We perform an analysis of triangle- and box-loop contributions to the generalized potential in the scattering of Goldstone bosons off the J^P= 0^- and 1^- charmed mesons. Particular emphasis is put on the use of on-shell mass parameters in such contributions in terms of a renormalization scheme that ensures the absence of power-counting violating terms. This is achieved with a systematically extended set of Passarino--Veltman basis functions, that leads to manifest power-counting conserving one-loop expressions and avoids the occurrence of superficial kinematical singularities. Compact expressions to chiral order three and four are presented that are particularly useful in coding such coupled-channel systems. Our formal results are generic and prepare analogous computations for other systems, like meson-baryon scattering from the chiral Lagrangian.