A single cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast contains about 284 calories. That’s based on a typical breast weighing around 6 ounces (172 grams) after cooking. Per 3.5 ounces (100 grams), cooked chicken breast comes in at 165 calories, making it one of the leanest protein sources available.
Protein, Fat, and Carbs
Chicken breast is almost entirely protein and fat, with zero carbohydrates. A standard cooked breast (172 grams) delivers 53.4 grams of protein and just 6.2 grams of fat. That protein-to-calorie ratio is hard to beat: roughly 75% of the calories come from protein alone.
Per 100-gram serving, the numbers break down to 31 grams of protein and 3.6 grams of fat. If you’re weighing portions at home, that 100-gram figure is the easiest reference point to scale up or down.
Vitamins and Minerals Worth Noting
Chicken breast is surprisingly rich in a few key nutrients. A 6-ounce breast provides nearly 100% of your daily niacin (vitamin B3), 99% of your daily selenium, and 92% of your daily vitamin B6. Niacin supports energy metabolism, selenium acts as an antioxidant, and B6 plays a role in immune function and brain health. You’d need to eat a lot of other foods to match those numbers from a single serving.
How Cooking Method Changes the Count
Grilling, baking, or poaching a plain chicken breast keeps calories right around that 165-per-100-grams baseline. Frying is a different story. A breaded, deep-fried chicken breast jumps to about 268 calories per 100 grams, with fat climbing from 3.6 grams to 16.6 grams. That’s more than four times the fat content, largely from the oil absorbed during frying and the breading itself.
Even a light breadcrumb coating without deep frying adds roughly 70 to 110 calories per breast, depending on whether you use panko or traditional bread crumbs. If you’re tracking calories closely, plain preparation methods keep the math simple.
Raw Weight vs. Cooked Weight
Chicken breast loses a significant amount of water during cooking, which means a raw breast and a cooked breast of the same weight have very different calorie counts. According to USDA data, a baked or roasted chicken breast retains about 72% of its raw weight. Poaching or simmering keeps a bit more moisture, with a yield of about 77%.
In practical terms, if you start with 8 ounces of raw chicken breast, you’ll end up with roughly 5.7 to 6.2 ounces after cooking. Most nutrition labels for raw chicken list around 120 calories per 4-ounce serving, while cooked chicken lists 165 calories per 3.5 ounces. These aren’t contradictory: the cooked portion is more calorie-dense per ounce because the water has evaporated but the protein and fat remain. For accuracy, decide whether you’re weighing raw or cooked, then use the matching nutrition data. Mixing them up is the most common calorie-tracking mistake with chicken.
Skin On vs. Skin Off
Chicken skin is mostly fat, and leaving it on adds a noticeable calorie bump. While a skinless breast runs about 284 calories, a skin-on breast of the same size typically lands between 330 and 390 calories depending on how much skin is attached and how it’s cooked. The skin also adds 8 to 12 extra grams of fat. Removing the skin before or after cooking is the single easiest way to cut calories from a chicken breast without changing the portion size.
Quick Calorie Reference by Portion
- 3.5 oz (100 g) cooked, skinless: 165 calories, 31 g protein
- 6 oz (172 g) cooked, skinless: 284 calories, 53.4 g protein
- 3.5 oz (100 g) fried with breading and skin: 268 calories, 16.6 g fat
Most chicken breasts sold in grocery stores today are on the larger side, often 8 to 10 ounces raw. After cooking, those yield roughly 6 to 7 ounces, putting a single breast in the 280 to 330 calorie range. Smaller heritage or organic breasts may weigh closer to 5 to 6 ounces raw, landing around 200 calories after cooking. Weighing your chicken rather than estimating gives you the most reliable count.