Chicken and beef tikka: calories and protein per 100 g

Tikka is cubes of chicken or meat, marinated and grilled on skewers. The Food Composition Tables for the Kingdom of Bahrain analysed it three ways, bought from fast-food outlets, bought ready to eat and cooked at home, which is why this page has six rows.

The fast-food study analysed a chicken and a beef tikka; the ready-to-eat study analysed the same two plus a lean beef tikka, printed as Tikkah laham bedon shaham. For both, the tables' ingredient notes name chicken or beef with dried lemon. The sixth row, a home-cooked meat tikka, has its own section.

The fast-food study prints its rows only as Grilled chicken and Grilled meat; section 1 of the same tables reprints both analyses as Grilled chicken (Tikkah) and Grilled meat (Tikkah), which is what makes them tikka. The reprints are the same analyses with less carbohydrate for the same energy, so each appears once, in the fast-food copy, where energy and macronutrients add up.

Water, which the tables also print, is the largest part of every row. Protein comes next in all six, from 28.1 g per 100 g in the ready-to-eat chicken and beef tikka to 35.3 g in the home-made meat tikka, then fat. Carbohydrate peaks at 3.6 g, in the ready-to-eat beef tikka, and fibre is smaller still. That is the reverse of a shawarma sandwich from the same studies, where the bread puts carbohydrate first after water.

If protein is what you track, the protein calculator works out a daily range from your body weight and goal. The guide to post-workout meals pairs protein with carbohydrate after a session; with tikka, that carbohydrate comes from the bread, rice or fries beside it.

Both studies that bought tikka found beef clearly higher in energy than chicken: 266 against 182 kcal per 100 g in the fast-food study, 256 against 171 in the ready-to-eat one. Protein barely differs; fat explains most of the gap, with beef tikka carrying more than twice the fat of chicken tikka in each study: 15.8 g against 6 g, and 14.4 g against 5.6 g.

The lean beef tikka sits in between, at 213 kcal and 8.2 g of fat per 100 g: below the regular beef tikka from its study on both, above either chicken tikka. Its protein, 32 g, is the highest of the five bought rows, since less fat leaves more of each 100 g for everything else.

For each meat the two studies come out close, the fast-food figure slightly higher both times. They are not averaged; use either, as an error in the weight you enter will usually matter more.

The sixth row comes from section 2 of the tables, dishes prepared in homes in Bahrain and analysed in the laboratory. It is printed only as Tikkah, meat: no animal, no cut and no recipe.

On paper it is the leanest of the six: the most protein, 35.3 g per 100 g, the least fat, 3.9 g, and the least carbohydrate, with energy, 181 kcal, between the two chicken tikka rows and below all three bought beef rows. It describes the home cooking sampled in Bahrain, not home-made tikka in general; trimming more or less fat, or adding oil, changes the result.

Searches ask about one piece of chicken tikka, six pieces or a takeaway portion. No piece, skewer or portion weight is published, and pieces are cut in many sizes, so weighing is the whole method.

1. Weigh the cooked pieces off the skewer. Raw meat will not match the figures, because meat loses water as it cooks.
2. Search the food calorie calculator for "Tikka" and all six rows appear. Choose chicken, beef, lean beef or home-made, and the study.
3. Enter the grams. The calculator reads the same records as the table on this page, so the two agree.
4. Add the rest of the meal as separate foods: for tikka in khubz, the Arabic bread page has the bread.

Your daily total is a separate question: the calorie calculator estimates your energy needs, and the macro calculator turns them into protein, carbohydrate and fat targets to check a tikka meal against.

• Shish tawook: a different dish, chicken in a different marinade, listed on the food calories page among foods without data. The tikka figures do not stand in for it.
• Chicken tikka masala: a curry, the chicken served in a spiced sauce. None of the six rows is a curry.
• Lamb tikka: the bought meat rows are beef and the home-made row names no animal, so none is a lamb figure.
• A half chicken or a plain breast fillet: the Grilled chicken row is tikka, as section 1 labels it, and the tables do not say which part of the bird went in.
• Kofta: minced meat shaped and grilled, a different grill with its own kofta page.

Everything here describes analysed food samples, not what you personally need: general information, not dietetic advice. If a medical condition or a prescribed diet shapes your meals, check your plan with your doctor or a registered dietitian.