Meat and poultry

How much protein is in chicken thigh?

One skinless roasted chicken thigh has about 29 g of protein.

That's 25 g of protein per 100 g, or 14 g for every 100 calories.

Protein per serving

Protein and calories in common servings of chicken thigh, from USDA data.
ServingWeightProteinCalories
1 thigh, skin removed116 g29 g208
3 oz85 g21 g152
100 g100 g25 g179

How chicken thigh compares

Other meat and poultry, ranked by how much protein you get per 100 calories.

FoodProtein per 100 gProtein 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
Chicken breastskinless, roasted 31 g 19 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
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. One skinless roasted chicken thigh covers about 93% of that.

Work out your own daily and per-meal target with the protein calculator.

Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central ("Chicken, broilers or fryers, thigh, meat only, cooked, roasted", FDC ID 172388). Actual values vary by brand, recipe and cooking method, so treat these numbers as close estimates.