After a long day of work, it can be tempting to go to the closest fast-food restaurant and break your diet. After all, we only have a limited amount of will power each day. Thankfully, there are keto food choices that you can get in a hurry. One quick option that many people wonder about is rotisserie chicken. People often ask me the question: Is rotisserie chicken keto?
As long as the rotisserie chicken is not covered in sugar, then it would be considered keto-friendly. Thankfully most places use a rub that is relatively low in carbohydrates. However, some rotisserie chickens may be coated in bbq sauces or other sauces that might add a few extra carbs.
Rotisserie chicken can be a great and easy option for the keto diet. Especially since most supermarkets have hot and ready rotisserie chickens available daily. This option is just about as quick as any fast-food restaurant when looking for a quick keto meal.
Most rotisserie chickens available at most stores are very low in carbs. However, it might be worth a little research to see how the rotisserie chicken is made at the stores you shop at. The good news is that most of this information is available with a simple google search. In addition, many stores will have nutritional information on the package at the store. With that said, let’s take a look at how many carbs are in a typical rotisserie chicken.
How Many Carbs In Rotisserie Chicken?
Like I have previously implied the number of carbs in a rotisserie chicken can vary from place to place depending on where you purchase it. For this example, we will look at the rotisserie chicken at Costco. One 3 oz serving of Costco rotisserie chicken contains 140 calories, 7 grams of fat, .5 carbs, and 19 grams of protein according to fatsecret.com. That said, you can see that rotisserie chicken is very low in carbs. I would, of course, prefer that it did contain a bit more fat.
However, we have to keep in mind that not every part of the chicken is going to be equally keto-friendly. After all, keto is not simply a low-carb diet but it is also a diet high in fats and moderate in protein. With that in mind, It might seem that rotisserie chicken is too high in protein and too low in dietary fats.
Thankfully, however, by choosing what part of the rotisserie chicken you eat you can drastically make your meal more keto-friendly. The dark meat of the chicken is going to be much higher in fat and lower in protein than the white meat. The dark meat would include both the drum sticks as well as the thighs.
On the other hand, if you only eat the white meat breast of the rotisserie chicken your meal will contain a very small amount of fat. That said, try to either stick to the darker cuts or at least get a good mixture of both white and dark meat. Or just make sure to eat the white meat along with some higher fat foods to balance it out.
To put this into perspective lets look at the difference in nutrition between chicken thighs and chicken breast. One 4 ounce serving of boneless skinless chicken breast contains roughly 120 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 0 carbs, and 22 grams of protein.
One 4 serving of boneless skinless chicken thighs contains roughly 160 calories, 10 grams of fat, o carbs, and 19 grams of protein. So as you can clearly see the chicken thigh contains macros that are much more ideal for the ketogenic diet.
Easy Keto Meals Using Rotisserie Chicken
One of the main reasons to buy rotisserie chicken is because it is quick and easy. So when I buy a rotisserie chicken I want the whole meal to be quick and easy. One option is to simply make a quick side salad with some keto-friendly dressing.
However, my favorite thing to do is to pair rotisserie chicken with some olives and cheese. I don’t know why I love this combo so much but the flavors just seem to really go together and it is very easy to prepare. I have a very good guide to olives on the keto diet if you are not sure where to start.
This is not just a great choice for a quick dinner but is also the perfect choice for a picnic. After all, these foods are all keto-friendly and also happen to be typical picnic food that everybody can enjoy. This way you can ensure that you have something to eat while also bringing something people that are not on keto can enjoy as well.
Another thing I like to do with rotisserie chicken is to make keto chicken salad with it. That said, this is something that I would make with the leftover rotisserie chicken. What I will do is to eat the dark meat of the chicken when it is hot and fresh and refrigerate the chicken breast overnight.
Then I will make chicken salad with the leftover chicken breast. By adding keto-friendly mayo and pecans you can add a good amount of fat to the chicken breast. This will balance out the low-fat and high protein content of the chicken breast.
In Conclusion
Rotisserie chicken is typically an excellent choice for the keto diet. It is great for a quick dinner or to bring to a gathering or picnic. On rare occasions, people may coat rotisserie chicken in a bunch of sugar. However, this is rare and will still likely only add a small number of carbs per serving.