Chicken
Food · Protein · Food, Typed Supps
Nearly all the fat in chicken sits in the skin, not the meat.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Chewing and cooking): Cooking has already denatured the muscle protein; chewing breaks the fibres apart.
- Digestion (Stomach and small intestine): Acid and enzymes cut the protein into peptides and then amino acids; fat from skin or oil is emulsified by bile.
- Absorption (Bloodstream): Amino acids, selenium, niacin and B6 enter circulation, along with whatever fat came with the cut.
- Use (Muscle and tissue): Amino acids are drawn on for muscle repair and synthesis; unused energy is stored.
Time to effect
- Hours: Amino acids appear in blood within an hour or two and support muscle repair over the following several hours.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Keto, Low-FODMAP, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Halal, Kosher.
Satiety
215 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — very high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
9.9 kg CO2e and 660 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Poultry meat" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Mid — roughly £7 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 97
- Protein: 21.4g
- Carbohydrate: 0g
- of which sugars: 0g
- Fat: 1.1g
- of which saturated: 0.3g
- Fibre: 0g
- Sodium: 49mg
Food vs. supplement
Whey and other protein powders deliver the same amino acids faster and more cheaply per gram. Chicken delivers them more slowly, with satiety that a shake does not provide, and with selenium, niacin, B6 and B12 attached. Neither is superior in isolation; powders are a convenience, not an upgrade.
Kitchen tip
Cook skin-on for moisture, then remove the skin before eating if the fat is the concern. Most of the flavour has already migrated into the meat, and the fat that renders out has largely gone into the pan rather than the flesh.
Common myth
"Chicken breast is healthy and chicken thigh is not." In reality: The gap between breast and thigh is a couple of grams of fat per 100g, and thigh carries more iron and zinc. Skin, added frying oil and crumbing change the numbers far more than the cut does.
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