Cooked elk and venison top the list at roughly 26.5 grams of protein per 100 grams, making wild game the most protein-dense meat you can buy. But you don’t need to hunt your dinner to hit high numbers. Chicken breast, turkey breast, and yellowfin tuna all deliver well over 24 grams per serving, and even lean cuts of beef and pork come surprisingly close.
Protein Content by Meat Type
All protein values below are per 100 grams of cooked meat unless noted. Cooking drives off water and concentrates protein, so cooked numbers are always higher than what you see on a raw nutrition label.
- Elk: 26.6 g
- Venison (deer): 26.5 g
- Yellowfin tuna: 29.2 g
- Tilapia: 26.2 g
- Bison: 25.4 g
- Chicken breast (roasted, skinless): ~28.6 g (24 g per 84 g serving)
- Turkey breast (roasted, skinless): ~28.6 g (24 g per 84 g serving)
- Pork loin chop (broiled): ~28.6 g (24 g per 84 g serving)
- Beef (average lean cuts): 23.8 g
- Atlantic cod: 22.8 g
- Halibut: 22.5 g
The standout here is yellowfin tuna at 29.2 grams cooked. It edges out even wild game. Chicken and turkey breast, the go-to picks for most people, sit right in the same high tier. The differences across lean meats are honestly small, usually just a few grams per serving, so the “best” choice often comes down to fat content, cost, and what you actually enjoy eating.
Wild Game vs. Domestic Meat
Elk and venison consistently outperform domestic beef for protein density. Raw elk contains about 21.8 grams of protein per 100 grams compared to beef’s 18.7 grams, a gap that holds after cooking. The reason is simple: wild game animals carry far less intramuscular fat, so a higher percentage of each bite is pure muscle protein. Bison falls between the two, closer to beef when raw but pulling ahead once cooked (25.4 g vs. 23.8 g).
The tradeoff is availability and price. Elk and venison cost significantly more than chicken or beef at most grocery stores, and bison, while increasingly common, still runs roughly double the price of conventional ground beef. If you’re optimizing purely for protein per dollar, chicken breast wins. If you’re optimizing for protein per calorie, wild game is hard to beat.
The Leanest Beef Cuts
Not all beef is created equal. The Mayo Clinic identifies eye of round, top round, bottom round, and top sirloin as the leanest options. The USDA classifies “extra lean” beef as any 100-gram serving with less than 5 grams of total fat and under 2 grams of saturated fat. Standard lean cuts can have up to 10 grams of fat per serving.
That fat content matters for protein math. A fatty ribeye and a lean eye of round might weigh the same on your plate, but the leaner cut packs more protein gram for gram because less of its weight comes from fat. If you’re choosing beef specifically for protein, stick to round cuts and top sirloin.
Where Pork Fits In
Pork tenderloin is the leanest option at 22 grams of protein and only 3.5 grams of fat per 3-ounce serving. That’s comparable to chicken breast in fat content, though it trails slightly in total protein. A broiled pork loin chop bumps up to 24 grams of protein but also adds more fat (8 grams). The sirloin roast hits 25 grams of protein per serving but carries 10 grams of fat.
Pork tenderloin is sometimes marketed as “the other white meat” for good reason. Calorie for calorie, it competes well with poultry. It just doesn’t get the same reputation.
Fish and Seafood
Yellowfin tuna is the protein king of the seafood world at 29.2 grams per 100 grams cooked. Tilapia comes in second at 26.2 grams, which surprises many people given its reputation as a mild, inexpensive fish. Atlantic cod and halibut are slightly lower, around 22.5 to 22.8 grams, but still competitive with beef.
Fish also tends to be extremely low in fat, which gives it a high protein-to-calorie ratio. A 100-gram portion of cooked cod has fewer calories than the same amount of chicken breast while delivering similar protein. The main limitation is satiety: fish digests quickly, so you may feel hungry again sooner than you would after a steak.
Dried and Cured Meats
Beef jerky deserves a special mention because removing water dramatically concentrates protein. One ounce (28 grams) of jerky packs about 11 grams of protein, which works out to roughly 39 grams per 100 grams. That’s higher than any fresh cooked meat on this list.
The catch is sodium. That same ounce contains 460 milligrams of sodium, nearly 20% of the recommended daily limit. Jerky also often includes added sugar (about 6 grams per ounce in standard varieties). It works well as a portable, shelf-stable protein source, but it’s not a practical replacement for fresh meat at most meals.
Protein Quality, Not Just Quantity
Grams per serving only tells half the story. Protein quality, meaning how efficiently your body can absorb and use the amino acids, matters too. Researchers measure this using a score called DIAAS (Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score). Any score above 100% is classified as “excellent” protein quality.
Beef and pork both score well above that threshold. Pork loin scores 139% for adults. Medium-cooked ribeye hits 130%. Even processed products like ham (124-133%) and beef jerky (120%) qualify as excellent. Chicken and fish score similarly high, though they weren’t directly tested in the same study. The practical takeaway: virtually all meat provides complete, highly digestible protein. You don’t need to worry about amino acid profiles the way someone eating only plant proteins might.
Raw vs. Cooked Numbers
Meat loses about 25% of its weight during cooking, mostly from water evaporating. That means 16 ounces of raw chicken breast yields roughly 12 ounces cooked. The total protein doesn’t disappear, it just gets concentrated into a smaller portion. Four ounces of raw chicken breast and 3 ounces of cooked chicken breast contain nearly identical calories and protein.
This is important when you’re tracking intake. If a package of raw chicken breast says 24 grams of protein per serving, that protein will still be there after cooking. You’ll just be eating a physically smaller piece of meat. Always check whether nutrition labels refer to raw or cooked weight, especially when comparing different products at the store.