Meat and poultry
How much protein is in chicken breast?
Three ounces of roasted chicken breast has about 26 g of protein.
That's 31 g of protein per 100 g, or 19 g for every 100 calories.
Protein per serving
| Serving | Weight | Protein | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 oz | 85 g | 26 g | 140 |
| ½ breast | 86 g | 27 g | 142 |
| 1 cup, chopped | 140 g | 43 g | 231 |
| 100 g | 100 g | 31 g | 165 |
How chicken breast compares
Other meat and poultry, ranked by how much protein you get per 100 calories.
| Food | Protein per 100 g | Protein per 100 calories |
|---|---|---|
| Turkey breastmeat only, roasted | 30 g | 21 g |
| Rotisserie chickenbreast meat | 28 g | 20 g |
| Deli turkeysliced turkey breast, low salt | 22 g | 20 g |
| Pork tenderloinlean, roasted | 26 g | 18 g |
| Sirloin steaktop sirloin, lean, broiled | 30 g | 16 g |
| Pork chopcenter loin, lean, broiled | 27 g | 15 g |
| Chicken thighskinless, roasted | 25 g | 14 g |
| Ground turkey93% lean, cooked | 27 g | 13 g |
| Ground beef90% lean, cooked patty | 25 g | 12 g |
| Ground chickencooked crumbles | 23 g | 12 g |
| Hamsliced deli ham | 17 g | 10 g |
| Ground beef (80/20)80% lean, cooked patty | 24 g | 9.8 g |
| Chicken wingsroasted, with skin | 24 g | 9.4 g |
| Ground lambbroiled | 25 g | 8.8 g |
| Beef jerkychopped and formed | 33 g | 8.1 g |
| Baconbaked | 36 g | 6.5 g |
How it fits into a meal
For building muscle, Schoenfeld and Aragon's 2018 review of the research suggests about 0.4 g of protein per kilogram of body weight at each meal, spread over at least four meals a day. At 170 lb (77 kg), that's about 31 g a meal. Three ounces of roasted chicken breast covers about 86% of that.
Work out your own daily and per-meal target with the protein calculator.
Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central ("Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted", FDC ID 171477). Actual values vary by brand, recipe and cooking method, so treat these numbers as close estimates.