Have you ever made a recipe that called for pounds of chicken?
How do you really know how much a pound of chicken is?
Of course, you can buy chicken a pound at a time, but what happens if you purchase a large pack with a bunch of chicken breasts.
Knowing how much a chicken breast weighs can be valuable information when it comes to preparing food in the kitchen.
When you make dishes requiring a mixture of liquid and meat or a sauce and meat, it is especially important to have the right proportions.
How Much Does a Chicken Breast Weigh?
The average chicken breast weighs 5.5 ounces.
When you purchase a package of chicken with several breasts in it, they will vary quite a bit in size.
You may notice there are some smaller and some larger, but if you use the 5.5 ounces as your average, you should be able to figure out what you need for your recipe.
The average chicken breast weight has increased quite a bit in the last few years.
A chicken breast today weighs about an ounce more than one from many years ago.
The sizes of the chickens the meat is coming from have also grown quite a bit.
How Many Calories in a Chicken Breast?
There are approximately 160–180 calories in a chicken breast that has no skin on it.
This will change depending on the size of the breast, but this is a reasonable estimate.
As you can see, chicken is a relatively low-calorie food.
Chicken increases in calories when it is served with sauces or with cheese on top, which will make it a bit less healthy.
On its own, chicken is a relatively lean food, and it is not a bad thing to eat when you are on a diet.
Chicken has quite a bit of protein, which is something that will help you feel less hungry between meals.
What Is the Best Part of the Chicken to Eat?
People will have varying preferences when it comes to the tastiest part of the chicken to eat.
Some will love the wings, and the others will love the thighs.
Although we could have some pretty good debates about the best part of the chicken to eat, some parts are healthier than others.
When it comes to chicken meat, the lighter color breast meat will be much better for you than the dark thighs.
The thighs are easy to use in cooking, and they have some wonderful moist taste to them, but they have higher fat content.
Since most wings also have quite a bit of darker meat on them, the wings will be higher in calories as well.
The largest source of calories when it comes to chicken is going to be the skin.
Anytime you can take the skin off of the chicken, you should choose to do so.
One great trick that many cooks use is to keep the skin on during the cooking process but remove it when it is time to eat.
If you cook the chicken with the skin on, it will stay moister, and you will be able to enjoy the flavors and texture much more.
By taking the skin off, you get a great piece of meat with much fewer calories and much better for your health.
What Is the Best Way to Cook Chicken?
If you ask a fried chicken fan, they will tell you that frying is the only way to go.
Unfortunately, anytime you fry food, it is going to be much less healthy for you.
The best ways to cook chicken are by grilling or baking it.
One of the great things about grilling is that some of the fat will burn off the chicken as it cooks, and you get a very lean finished product.
When baking chicken, try and do it on a rack so that it can drip some of the fat off, and it does not cook directly in it.
You can add some spices to your chicken or a marinade but know that this may affect the salt content and sometimes the calorie content as well.
Are All Chicken Breasts the Same?
When you shop for chicken, you may just choose a product that is on sale.
With the price of meat and of groceries in general, we certainly can’t blame you, but making sure you purchase a great piece of chicken is essential.
Choose a piece of chicken that has a lower salt content than some of the others.
Depending on the company you are buying from, you may be purchasing a chicken breast which has been injected with lots of salt.
Since you will probably be adding salt and petter and other seasonings to this chicken breast, the sodium content can get quite high.
Having too much sodium in your diet is not good and will cause you some potential health issues.
Do yourself a favor the next time you are in the store and read the label of the chicken you are purchasing.
It may make you change your mind about what you buy.
