When someone is cooking, they will want to know how much they need to make for the meal. It doesn’t matter if they are making it for just themselves or a group of people.
Portion size is going to come in handy because it tells you how much food to dole out for the entire meal.
Following portion size is important because this way, you aren’t overeating or under-eating. Overeating will make you gain weight, and eventually, under-eating will as well. You’ll be snacking in between meals because you didn’t get enough.
People use portion sizes with a lot of food which includes meat like a chicken. In this article, you’ll figure out how much chicken a person eats, if you can eat too much, and finally, the benefits of eating it!
Contents
How Much Chicken Does Each Person Get?
The type of chicken you get is what decides how much everyone should get on their plate. There are so many recipes that call for chicken.
Chicken is a very popular food, so if they were going to figure out portion size for any food, then it was going to be for chicken.
Now if the chicken is about ½ of the total ingredients, you need to use about 1/6 of a pound per person. This translates into 2 to 3 ounces of chicken per person. Another thing you need to keep in mind is whether the chicken is baked or smoked and breasts or thighs.
If the chicken is bone, then you’ll need about 10 to 12 ounces per person. Should the chicken be boneless, then you are going to need ½ chicken meat per person.
It can sound complicated, but it isn’t. When in doubt, just look it up and try to figure out how much chicken you are going to need for your particular meal.
There are just so many varieties of chicken that you can buy, which is why it truly does depend on how you cook it and what type of chicken is being bought.
Can You Eat Too Many Chicken?
Believe it or not, you aren’t going to be in trouble if you eat too many chicken. Chicken is very healthy and is one of the top diet foods people eat in their diets.
However, the problem is that there are still some issues that can come about if you do eat too many chicken. It’s not a huge problem, but we want you to be aware that it does exist.
If you are eating chicken all the time and not eating anything else, then you are not getting a balanced diet.
Say you have chicken for breakfast, lunch, and dinner but don’t have anything else to eat with your meal, along with the chicken. This is a problem because you aren’t getting a balanced diet.
A balanced diet includes veggies, fruits, grains, etc. Adding any of these things as a side to your main meal that has chicken is essential.
This will ensure that you will be able to have a balanced diet and that your body is getting everything it needs to stay healthy.
We know that adding veggies to your meal is not something everyone likes to do, but understand what veggies can do for your body.
It is very good for you and can help your health in the long term. There are so many different veggies in there that surely one or two of them will strike your fancy.
So, if you don’t like broccoli, fear not! You’ll be able to choose from many other tastier options.
What Are the Benefits of Eating Chicken?
There are more benefits to eating chicken than the consequences of eating too much. This includes:
- Chicken is great at making your bones and muscles stronger because of amino acids. The reason our body needs this is that it helps build muscle tissue. Chicken is a great way to ensure that it won’t decline to the point where it will cause us health issues in the future.
- Chicken is a great way to keep your heart healthy. It has a lot of protein in it, and this helps reduce the risk of heart disease.
- We mentioned this briefly, but chicken is a great way to lose weight because it is so low in calories. Of course, if it’s fried, this does take away from its healthiness, so just be aware of how you are cooking your chicken!
- Did you know that chicken has a lot of tryptophan in it? This is an amino acid that helps increase the serotonin levels in your body. Serotonin is the hormone that helps us feel good. This might sound too good to be true, but we promise you it isn’t! Chicken does help increase this hormone found in the brain.
- Chicken has Vitamin B12, Choline, Copper, Iron, and Zinc. These are all things our bodies need to function.
Chicken is versatile and has a lot of benefits some of you wouldn’t even think of. Unlike some other meats out there, chicken doesn’t have many risks. The only way you are going to find risks is if you don’t cook the chicken properly.
It must be cooked at a certain temperature to reduce your risk of getting sick with bacteria like salmonella.
Most of the time, it doesn’t cause serious problems, but when it comes to your health, you don’t want to take any chances!
Final Thoughts
And there you go, all your chicken lovers out there! We discussed the exact portion size you should use for meals that include chicken before going into what can happen if you do eat too much.
Despite this, there are benefits to eating chicken, so consider adding it to your diet a few times a week.
There is too much of a good thing, and this is especially true when it comes to food. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy food. You just have to proceed with caution!
You might also be interested in the following:
- How Much Pork per Person?
- How Much Pork Shoulder per Person?
- How Much Pork Tenderloin per Person?
- How Much Pork Butt per Person?
- How Much Ham per Person?
- How Much Turkey per Person?
- How Much Meat per Person?
I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.