Real numbers · sources cited

Calories in chicken biryani: USDA actually has this one — 104 kcal/100 g

Unlike machboos or mandi, biryani made it into USDA's survey database. The lab-analyzed entries:

USDA entry	Per 100 g
Biryani with chicken — FDC 2706538	104 kcal · 7.2 P / 13.6 C / 2.4 F
Biryani with meat (beef/lamb) — FDC 2706490	145 kcal · 8.5 P / 12.2 C / 6.8 F
Biryani with vegetables — FDC 2708985	109 kcal · 1.9 P / 17.9 C / 3.2 F

So what does a PLATE cost?

The per-100g number looks gentle; plates aren't 100 g. Typical servings:

Serving	Weight	Chicken biryani	Meat biryani
Modest home plate	350 g	≈364 kcal	≈508 kcal
Restaurant plate	500 g	≈520 kcal	≈725 kcal
Loaded takeaway container	650 g+	≈675+	≈940+

Honest range: 500–800 kcal for a typical restaurant chicken plate, meat versions ~40% heavier per gram. Restaurant biryani often exceeds the survey entry's fat (extra ghee, fried onions, richer meat) — treat the numbers above as the floor, not the ceiling.

The eternal unknown is the scoop. Biryani is served by ladle and generosity, spanning 350–650 g — a ±45% swing that no name-based lookup can see. Weighing once recalibrates your eye for months; scanning does it per-plate.

Protein and the glucose picture

A 500 g chicken plate delivers ~36 g protein against ~68 g carbs — the white-rice load puts the estimated glucose impact in the moderate-to-high band for most people (composition estimate, not a measurement). Raita and salad first, and the curve softens.

Your plate, cited line by line

Proba photographs your biryani, estimates grams (editable before saving), and cites the USDA entry behind every number on the pull-down receipt. Same plate, same answer, every time — five-scan test it.

Scan your biryani — free, 3 scans/day

Method & limitations: how Proba counts. Cited entries link to FoodData Central; values per 100 g as published.