How many calories are in chicken?
100 g (3.5 oz) of cooked, skinless chicken breast is about 165 kcal; the same weight of roast thigh with the skin on is about 230 kcal. “Chicken” is not one number: cut and skin set a range of roughly 165 to 290 kcal per 100 g before anything touches the pan.
Per portion
Cooked weights, skin as stated.
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breast, skinless, grilled, 100 g | ~165 kcal | 31 g | 0 g | 3.5 g |
| Breast, skin on, roasted, 100 g | ~195 kcal | 29 g | 0 g | 8 g |
| Thigh, skinless, roasted, 100 g | ~205 kcal | 26 g | 0 g | 11 g |
| Thigh, skin on, roasted, 100 g | ~230 kcal | 25 g | 0 g | 15 g |
| Wing, skin on, roasted, 100 g edible | ~290 kcal | 27 g | 0 g | 20 g |
| One roast drumstick, skin on (~75 g meat) | ~160 kcal | 20 g | 0 g | 8 g |
| One medium breast fillet, ~130 g cooked | ~215 kcal | 40 g | 0 g | 5 g |
| Roast leg quarter, skin on (~190 g meat) | ~440 kcal | 48 g | 0 g | 27 g |
What changes the number
Skin adds about 25–30 kcal per 100 g, more wherever it has crisped in its own rendered fat. Worth removing if it is doing nothing for you.
The cooking medium, which routinely matters more than the cut. One tablespoon (15 ml) of oil is about 120 kcal, two of ghee around 220. Split across two plates that is 60–110 kcal a serving — more than the whole gap between breast and thigh. Switching to breast and then frying it in oil changes nothing.
Frying and breading. A coated, deep-fried piece runs 250–320 kcal per 100 g and breaded nuggets about 290, because the coating absorbs oil the bare meat would not; the same thigh roughly doubles.
The gravy. A korma, a butter chicken or anything finished with cream and ghee commonly reaches 500–800 kcal for a restaurant portion holding maybe 200 g of chicken; most of the total is not chicken. Two cups of chai afterwards add another 200 kcal. Dry tikka, tandoori and yoghurt-marinated grilled pieces stay near the plain figures.
Glazes: 30 kcal a tablespoon for BBQ sauce, 35–45 for sweet chilli, 90–100 for mayonnaise-based.
Mince, sold at 5% fat (~150 kcal per 100 g raw) or as thigh mince at 15–20% fat (220–250 kcal per 100 g raw). The pack rarely says which.
Rotisserie and takeaway birds are brined, oiled and basted: assume more than home-roast figures, not less.
Where it fits in a deficit
Chicken is among the cheapest protein-dense foods there is, and protein is what to protect when calories are low. Breast is the lean extreme; thigh costs about 40 kcal per 100 g more, a fair trade for flavour if the rest of the plate knows about it.
What chicken is not is high-volume. At 165–230 kcal per 100 g a 200 g portion looks like modest food, so it works best beside something bulky and low-density. Roasting a tray on Sunday is the most reliable meal-planning habit there is.
If breast is most of what you eat, the chicken breast page has the protein-per-calorie comparison and the raw-versus-cooked trap.
Bone-in weight is not meat weight
A 500 g pack of drumsticks is not 500 g of food. About 70–75% of a drumstick is edible, 75–80% of a bone-in thigh, 50–55% of a wing.
A 1.5 kg raw whole chicken yields 850–900 g of cooked meat and skin, about 1,800 kcal for the bird, so a quarter is near 450 kcal.
Log 200 g of bone-in thighs as 200 g of chicken and you overstate by about a fifth — one of the rare errors in your favour. It reverses if you strip the bones, weigh the cooked meat and look up a raw figure. Either way a calorie deficit built on guessed portions drifts: weigh the bones left on the plate once, for the cuts you buy, and reuse the ratio.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.