Calories are important to track in a fitness diet, but it can be confusing trying to figure out how many calories are in the food you’re planning to eat.
How many calories and fat are in a chicken breast? If we eat too much and our bulging belly begins to look like an alien trying to burst out of your torso, it’s important to know how many calories are in your food. It’s also important if you need to lose weight.
If you’re anything like me, you probably eat a chicken breast at least a couple times a week. You roast it, you saute it, you put a little BBQ sauce on it and eat it with some mashed potatoes. It’s delicious! But are you curious how much that perfect portion of breast is? Are you equally interested in how many net carbs are in a medium size sweet potato? If so, then this article is for you.
What Is a Chicken Breast?
A chicken breast is the most popular cut of chicken. It’s lean, inexpensive, and it works in everything from casseroles to stir-fries and salads. Chicken breasts come in all shapes and sizes, some are huge! but all are easy to work with.
The breast is the muscle that a bird uses to fly (not that you’d know that by looking at a modern chicken). The breast muscle is one of the most-used muscles on the chicken, so it tends to be tougher than other cuts. That’s why it’s important to handle them carefully when cooking.
There are two breasts on each whole chicken. They sit underneath the first two ribs right next to the backbone. Each piece of breast meat has a thin strip of meat attached, called the tenderloin, which is attached to the underside of each breast.
Each whole chicken breast has two halves: A small piece called the “tenderloin” and a bigger piece called the “chicken steak.” Many recipes call for boneless, skinless chicken breasts (which have been deboned and had their tough outer skin removed).
How Many Calories in a Chicken Breast?
A chicken breast is a cut of lean protein that goes with many different types of dishes. It’s an excellent source of niacin and selenium, and it contains vitamin B6, thiamine, phosphorus, riboflavin, zinc, copper and potassium. Each ounce of a chicken breast contains 25 grams of protein but only 4 grams of fat.
How many calories do chicken breasts contain? A 3-ounce serving of a skinless, roasted chicken breast (85 grams) contains 165 calories and 3.6 grams of fat. By comparison, the same amount of roasted dark meat with skin contains 202 calories and 9 grams of fat.
Calories in baked chicken breast, skinless
The baked chicken breast, skinless, is a type of meat that can be cooked in the oven. It is a very useful variety of meat for those people who want to go on a diet. This is because it does not contain many calories and has low fat components.
The nutritional content of 100 grams of this food item is as follows:
- Calories: 165 kcal
- Fats: 3.2 gm
- Cholesterol: 83 mg
- Sodium: 80 mg
- Potassium: 316 mg
Calories in grilled chicken breast, skinless
There are 165 calories in 1 serving of Grilled Chicken Breast. Get full nutrition facts and other common serving sizes of Grilled Chicken Breast including 100 g and 1 unit.
Calories in Grilled Chicken Breast based on the calories, fat, protein, carbs and other nutrition information submitted for Grilled Chicken Breast.
Other Chicken Breast Nutrition Facts
Chicken breast is a source of protein, iron and zinc. It also contains a small amount of vitamin A and calcium. The calories in chicken breast come from protein and fat. While protein is an important nutrient for muscle growth, fat provides energy and supports the absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K. Chicken breast contains saturated fat, which raises your blood cholesterol level and increases the risk of heart disease. If you eat chicken breast on a regular basis, choose skinless cuts to reduce the saturated fat content.
How to Cook With Chicken Breasts?
Chicken breasts are the most popular part of the chicken. Their versatility and low fat content make them a mainstay on most menus, from the home kitchen to fast food restaurants.
And for good reason: Breasts are quick-cooking and easy to prepare. They’re also economical, which makes them an ideal choice for people on a budget.
But chicken breasts can dry out quickly when cooked without sufficient attention, and many cooks complain that they’re bland and tasteless. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to cook chicken breasts so they come out moist and flavorful every time. One great and healthy way as mentioned above is grilling or barbecuing the chicken breast. And here is a guide to the perfect barbeque.
How does skin affect chicken breast calories?
It really doesn’t. The calories in a chicken breast are almost entirely from the meat, and the skin is at most a few percent of the total weight of the bird. If you can estimate how much skin is on your piece of chicken, you can subtract that from the total weight before multiplying it by 4 calories per gram to get an accurate calorie count.
The only way that skin would affect calorie counts is if you were eating it, which would add more calories. But you usually don’t eat chicken skin because it’s not very tasty.
What are healthy ways of cooking chicken?
Chicken is one of the most popular meats, and there are seemingly endless ways to prepare it. However, not all methods are healthy. Baking is one of the best ways to cook chicken because it does not require any added oil, which makes for a healthier dietary choice.
Baking is also a versatile cooking method that can be used for both large pieces of chicken and smaller cuts, such as chicken breasts. This cooking method can also be used on boneless or bone-in pieces of chicken. Additionally, baking is a simple cooking method that requires little preparation and attention while the chicken is in the oven.
Most baked chicken recipes involve placing the chicken in the oven while it’s still frozen or partially frozen, which helps keep it moist during the cooking process. Simply coat the chicken with your favorite spices, sauces or marinades and place it in a baking dish on top of sliced vegetables such as carrots and potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until done.
Conclusion
Chicken breasts, skinless, with no seasoning is a very lean meat, which is why I advise you to watch your portion sizes smaller than the palm of your hand, but this all depends on what cut and package it came in. This article will give you suggestions on how to properly cook them and include them in a balanced diet.