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Portions and preparation · USDA nutrition

Chicken nutrition: 55–941 calories in 11 named USDA examples

The 11 named USDA examples report 55–941 calories for their individually listed servings; at a common 100-gram basis, they span 98–298 calories per 100 g. Match the preparation and weight before using a value.

Portion calculator

Estimate your portion

Choose a source measure or enter the weight you ate.

Preparation and portion

Named measures come from this exact source record.

Estimated for 85 g

253calories

Chicken, back

Protein
21.8 g
Carbs
0 g
Fat
17.7 g

These values scale the selected reference food by weight. Ingredients, preparation, and portion size can change your meal’s estimate.

FoodData Central Survey Foods (FNDDS) · FDC 2706081 Full nutrition profile →

Compare all 11 food records, nutrition tables and USDA sources

The 11 exact records in this guide report 55–941 calories in the records' own listed source servings and 98–298 calories per 100 grams. Those are observations from named database records—not a universal range or an estimate of an unseen plate.

Match my meal

Start with the description closest to what you ate

For Chicken, begin by separating “Chicken, back” from “Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium.” Choosing a card filters this source set; it does not infer the portion or fill in ingredients the chosen description does not name.

Showing the first 6 of 11 linked records.

Equal-weight view

How chicken records compare at 100 grams

Five rank landmarks are shown from all 11 cited records: minimum, 25th-ranked, median-ranked, 75th-ranked, and maximum. Weight is held at 100 grams; source-serving weights are listed in the table.

  1. Minimum: Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat 98 kcal
    98 kcal
  2. 25th-ranked landmark: Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, frozen meal 157 kcal
    157 kcal
  3. Median-ranked landmark: Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion 201 kcal
    201 kcal
  4. 75th-ranked landmark: Chicken, meatless, NFS 224 kcal
    224 kcal
  5. Maximum: Chicken, back 298 kcal
    298 kcal

Shared basis: 100 g · kilocalories

What this page compares

Named source records, not one universal meal

This guide keeps 11 named USDA records in view: 11 direct matches. They span 4 source categories, including Chicken, whole pieces, Poultry mixed dishes, and Soy and meat-alternative products. The exact descriptions remain the unit of comparison; the familiar heading is only the doorway into the evidence.

Why these records appear together: The deterministic grouping rule “normalized first description segment” placed these 11 records together under the exact grouping key “chicken.” That rule determines membership before any nutrition result is read.

For Chicken, this page can compare 11 named records from FDC 2706081 through FDC 2706209. It cannot observe which preparation was eaten, recover unnamed additions, or supply the eaten grams.

Read the shared calculation, provenance, and uncertainty method →

Editor’s decision brief

The three facts to carry into the table

Carry the denominator, exact identity, and strongest observed contrast into every number below.

Portion

35–468 g before composition

The largest source amount is 13.4× the smallest. Read per-serving calorie differences with that mass gap in view.

Composition

200 kcal separates the fixed-weight endpoints

The lower endpoint is “prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat”; the higher is “back.” This isolates density, not ingredient causation.

Discriminator

4.3 g fiber gap per 100 g

Of protein, fiber, and sodium, the strongest normalized contrast is between “back” (0.0 g) and “breaded” (4.3 g).

Observed source examples

Three landmarks inside this source set—not universal endpoints

The cards are ordered by calories in each record's listed serving. Serving weights differ, so use per-100-gram values to compare composition. These selected records do not define a calorie range for every chicken.

Important: “Lower” begins with Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat; “higher” ends with Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion, using each record’s own source amount. Those labels order this selected set only—they are not endpoints for every chicken meal.

Full comparison

Compare every selected FNDDS record

For Chicken, serving columns preserve each record’s own listed amount, while calories per 100 g hold weight constant. A dash means the cited record does not supply that field; it does not mean the nutrient is absent.

On smaller screens, focus the table and scroll horizontally to read every column.

USDA records selected for the Chicken nutrition guide
Exact source record Match Source amount Calories kcal / 100 g Protein Fiber Sodium USDA
Chicken, back Direct name match 85 gUSDA reference amount 253 kcal 298 21.8 g 0 g 348 mg FDC 2706081 ↗
Chicken, canned, meat only Direct name match 85 gUSDA reference amount 157 kcal 185 21.5 g 0 g 410 mg FDC 2706086 ↗
Chicken, chicken roll, roasted Direct name match 85 gUSDA reference amount 139 kcal 164 22.7 g 0 g 424 mg FDC 2706087 ↗
Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion Direct name match 468 gUSDA reference amount 941 kcal 201 51 g 6.1 g 2,579 mg FDC 2707108 ↗
Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, frozen meal Direct name match 312 gUSDA reference amount 490 kcal 157 32.1 g 5.3 g 2,087 mg FDC 2707106 ↗
Chicken, ground Direct name match 85 gUSDA reference amount 171 kcal 201 23 g 0 g 340 mg FDC 2706091 ↗
Chicken, meatless, breaded, fried Direct name match 84 gUSDA reference amount 197 kcal 234 17.9 g 3.6 g 336 mg FDC 2707469 ↗
Chicken, meatless, NFS Direct name match 84 gUSDA reference amount 188 kcal 224 19.8 g 3 g 596 mg FDC 2707468 ↗
Chicken, neck or ribs Direct name match 35 gUSDA reference amount 86 kcal 245 6.8 g 0 g 131 mg FDC 2706082 ↗
Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat Direct name match 56 gUSDA reference amount 55 kcal 98 9.7 g 0 g 577 mg FDC 2706208 ↗
Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium Direct name match 56 gUSDA reference amount 55 kcal 98 9.7 g 0 g 433 mg FDC 2706209 ↗

Portion analysis

Serving total and calorie density answer different questions

The listed source amounts run from 35 to 468 grams—a 433-gram gap before composition enters the comparison. Their own source servings run from 55 calories for “prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat” to 941 for “dessert; large meat portion.” At a fixed 100 grams, “prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat” is 98 calories and “back” is 298—a fixed-weight separation of 200 calories. For Chicken, the serving view answers “how much is in the database portion?”; the 100-gram view answers “how concentrated is the matched record?” Neither reveals how many grams were actually eaten.

The scaling rule: multiply a per-100-gram value by eaten grams ÷ 100. The arithmetic is exact; the result is only as defensible as the record match and portion estimate.

Preparation analysis

The long description carries the evidence

The published descriptions distinguish forms such as “back”, “fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion”, “ground”, “neck or ribs”, and “prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium”. The source formulations contain 27 distinct ingredient codes; examples that appear in only part of the set include salt, table, chicken, ns as to part, fried, coated, skin / coating eaten, apple, baked, and beverages, water, tap, municipal. On this Chicken page, those rows make the records inspectable, but they are not a controlled experiment: they cannot tell us that one named input, by itself, caused a nutrient difference.

Database precision is not meal certainty. Retain the exact description beside the number so later corrections remain possible.

What changes the comparison

Four drivers worth checking before choosing a record

The family label “Chicken” cannot resolve the differences between Chicken, back and Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium. The four checks below identify the record wording, source weight, and formulation evidence that can.

  1. 01

    Source weight before serving calories

    The source amounts span 35–468 grams. Compare per 100 grams before reading a serving-calorie gap as a composition gap.

  2. 02

    The words that split the family

    Representative record-level distinctions include “back”, “fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion”, “ground”, “neck or ribs”, and “prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium”. Those phrases are evidence for choosing a record, not decorative subtitle text.

  3. 03

    Formulation evidence, with limits

    27 source-input codes appear across the selected records. Their presence and listed weights describe USDA formulations, not finished plated proportions.

  4. 04

    The unresolved plate

    Even “Chicken, back” leaves the eaten grams and unnamed oils, sauces, toppings, substitutions, or leftovers unresolved. Preserve those Chicken unknowns for correction instead of converting them into false precision.

Record matching

Match identity first; scale quantity second

Read the source name as a sequence of decisions. First confirm that chicken is the right meal family. Then resolve the phrases that actually separate this set—“back”, “fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion”, “meatless, NFS”, and “prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium”—before comparing gram weight. If a package, menu, or known recipe provides a closer first-party description, prefer it and keep this USDA record as a transparent fallback.

A practical matching checklist

  1. Read the complete Chicken source description, including preparation and additions.
  2. Compare the listed source weight with the amount actually eaten.
  3. Prefer a current package or restaurant source when a specific branded item is known.
  4. Record toppings, sauces, cooking fat, sides, and substitutions that the selected description does not name.

Decision support from the exact records on this page

Turn source data into a better next decision

These conclusions and reading paths are computed from 11 exact records behind Chicken source-record guide. Links are chosen by record identity, controlled contrast, formulation input, nutrient spread, or serving context—not by loose keyword similarity.

Equal-weight result

Chicken, meatless, breaded, fried is higher in dietary fiber per 100 g

Chicken, meatless, breaded, fried reports 4.3 g versus 0 g for Chicken, back: a 4.3 g difference when both are normalized to 100 g.

Inspect the underlying evidence

The denominator changes the answer

Chicken, back is denser; Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion is higher in its source amount

Chicken, back reports 298 kcal per 100 g and 253 kcal in USDA source amount (85 g). Chicken, fried, with potatoes, vegetable, dessert, frozen meal, large meat portion reports a lower 201 kcal per 100 g but a higher 941 kcal in USDA source amount (468 g).

Choose the record before reading the number

Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat and Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium are not interchangeable

The page keeps both records at the same 100 g denominator and makes Sodium wording (No matching controlled term in the source name versus reduced- or low-sodium wording) the explicit record-description contrast. It does not show that the wording difference caused a nutrient difference. Pick the description that matches the food in front of you rather than averaging away the distinction.

Inspect the underlying evidence

Contextual knowledge graph

Follow the relationship that matches your question

For Chicken source-record guide, each path states why the destination belongs here, so you can distinguish a true evidentiary connection from a merely similar label.

Compare two records on this page Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat vs Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium

Both records appear in this page’s evidence set. The explicit record-description contrast is Sodium wording: No matching controlled term in the source name versus reduced- or low-sodium wording; it is a selection cue, not evidence of cause.

Follow this evidence path 5 context records in this source topic Chicken, whole pieces

Chicken, back and Chicken, canned, meat only belong to this USDA source-category collection. Its displayed ranges and complete exact-record catalog provide the peer set for a manual comparison; the destination does not preselect this page’s record.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Salt, table

USDA input 2047 appears in 6 of 11 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 0.4–2.2 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Beverages, water, tap, municipal

USDA input 14429 appears in 1 of 11 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 4.2–4.2 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path Put the observed spread in corpus context Dietary fiber: density and serving context

In this page’s records, dietary fiber runs from 0 g in Chicken, back to 4.3 g in Chicken, meatless, breaded, fried, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path Put the observed spread in corpus context Iron: density and serving context

In this page’s records, iron runs from 0.4 mg in Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat to 3.8 mg in Chicken, meatless, breaded, fried, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path 2 context records in this source topic Cold cuts and cured meats

Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat and Chicken, prepackaged or deli, luncheon meat, reduced sodium belong to this USDA source-category collection. Its displayed ranges and complete exact-record catalog provide the peer set for a manual comparison; the destination does not preselect this page’s record.

Follow this evidence path