Low Carb Chinese Food – Seriously!

by Mark McManus on February 5, 2009

I’m so happy!

Last week I found a dish in my local Chinese Takeaway that’s VERY low-carb.

It’s simply called ‘Chicken & Mushroom’ and consists of

Chicken
Mushrooms
Onion
Carrots – only a few slices
Chicken Stock

That’s it. But it’s deceivingly delicious!

Here’s some pics I took…

You should check out this dish at your local Chinese restaurant. Ask them what they put in it to make sure there’s no hidden carbs.

Most people have this with rice but I eat the whole container as-is. You could always make your own ‘mock rice’ by grating some cauliflower and lightly frying it for a few short minutes.

I count 5 net carbs for the whole dish!

You’ll love it, go check it out!

Mark McManus

{ 9 comments }

1 Marc David February 6, 2009 at 1:51 am: Mark,

I will not eat this. I love my carbs but I have to give you props for the great photography. Taking pictures of food is not easy. Taking pictures that make it look appetizing is an art that you seem to do nicely.

You’ve got a nice collection of recipes here and I think they will benefit a lot of people.

Good job.
2 Yavor Marichkov February 6, 2009 at 2:03 pm: Yeah, I know this dish brother

Hidden flour could be in the sauce, but that’s it.

Here in Bulgaria the portions in Chinese restaurants used to be genormous. Lots and lots of rice and chicken. They would usually offer to pack it for me for home cause I wouldn’t be able to finish one such meal at the venue.
3 Marochka_Raduga February 6, 2009 at 2:45 pm: Thanks a lot… I have been craving Chinese ever since going on low-carb last year and now I can’t restrain myself.

Our Panda Express has their nutritional stats online, so I checked and they have the chicken mushroom, kung pao shrimp and mixed vegetables combo for 450 calories and about 16 carbs. I am getting this for lunch, and damn the sodium! There are four days until my next “official” weigh-in, so that should be plenty of time to flush it out.

I will allow myself to enjoy this once a week now.

Damn you, vile temptress!
4 MasterChief February 6, 2009 at 5:06 pm: Well I think it’s a great baseline and can give lot’s of idea once you get the concept of low carb recipe it’s a good example on the other end I think the picture don’t pay justice to the meal cause it as a prisoner kind of feel and I know that everyone should try it out cause this mix is a winner!!
5 Diane February 6, 2009 at 5:26 pm: Thanks for sharing this. I think this is an easy way to incorporate the low carb concept into your diet since chinese food is so widely available.
6 Ian Harris February 8, 2009 at 12:53 pm: Hey Mark,

I love your blog but I wouldn’t eat this.

Simple reason. When you buy a Chinese take-away, what sort of chicken do you think they use?

That’s right – they’ll throw in the cheapest, lowest quality chicken that they can find.

The worst stuff possible. I’m talking about chicken plumped out with 40% water and salt.

I’m talking about chicken that’s been fed growth hormones, and packed into huge sheds where they’re squirming in their own crap.

If you care about that, great. If not, that’s okay too.

Because the other thing to know about ‘catering grade’ chicken is that it has much less nutritional value than you think.

Check this out from a recent Channel 4 show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qLiananxsg

I’m not saying you have to be vegetarian or anything (I’m not!)but when you buy meat from a take-away, it’s good to remember that the meat they buy ISN’T the meat that you’d buy.
7 Antonio Wright February 10, 2009 at 1:40 am: Thank you for this. I bought this on Friday and eat the whole container. It was a small but so tasty.
8 Kyan November 5, 2009 at 2:10 pm: hi mark, this is definitely not a low carb recipe. the base of most chinese sauces is starch, and also the use of oyster sauce and soy sauce could mean alot of sugar. a dish like this could easily have 2 tablespoons of sugar in it.

the alternative is to take all these and fry them up, meat first, then vegetables, and add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce onto it. you can also add celery into it by adding fish sauce the dish won’t have as much sauce as the store bought version.

but what’s good is that you can take the stir fry mix and wrap it up in lettuce. koreans do that with a dish called “bulgogi”. look it up. for all you know it, that dish might just be low GL.
9 Sharon January 20, 2010 at 9:09 pm: Hi Mark,

I think this is a great dish that can be low carb. Many restaurants offer a low-carb option and this can include Chinese restaurants. You’ll just have to inquire. There are many upscale Chinese restaurants that use more expensive cuts of meats and chicken and they’re meals are quite pricey. But that’s the price we have to pay for eating healthier, isn’t it?