Calories in Chicken Biryani: Per Plate and Per 100 g

A 350 g plate of homemade chicken biryani has about 460 calories, by our estimate built from USDA ingredient data. Depending mostly on the oil or ghee, our estimates for that plate run from about 410 to 560 calories, and for a full 500 g plate from about 590 to 790. USDA’s own standard US recipe is lighter, at 104 calories per 100 g.

Below are the calories in chicken biryani per 100 g, per cup and per plate, the protein, carbs and fat, and the recipe behind our numbers.

Calories in chicken biryani per 100 g and per plate

Plate sizes vary a lot, so these are our own plate sizes, not an official standard:

• Half plate: 250 g, about 1¼ cups
• Home plate: 350 g, about 1¾ cups
• Full plate: 500 g, about 2½ cups, our size for a restaurant or takeaway plate

The cup sizes use USDA’s weight for biryani, 196 g per cup. The USDA column below is USDA’s own entry for biryani with chicken. The other three columns are our estimates for the same home recipe made with ¼ cup, ½ cup or 1 cup of oil per pot.

Portion	USDA recipe	Less oil (¼ cup)	Home style (½ cup)	Rich (1 cup)
100 g	104	117	131	159
1 cup (196 g)	204	229	258	311
Half plate (250 g)	260	293	329	397
Home plate (350 g)	364	410	460	555
Full plate (500 g)	520	585	657	793

Why is USDA’s number lower? Its entry is a standard recipe from USDA’s database for US diet surveys. It uses baked potatoes and milk, and only 28 g of butter (2 tablespoons) in almost 3 kg of biryani. Our pot has ½ cup of oil (109 g). Without that oil, it would come to about 102 calories per 100 g, close to USDA’s 104, so the oil explains most of the gap.

Protein, carbs and fat in a plate of chicken biryani

These numbers are for our home-style estimate, made with ½ cup of oil per pot.

Portion	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
100 g	131	6 g	15 g	5 g
Half plate (250 g)	329	16 g	38 g	12 g
Home plate (350 g)	460	22 g	54 g	17 g
Full plate (500 g)	657	31 g	77 g	24 g

In our rich estimate, made with 1 cup of oil, a full plate has about 41 g of fat, while protein (30 g) and carbs (74 g) barely change. USDA’s lighter recipe gives the same 500 g plate about 36 g of protein, 68 g of carbs and 12 g of fat.

Homemade chicken biryani: how we estimated it

To see what oil and portions do, we built one pot of home-style biryani from USDA ingredient values.

Ingredient	Amount	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
Cooked long-grain white rice	1,400 g	1,820	38 g	395 g	4 g
Chicken, skinless and boneless, raw	600 g	714	128 g	0 g	18 g
Onions, raw	300 g (2 large)	120	3 g	28 g	0 g
Tomatoes, raw	246 g (2 medium)	44	2 g	10 g	0 g
Plain whole-milk yogurt	245 g (1 cup)	149	9 g	11 g	8 g
Cooking oil (soybean)	109 g (½ cup)	964	0 g	0 g	109 g
Whole pot	2,900 g	3,811	180 g	444 g	140 g

Each line is the USDA value per 100 g multiplied by the amount. For example, 600 g of chicken at 119 calories per 100 g gives 714 calories. Totals use unrounded numbers.

• Per 100 g: 3,811 calories ÷ 2,900 g × 100 = about 131 calories.
• Per home plate: 3,811 ÷ 2,900 × 350 g = about 460 calories.

Notes on the method:

• 1,400 g of cooked rice is roughly what 500 g of uncooked rice becomes. USDA lists uncooked long-grain rice at 365 calories per 100 g, so 500 g holds about 1,825 calories, close to the 1,820 in the cooked rice.
• For basmati, we used USDA’s cooked long-grain white rice at 130 calories per 100 g. USDA’s plain cooked white rice entry, which covers basmati, is almost the same at 129.
• We added up the weight of everything that goes in. USDA’s own biryani entry also makes no adjustment for water lost in cooking. In a real pot some water steams off while the onions fry and the masala cooks down, so a drier biryani packs a little more into each 100 g than our numbers show.
• Spices, ginger, garlic, green chillies, herbs and lemon are left out, since they are used in small amounts.
• Ghee instead of oil changes very little. USDA lists ghee at 876 calories per 100 g and soybean oil at 884. Half a cup of ghee (112 g) has about 981 calories, only about 18 more than half a cup of oil.

What changes the number most

Oil or ghee. Every tablespoon of oil (13.6 g) adds about 120 calories to the pot. Going from ½ cup to 1 cup adds about 964 calories, or about 136 more on each full plate.

Your plate size. A full plate has twice the calories of a half plate. If you eat biryani often, weigh your usual plate once on a kitchen scale and match it to the table.

The rice-to-chicken ratio. This shifts protein and carbs far more than calories. In the pot, swapping 200 g of cooked rice for 200 g of raw chicken changes the total by only about 22 calories, but adds about 37 g of protein and removes about 56 g of carbs. A pot with more chicken and less rice gives more protein for about the same calories.

Restaurant and takeaway chicken biryani

We have no recipe for restaurant or takeaway biryani, and you can’t see how much oil or ghee went in. So use our estimates as a range: about 590 calories for a 500 g box with less oil, 660 home style and 790 rich. If oil pools at the bottom of the box, use the higher end. If the restaurant publishes nutrition information, use that instead. Box sizes vary, so weigh your usual order once if you can.

If you track meals in MacroScout, Pro lets you snap a photo of the plate for an estimate and check the numbers before saving. On the free plan, you can type in the numbers from this page yourself.

Fitting chicken biryani into your day

• Pick a half plate (about 330 calories home style) instead of a full plate (about 660).
• Ask for an extra piece of chicken and a smaller scoop of rice.
• Leave behind the oil that pools at the bottom of the pot or the box. Each tablespoon is about 120 calories.
• Raita made with ½ cup of whole-milk yogurt adds about 75 calories.
• If your biryani comes with a boiled egg, add it using our guide to calories in 2 eggs.

Planning other desi meals? Compare with calories in 1 roti and calories in 1 paratha. If you have fatty liver and want to know where rice fits, read is rice good for fatty liver.

This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet, especially if you have a health condition.