, young poultry meat is better suited, since it is tender and soft, well fried.

The loin of the carcass, drumsticks and thighs are used to prepare meatballs, cutlets, chops, salads, stews, pies, aspic, pilaf, jellied meat, soufflé and all kinds of semi-finished products. Giblets (liver, heart, stomachs) and chicken back are used to prepare pickles, hodgepodge, borscht, soups and broths. Chicken skin is used for baking minced meat (pasta, potato, mushroom, chicken), and the fat that is cut from the abdomen is used for frying and added to pates. A popular dish is also whole chicken baked with spices, as well as hot or cold smoked chicken.

The composition and calorie content of chicken

100 g of raw chicken meat contains 74.86 g of water, 23.2 g of proteins, 0.98 g of ash, 1.65 g of fat; vitamins: retinol, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, folic acid, cyanocobalamin, tocopherol, choline, phylloquinone; macronutrients: phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium; trace elements: selenium, zinc, iron, copper, manganese.

The calorie content of chicken is 108 kcal per 100 g.

Useful properties of chicken

Due to its low calorie content, chicken has excellent dietary properties, therefore it is perfect for people seeking to lose body weight, as well as for patients with peptic ulcer disease, diabetes mellitus, and gout. Thanks to its high content of vitamin B6, glutamine and protein, chicken is good for the heart, strengthens the body and stimulates the central nervous system.

The beneficial properties of chicken are also in the prevention of vascular atherosclerosis and prevention of strokes, heart attacks and hypertension. For colds, chicken broth is an excellent remedy.

Contraindications to eating chicken meat

Chicken is an allergen due to the histamine content, so sensitive people should consume it with caution.

It should be borne in mind that chicken meat that has undergone poor-quality heat treatment can become a breeding ground for Salmonella, and in humans it can cause a serious disease of the gastrointestinal tract - salmonellosis.

In addition, do not overuse smoked chicken, as it promotes the growth of malignant tumors. This is due to the fact that in the process of smoking, amino acids undergo modification and radioactive isotopes accumulate in chicken meat. In addition, in modern conditions it often happens that when smoking meat, substances harmful to the human body are used: acetone, formaldehyde, phenol.

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