Chicken Chow Mein

[LittleFlo]

I found out last night from my consultant that the syn value of Chicken Chow Mein from the chinese has gone up to 16.5 syns.

Most of our group were horrified, especially me as I'd had chicken chow mein the night before thinking that it was only 7 syns so I had beef with mushrooms as well! She did say she was going to try and find out why the syns have jumped up so much when she goes to her team meeting.

Just to forewarn you, when I checked on the website on Sunday the syns were still showing as 7 for Chicken Chow Mein.

 

[Samantha26]

I usually get a syn free chow mein from my local takeaway, they cook it in extra soy sauce instead of oil, I would presume this would still be free? I follow the green plan and it's basically noodles and plenty of veg

 

[LittleFlo]

I'm not sure Samantha - our consultant had no idea why the values have shot up so astronomically. This was in the magazine that gets sent to the consultants.

 

[Willbeslimjen]

My consultant said that it was because they found out that the takeaways were using cheap chicken and to soften it up they were coating it in flour before cooking it.

So the veg chow he in should be fine esp f they cook it in soy sauce

 

[Samantha26]

My consultant said that it was because they found out that the takeaways were using cheap chicken and to soften it up they were coating it in flour before cooking it. So the veg chow he in should be fine esp f they cook it in soy sauce

Great, thank you! My friend eats a soy cooked chicken chow mein but she's noticed the chicken is quite sweet and wondered if they were coating it in something

 

[LittleFlo]

Ah thanks Willbeslimjen! I'll go for veggie chow mein next time.

 

[Squares76]

There has been a whole article about this on SW online a couple of months ago. Apparently they are looking at a lot of take away meals and re-assessing the syn value based on the way the establishments cook it. We had a big discussion about it in our group. I've had Chinese take away every week since starting plan last January and always have either beef of chicken chow mein as part of it. I ask for it to be dry fried so they use no oil and 6st later I'm not changing it. I know how MY Chinese cooks the meal so am confident the syns are minimal. I think it's very hard for SW to apply a syn value to a dish that is cooked so many different ways in so many different places so my advice would be, if it's something you're likely to want often, find a favourite place and train them how you like it cooked.

 

[luisa71]

Imo I really don't know how SW can count the syns in takeway foods, such as chinese and indian. Every shop has their own way of cooking each dish and some are more liberal with oil and butter than others. I've now started cooking a lot of the meals from the fakeaway book and although not totally authentic, most are a fair compromise. I can recommend SW chicken chow mein and the scetchun beef, both tasted fantastic. The SW spicy chicken (similar to KFC) was also incredibly good. I really don't miss the greasy gloop from the takeout at all.

 

[santa_nethy]

Glad I stumbled across this. I had chow mein tonight. Usually I have chicken chow mein, but I checked the book before hand and saw it was 16 syns or something silly, whereas beef chow mein was 8.5... but the meat was fatty in parts so I left it. I can't understand why chicken chowmein would be double beef chow mein. I'd rather have chicken, the meat is never fatty! I wonder if the take away would be offended if I ask how they cook it? Not heard of 'dry frying' chow mein before, so will have to ask on that one too!

 

[Abbylouise]

So glad i saw this thread. I orded chicken chow mein a few weeks ago as a low syn option (so i thought!) Then when i put it through the slimming world app it was 16syns! I was so confused as when i was at slimming world a year ago thought it was a lot less syns.

 

[jen3]

We were told it was because of portion sizes.

Personally the sw chinese recipes from Fakeaway or Taste of Asia taste sooooooooo much better than the claggy takeaway stuff

 

[lellykins88]

I absolutely LOVE chicken chow mein, luckily i have made up my own receipe for it and it only costs me a small 2 syns per meal I'll post it in the Receipe group so just thought I'd let you lovelies know xx

 

[santa_nethy]

Ooh can you post a link so I can find it please? 2 syn chicken chow me in sounds awesome! X

 

[lellykins88]

I Santa_nethy - i have posted it in the recipes section on here - did you manage to find it?? xx