Rice Meals · Philippines

How Many Calories in Sinangag?

Also known as Garlic Fried Rice, Sinangag na Kanin, Filipino Garlic Rice.

Day-old rice fried in oil with a lot of crushed garlic and salt. It is the sin in tapsilog, longsilog and every other silog plate in the Philippines.

300kcal / 1 cup
One cup of sinangag is about 300 calories for a 200g carinderia scoop. That is 260 calories from the rice itself and about 40 from the tablespoon of oil and the fried garlic. It is only a little more than plain steamed rice, but the oil adds up fast if the cook is generous.

Nutrition facts

Per 1 cup (200g)AmountPer 100g
Calories300 kcal150 kcal
Protein4 g2 g
Carbs52 g26 g
Fat8 g4 g

Where the calories come from

Cooked white rice180g
234 kcal
Cooking oil absorbed6g
54 kcal
Fried garlic and salt14g
15 kcal

The real talk

The rice is the whole story. A cup of cooked white rice is 200g and about 260 calories before anything touches it. Sinangag adds roughly 1 tablespoon of oil per cup, which is another 120 calories in the pan, but only part of that sticks to the rice. Kawaling Pinoy's recipe card puts it at 247 calories per cup with a quarter cup of oil across 4 cups of rice. A carinderia uses more oil than a home cook, so 300 is the fair number.

Where people go wrong is the second cup. Silog plates come with 1 cup, and an extra cup of sinangag is 20 to 25 pesos. That second scoop turns a 650 calorie tapsilog into a 950 calorie tapsilog, and the tapa did not change at all. The garlic and salt make it very easy to keep eating, which is the point of the dish and the problem with it.

The oil varies a lot by cook. Some carinderias fry the garlic in lard or in the fat left over from frying longganisa, which makes the rice taste better and pushes a cup closer to 350 calories. If the rice looks shiny and leaves a film on the plate, count it as 350, not 300.

How the portions compare

150 kcal
Half cup
300 kcal
1 cup
600 kcal
2 cups

Sinangag variants, ranked by calories

VariantCaloriesNotes
Plain steamed rice, 1 cup260 kcalNo oil, no garlic
Sinangag, light oil (home style)275 kcal1 teaspoon oil per cup
Sinangag, carinderia standard300 kcalAbout 1 tablespoon oil per cup
Sinangag fried in lard or longganisa fat350 kcalShiny rice, oily plate
Sinangag with egg mixed in380 kcalOne egg scrambled through

How to eat it lighter

Common questions

Is sinangag higher in calories than plain rice?
Yes, but not by much. A cup of plain rice is about 260 calories and a cup of sinangag is about 300. The difference is the oil and garlic. The problem is usually the portion, not the frying.
How many calories in a silog plate?
Between 550 and 750 depending on the ulam. Tapsilog is about 650, longsilog about 700. Sinangag is 300 of that and the fried egg is about 90.
Can I eat sinangag while losing weight?
Yes. Keep it to 1 cup, which is 300 calories, and pair it with a lean ulam like chicken inasal or tinola. The second cup is what breaks the budget.
Is sinangag the same as fried rice?
It is the plainest version of fried rice. No egg, no vegetables, no soy sauce, just garlic, oil and salt. That makes it lower in calories than Chinese fried rice, which is about 400 to 450 per cup.

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Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical carinderia or restaurant serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

Calorie figure based on Kawaling Pinoy recipe card (247 kcal per cup), adjusted for carinderia oil; rice from USDA. Macros estimated from the ingredients.

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