How many calories are in chicken biryani?
A restaurant plate of chicken biryani is about 840 kcal, and a home one with a single serving of rice is 610. The gap is almost entirely rice and ghee: the chicken is the same chicken in both.
The plate, as served
Two servings of basmati, a ladle of chicken curry, two teaspoons of ghee through the rice, fried onions on top and a spoon of raita.
Where the calories come from
| Nutrient | Grams | Calories | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein | 33g | 132 | 16% |
| Carbs | 101g | 404 | 49% |
| Fat | 32g | 288 | 35% |
| Fibre | 7g | counted within carbs | |
The ring is sized by calories, not grams: protein and carbs are 4 kcal a gram, fat is 9. Drawn by grams, fat would look like a sliver of what it actually contributes.
What is on the plate
| Basmati rice, cooked x2A cupped handful, about 150 g cooked | 370 kcal |
| Chicken curryA ladle, about 150 g | 245 kcal |
| Ghee x2One teaspoon, about 5 g | 90 kcal |
| Fried onions (birista)A garnish, about 20 g | 90 kcal |
| RaitaThree tablespoons, about 60 g | 45 kcal |
The same dish, several ways
This is where the calories actually move. Not the ingredient, the cooking.
- Two servings of basmati, a ladle of chicken curry, two teaspoons of ghee through the rice, fried onions on top and a spoon of raita.As served840
- Without the raita795-45
Saves 45, and loses the one cooling thing on the plate.
- A home portion, less rice and less ghee610-230
One serving of rice instead of two, one teaspoon of ghee instead of two.
Where each number comes from
Composition tables list ingredients, not dinners. There is no row anywhere for this plate, so it is built from its parts, and the preparation assumed for each part is written next to it, because that assumption is usually worth more calories than the ingredient.
| Component | Portion and preparation | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Basmati rice, cooked x2 | A cupped handful, about 150 g cookedBoiled in water and drained, no ghee or oil. | 370 |
| Chicken curry | A ladle, about 150 gHome-style, onion and tomato base, about a tablespoon of oil per portion. A restaurant curry with cream or extra ghee runs considerably higher. | 245 |
| Ghee x2 | One teaspoon, about 5 gBrushed on a roti or stirred into dal. | 90 |
| Fried onions (birista) | A garnish, about 20 gSliced onion deep fried until dark and crisp. No composition table carries it. Derived from CoFID 13-501, onions fried in sunflower oil, which is 95 kcal per 100 g at 79.9 g water: drying that same solid matter to about 15 per cent water concentrates it to roughly 400, and deep frying adds oil on top, so 450 per 100 g is used here. It is a garnish, and across the whole plausible range it moves a biryani by about 100 kcal. | 90 |
| Raita | Three tablespoons, about 60 gWhole-milk yoghurt with cucumber. | 45 |
| Total | 840 | |
Sources: Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR-NIN), Derived, not measured (see the note on the row). Every figure is an estimate with a range around it, and is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal rather than pretending to a precision that does not exist.
Why you will see 490 to 1140 kcal quoted for this
How much rice came on the plate, and how much ghee went through it. The rice is the biggest single line on every version of this dish.
Which is why this page shows the sum instead of asserting a total. Build the plate you actually eat and the number is yours rather than an average of strangers.
Build your own plateCommon questions
- How many calories are in a plate of chicken biryani?
- About 840 for a restaurant plate. A home portion with one serving of rice instead of two is 610, and the difference is rice and ghee rather than meat.
- What is the heaviest part of a biryani?
- The rice, by a distance. Two servings of basmati are 370 of the 840. The chicken curry is 245 and the fried onions are 90.
- Is biryani heavier than curry and rice?
- Yes, and by more than people expect: 840 against 545 for a plate of chicken curry with rice. Twice the rice, ghee cooked through it, and fried onions on top.
- How do I make biryani fit a normal day?
- Halve the rice and keep everything else. That is 185 kcal off without touching the part of the plate you came for.
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