Roasted Chicken in the supermarket?

[thirdman99]

There is abundance of roasted chicken in my neighborhood supermarket, and it usually tastes pretty good, and relatively inexpensive. However, I'm a little hesitant to try it for my atkins diet, mainly since I have no idea how they make it.

Assuming I could ask the store about its recipe (they make it themselves), what kind of things I should be weary of before buying it for my diet? Types of oil they use (no vegetable oil)? What else?

Thanks!

[thirdman99]

Also, it's starting to dawn on me that, to have any success in this diet, I'd probably need to start cooking my food from scratch. Otherwise you really don't have any precise idea of what you're eating.

Unfortunately, I've rarely cooked in my life, and know little about cooking. I probably should've worked on that before trying this diet...

[rozigrl221]

Yes...cooking yourself would be the best thing to do so you become accustomed with cooking the Atkins way.

I have purchsed those chickens from the market that they cook themselves. They are very tastey and most of them are legal. I stay away from the BBQ flvors because of the sugars in the sauce. Stick with your lemon herb types. I know my grocery stores list the ingredients of the spices on the packages before they put them out for the public.

[Hayden]

A lot of blokes on the Atkins diet have had to work that out too. Well done for picking up on that so soon. (before you got disheartened for not seeing much weight loss)

Last year, there was an airline pilot on here, who was eating the airline food. Salmon was one dish I remember talking about togther. All fish are fine and legal foods on Atkins, except a few weeks later he found out that the salmon had a sugar grazing added to it. He now eats from a lunch box that he makes.

Doing Atkins, I've learnt how to cook again.
I've learnt how to ask questions to supermarket people, waiters and food prep people.
e.g. "Can you go to the kitchen and check the bottle if it has the word sugar written on it"
Or, "what type of sauce do you put on it".

Sometimes you'll get asked, why are you asking, and you can be as honest or as creative with your reply as much as you want.

Other advice I can offer.

Learn how to make your own mayo. Then you know what's in it.

If you've cooked it, you know what's in it.

[UrbanShaman]

I LOVE making my own mayo. It's not too hard once you get the hang of it, and it tastes so much more REAL. It's hard to kick the fast food habit but cooking at home will make it easier. Plus, no matter how hard you try, there's always SOMETHING mixed in fast food. You can only gaurentee twenty carbs when you've put them there yourself.

[angelcakes]

if its a plain roasted chicken, it should be fine. the grocery store i go to has different styles: they have bbq and teriyaki, which does have sugar in the sauces. however, the plain roasted chicken is just that - plain. i think the ones i get actually have salt and pepper, maybe. which should be fine.

when you buy it, it should list the ingredients on the label. if not, they should be able to tell you if you ask at the deli or prepared foods counter.

[thirdman99]

Thanks for the replies!

I've just gone back to the neighborhood supermarket, and check the ingredients of the roasted chicken. Alas, it had sugar in it (dextrose). I don't know what it's used for exactly. Coating, maybe?

I've found the below site for a home-made mayo, but does this sound about right? Do I basically just exclude the sugar from this recipe?

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/sauce/co...se_recipe.html