Canned Chicken

[Natashamallie]

Silly thread title I know! I've just started induction today. Have read the book and have been reading through the extensive help on this board, so I"m pretty sure I know how to achieve a "strictly by the book" induction; well, except for this: I love the taste and convenience of Swanson premium chunk white chicken breast in the can. After (of course) I ate lunch, which consisted of two loosely packed cups of spring greens, 1 4.5oz can chicken, two tbls. of dressing, I saw that my can chicken had "Modified Food Starch" as the last ingredient.
I noticed this because I wondered why my chicken should have 2g of carbs, which I'd never heard of before.
Anyway, total carbs for the day with the meal plan I intend to follow for dinner will still be 14.6 (6.3 of fiber subtracted out).
My question is should I stop eating this chicken because of the extra ingredient? I've noticed the tyson chicken breast chunks in bags have the same thing. Do I need to stick to chicken that I have prepared from scratch at home? Oh, what a pain in the butt that will be!!!
Thanks in advance for any insight

[Georgiana]

Re: Canned Chicken

Bad news...

Yes, you shouldn't eat that canned chicken.

Are 2 carbs per serving or 2 carbs per can? Make sure you count the carbs correctly for the amount you ate.

[liv]

Re: Canned Chicken

I am not a very patient cook or much of a foodie but I like making chicken. All you have to do is to wash the baby season it and stick it in the oven. It could not be easier.

[Barb1965]

Re: Canned Chicken

Thank you so much for posting this. I have the exact same can of chicken in my pantry but hadn't opened it yet. Yeap sure enough it says "modified food starch" in the ingredients. Who'd have thought to look, and who the heck can even read that teeny tiny ingredient list without a magnifying glass. Note to self: get magnifying glass for grocery shopping

[Natashamallie]

Re: Canned Chicken

Georgianna, the 2 carbs are per serving. I do understand how carbs should be counted. That's one thing you all have been kind enough to make very clear on this board.

Liv, cooking flavorless chicken is indeed very easy, making mine taste as good as prepared is not!

But I guess its bland home cooked chicken for me

I do very much appreciate your replies.

[Barb1965]

Re: Canned Chicken

My can says 1 carb per serving, but 2.5 servings per can. So 2.5 carbs per can if you eat the whole thing (I would have).

[liv]

Re: Canned Chicken

I think what you think is good about the canned chicken is probably a mixture of salt and some of the sodium phosphate they add. So a couple of chemicals you can add to your chicken if you wanted too. Try basting your chicken often as you roast it and put some butter on top of the breast (right under the skin)

[JulieB]

Re: Canned Chicken

I'm guessing that canned chicken is also very tender...I do my chicken in a crockpot, it is easy and comes out more tender than if I roast it in the oven.

[Natashamallie]

Re: Canned Chicken

Julie, yes it is wonderfully tender and moist, something I have never been able to reproduce on my stove. I hadn't thought about trying the slow cooker. I've had mine for years and rarely use it. Would you mind sharing how you prepare it? I'd love to try another way.

Barb, sadly I have reached the point where I have to wear reading glasses for everything, otherwise no way would I have spotted that. I had to borrow my husbands stronger glasses as is!

[imagood1]

Re: Canned Chicken

When I boil chicken I always spice up the water I'm cooking it in....that way it's not bland.

[Elizellen]

Re: Canned Chicken

When I cook chicken in my slow cooker I usually sprinkle it fairly heavily with spices which get infused into the chicken and makes the juices taste yummy.
Sometimes I put chopped celery and/or onion on the base of the dish before adding the chicken and wizz the well-cooked veg into a puree to thicken the juices into a delish gravy.

[JulieB]

Re: Canned Chicken

Julie, yes it is wonderfully tender and moist, something I have never been able to reproduce on my stove. I hadn't thought about trying the slow cooker. I've had mine for years and rarely use it. Would you mind sharing how you prepare it? I'd love to try another way.

I just season (it varies depending on my mood) and plop in the crockpot overnight. I then use a turkey baster to remove most of the liquid - I save it for soup! I like Elizellen's idea of pureeing veggies into it to make gravy...I'll have to try that!

[mizski]

Re: Canned Chicken

OK, back to the canned chicken discussion. It's another one of those read the ingredient label things. There are canned chicken and turkey that do not have carbs.

The canned chicken I have has: chicken breast meat, water, salt and sodium phosphates. Not thrilled about the last ingredient but otherwise, the ingredients are allowable.

It's hard sometimes to find canned chicken, turkey or tuna that is not canned in broth (even though it says "in water" on the front label). Broth usually translates to soy protein and/or modified food starch with "flavors."

Check around and you can find these products that are just canned in water. I've been able to find tuna in just water in the grocery stores but not chicken or turkey. I found my canned chicken at a job lot store and some canned turkey in a dollar store. Also, my natural market (health food store) has these items canned in water but at a higher price.

p.s. To all the wonderful crockpot and chick-in-the-oven ladies : As many of you know, I am big on natural/whole foods. HOWEVER, I've found it wise to have a good stock of canned goods on hand for use during our many power outages (hurricane/tropical storm season and the upcoming blizzard season). Plus, it's always good to have on-plan "instant" food AND...sometimes I'm too lazy or didn't plan ahead to make the real thing.