Calories In Chicken
How To Determine The Calories In Chicken
The calories in chicken vary as widely as the methods that we use to cook it. If we take, for instance, the calories in chicken breast without the skin or bone, we have an even 140. The only way to retain that low calorie count, however, is by boiling, blanching, grilling, roasting, or baking it with no additional oils or additives. As with so many food ingredients that we assume are healthy for our bodies, adding that bacon or thick salad dressing can completely alter your daily calorie goals. This is not to say that bacon and dressing should not be used, but only to suggest that you may want to find calorie information on those popular condiments as well.
The calories in chicken breast which has the skin on and is fried cranks our overall intake up to 220. For a nice compromise, one may consider a baked skin on chicken breast, whose calorie count meets nicely in the middle at 165. This skin-on method is often the best way for grilling chicken breast, as the skin gives a great buffer to the easily dried out white meat. When baking or roasting your chicken breast, adding batter or breading will lend an extra 15 to 40 calories to the main course of your meal.
We now move to the calories in chicken drumsticks, which can be cooked and served without the skin despite the normal methods. Frying a drumstick with the skin on and batter or breading will yield a calorie count of 235, which is not much higher than that of our breaded fried chicken breast. Should this same drumstick be fried in batter or breading without the skin, however, our calorie count is decreased to 175. Boiling, roasting, grilling, or baking this drumstick portion with the skin on gives us 170 calories to work with. These same methods used for a skinless drumstick will take our calorie count to 150, which is right on track with our skinless chicken breast count.
The calories in chicken from the thigh area tend to closely mirror those found in the drumstick portion. All of the aforementioned counts are based on 4 ounce portions, which is the size of a recommended serving according to the FDA food pyramid. When discussing the calories in chicken which has been processed, such as prepackaged chicken nuggets and patties, the determining factor is the method used for cooking. Baking or microwaving these products gives us a total of 190 calories per 4 ounces of chicken nuggets, and 250 calories per 4 ounce serving of the patty style chicken. These totals can soar, however, when oils are introduced during the cooking process.