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Chicken vs Beef nutrition

Roasted chicken breast has more protein. Cooked ground beef (85% lean) has more fat, calories and iron.

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  • Roasted chicken breast100 g
  • Cooked ground beef (85% lean)100 g

Each row is scaled on its own: the larger amount fills the bar. The numbers on the right are the real amounts.

Each food is weighed the same: 100 grams of each. The longer bar has more.

Show all 15 nutrients
Exact amounts and % Daily Value
Exact amounts per 100 g, with each one's share of the FDA Daily Value — bold marks the larger amount
NutrientRoasted chicken breastCooked ground beef (85% lean)Daily Value
Calories165 kcal (8%)256 kcal (13%)2,000 kcal
Protein31 g (62%)27.7 g (55%)50 g
Fat3.6 g (5%)15.3 g (20%)78 g
Saturated fat1 g (5%)5.8 g (29%)20 g
Carbs0 g (0%)0 g (0%)275 g
Fiber0 g (0%)0 g (0%)28 g
Sugar0 g0 gnone set
Cholesterol85 mg (28%)89 mg (30%)300 mg
Salt (sodium)74 mg (3%)89 mg (4%)2,300 mg
Potassium256 mg (5%)407 mg (9%)4,700 mg
Calcium15 mg (1%)22 mg (2%)1,300 mg
Iron1 mg (6%)2.9 mg (16%)18 mg
Magnesium29 mg (7%)25 mg (6%)420 mg
Vitamin A6 µg (<1%)3 µg (<1%)900 µg
Vitamin C0 mg (0%)0 mg (0%)90 mg

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How the numbers are taken. Amounts are per 100 g of the edible part, from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy, public domain), in the state named — raw, boiled, roasted and so on. Percentages use the FDA Daily Values for adults and children aged 4 and over, set around a 2,000-calorie diet; your own needs can be different. This site compares amounts — it does not give diet or medical advice. Sources and limits.

What is being compared

This page compares roasted chicken breast and cooked ground beef (85% lean) as USDA FoodData Central lists them: “Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted” (FDC 171477) and “Beef, ground, 85% lean meat / 15% fat, crumbles, cooked, pan-browned” (FDC 174034). All figures start from 100 grams of the edible part. A search for “chicken” is taken here as roasted chicken breast; raw chicken breast, roasted chicken thigh, raw chicken thigh and roasted chicken wing are in the comparer above. A search for “beef” is taken here as cooked ground beef (85% lean); cooked ground beef (90% lean), cooked ground beef (80% lean), cooked ground beef (95% lean) and raw ground beef (85% lean) are in the comparer above. One is listed roasted and the other broiled. Cooking changes how much water is in 100 grams, so the same food can look richer or poorer per 100 g depending on its state.

Per 100 grams

Per 100 grams, roasted chicken breast has more protein (31 vs 27.7 g), magnesium (29 vs 25 mg) and vitamin A (6 vs 3 µg, 2.0 times as much). Cooked ground beef (85% lean) has more calories (256 vs 165 kcal, 1.6 times as much), fat (15.3 vs 3.6 g, 4.3 times as much), saturated fat (5.8 vs 1 g, 5.8 times as much), cholesterol (89 vs 85 mg), sodium (89 vs 74 mg), potassium (407 vs 256 mg, 1.6 times as much), calcium (22 vs 15 mg) and iron (2.9 vs 1 mg, 2.8 times as much). They are within 3% of each other for carbohydrate, fiber, sugars and vitamin C.

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Per serving

A serving as USDA measures it is ½ breast, bone and skin removed of roasted chicken breast (86 g) and 3 oz of cooked ground beef (85% lean) (85 g). The two servings weigh about the same, so the per-serving picture follows the per-100 g one closely. No nutrient changes leader when you switch from 100 g to servings. One serving is 142 kcal of roasted chicken breast against 218 kcal of cooked ground beef (85% lean).

For the same calories

To get 100 kcal you would eat 60.6 g of roasted chicken breast or 39.1 g of cooked ground beef (85% lean). At that equal energy, roasted chicken breast carries 18.8 g of protein and cooked ground beef (85% lean) 10.8 g. Measured per 100 kcal instead of per 100 g, the larger amount moves for cholesterol (to roasted chicken breast), sodium (to roasted chicken breast) and calcium (to roasted chicken breast).

Where the calories come from

Roughly, 79% of the energy in roasted chicken breast comes from protein, 21% from fat and 0% from carbohydrate; for cooked ground beef (85% lean) it is 45%, 55% and 0%. These shares use the general 4, 9 and 4 kcal per gram and can differ slightly from USDA's own energy factors.

Against the Daily Value

½ breast, bone and skin removed of roasted chicken breast reaches its largest shares of the Daily Value in protein (53%), cholesterol (24%) and magnesium (6%); 3 oz of cooked ground beef (85% lean) reaches its largest shares of the Daily Value in protein (47%), cholesterol (25%) and saturated fat (25%). Daily Values are the FDA label reference amounts for adults and children aged 4 and over, set around a 2,000-calorie diet; they are a yardstick for reading labels, not a target for any one person.

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