How Many Grams in a Cup of Chicken? A Guide to Measuring Chicken for Recipes

Chicken is a versatile and healthy protein that is used in a variety of delicious recipes. However, many recipes call for chicken by the cup rather than giving a specific weight in grams or pounds. This can make it tricky to know exactly how much raw chicken to purchase and prepare.

We’ll show you how to change chicken measurements between cups, grams, and pounds in this article. No matter what kind of chicken you like or how much you usually eat, we’ll talk about it all. It’s easy to figure out how many grams of chicken are in a cup. Keep reading for tips and charts.

Types of Chicken

First, you should know that recipes call for a few different kinds of chicken:

• Boneless chicken: This is chicken that has had the bones and skin removed. Common boneless cuts are chicken breasts and chicken thighs. Since there is no bone, the weight of the package is primarily meat.

• Bone-in chicken: Chicken that still has the bone attached, such as bone-in chicken breasts, drumsticks, thighs, or a whole chicken. The bones add weight, so you get less meat per pound compared to boneless.

• Ground chicken: Ground or minced chicken is made from chopped up meat and skin from various parts of the chicken. It may contain both white and dark meat.

The type of chicken will impact the final yield per pound or cup, so keep this in mind when measuring.

Serving Size for Chicken

To determine grams per cup, we first need to know the typical serving size for chicken. The USDA recommends the following as one chicken serving:

• 3 ounces or 85 grams chicken (for adults)

• 2 ounces or 55 grams chicken (for children)

This is for cooked, boneless chicken. When you buy bone-in cuts, the serving size goes up to account for the bone:

• Bone-in chicken: 4-6 ounces or 115-170 grams

So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of boneless cooked chicken, that’s approximately 1 serving. For bone-in, 1 cup would be around 2 servings.

Grams and Cups Per Pound of Chicken

Now we can look at the average yield per pound of raw chicken:

• Boneless chicken: Approximately 3 cups or 700 grams per pound

• Ground chicken: Approximately 2 1⁄2 cups or 567 grams per pound

• Bone-in chicken: Approximately 1 1⁄2 cups or 340 grams per pound

So for boneless cuts, there are about 233 grams of chicken per cup, since a pound equals 700 grams and 3 cups.

For bone-in, there are 227 grams of chicken per cup on average, calculated from 1.5 cups per pound.

Keep in mind that the exact yield can vary a bit based on the size of the chicken pieces. But this gives a good estimate when converting between cups, pounds, and grams.

Quick Conversions

Here is a quick reference chart for the most common chicken conversions:

To summarize:

• There are approximately 233 grams or 1/3 pound of boneless chicken per cup
• For bone-in chicken, allow about twice as much by weight to yield the same amount of meat

Find a recipe that calls for 2 cups of shredded chicken or 1 pound of boneless chicken breasts. This guide will help you quickly and easily figure out how many grams you need. With this simple grams to cups chart, it’s easy to figure out how much chicken to use.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many grams are in 1/2 cup of chicken?

For boneless chicken, there are approximately 115 grams per 1/2 cup. For bone-in, about 110 grams per 1/2 cup.

How many grams of protein in 1 cup of chicken?

There are around 31 grams of protein in one cup of cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast. This can vary slightly depending on the exact cut and preparation method.

How many chicken breasts equal one cup?

One average size boneless, skinless chicken breast halves yields around 1 – 1 1/4 cups of shredded chicken meat. So you need about 2 small or 1 large chicken breast to get 1 cup cooked.

How do you measure chicken meat in grams?

If you have a kitchen scale, you can place a bowl on it, then add the raw chicken pieces until the scale reads the number of grams needed. For example, add chicken until the scale reads 226 grams for 1 cup of boneless chicken.

Conclusion

Determining how many grams or pounds of chicken you need for recipes is easy with this handy reference. Remember these key points:

• There are approximately 233 grams per cup of boneless chicken
• Allow around 227 grams per cup for bone-in cuts
• Ground chicken yields about 226 grams per cup
• Double the weight needed for bone-in chicken to equal boneless

With this simple guide for measuring chicken either by the cup, gram, or pound, you’ll never have to wonder how much to purchase or prepare again. Next time a recipe calls for chicken, you can quickly convert to grams or other units needed.