How many calories are in chicken breast?
100 g of cooked, skinless chicken breast has about 165 calories and 31 g of protein, with 3.6 g of fat and no carbs. Half a breast, which USDA puts at 86 g of cooked meat, comes to about 142 calories and 27 g of protein.
Raw, the same 100 g has only about 120 calories. Cooking drives out water, so every gram of what's left is richer.
Skinless chicken breast is a go-to lean protein: high protein, almost no carbs, and very little fat. A staple for anyone building muscle or in a calorie deficit.
Raw vs. cooked, with or without skin
All values are per 100 g, from USDA FoodData Central: raw, grilled, roasted, fried, roasted with skin and fried with skin in flour.
| Chicken breast, 100 g | Calories | Protein | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw, skinless | 120 | 22.5 g | 2.6 g |
| Grilled, skinless | 151 | 30.5 g | 3.2 g |
| Roasted, skinless | 165 | 31.0 g | 3.6 g |
| Fried, skinless | 187 | 33.4 g | 4.7 g |
| Roasted, with skin | 197 | 29.8 g | 7.8 g |
| Fried, with skin, flour coating | 222 | 31.8 g | 8.9 g |
Grilled and roasted breast land close together. The skin is what really moves the number: it roughly doubles the fat compared with skinless roasted breast.
Weigh it raw or cooked?
Either works, as long as you log it the same way you weighed it. In USDA's data, raw breast is about 74% water and roasted breast about 65%. So 100 g of raw chicken shrinks to less than 100 g cooked, but the calories stay with the meat. If you weigh raw, use the 120 figure. If you weigh it on the plate, use 165.
Breasts vary a lot in size, so weighing once or twice helps you get a feel for your usual portion. Pair it with white rice and you have the classic meal-prep plate. To see where chicken fits into a calorie deficit, read how to calculate your calorie deficit.
Track it the easy way
Skip the kitchen scale math. With Calorie AI, just say what you ate, for example "150 g grilled chicken breast with rice," and the app estimates the calories and macros for you. Mention the skin or the oil if there was any; that's where most of the difference hides.