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    Ingredient guide · Ingredient reference

    Zinc in chicken: thigh versus breast at the same cooked weight

    The selected roasted chicken-thigh record contains nearly twice as much zinc per 100 g as breast meat. Neither value applies to every chicken dish or serving size.

    Read the evidence ↓

    Supplement Science Insights Editorial Team

    Published September 23, 2026

    The selected dark- and white-meat comparison

    USDA SR Legacy lists roasted chicken breast, meat only, at 1 mg zinc per 100 g and roasted thigh, meat only, at 1.92 mg. For equal edible cooked weights, thigh provides about 1.9 times the zinc in these reference entries. The skin and bone are excluded. [1]

    What does high mean here?

    A comparative statement such as higher than breast differs from a regulated high-source claim on a food label. This page provides amounts rather than assigning a marketing category. Breaded chicken, skin-on pieces and mixed dishes need their own food descriptions. The values are historical estimates and do not measure zinc absorption in an individual. [1]

    A hypothetical cooked portion

    For 85 g of cooked edible meat, the estimates are 0.85 mg zinc for breast and 1.63 mg for thigh. For a mixed plate containing 42.5 g of each, add half of each 85 g estimate. Comparing the same total mass prevents portion size from being mistaken for a difference in zinc concentration. [1]

    Hypothetical example — apply reference composition to specified hypothetical portions
    Cooked chicken, 85 gZinc estimate
    Breast, meat only0.85 mg
    Thigh, meat only1.63 mg
    Zinc in chicken: thigh versus breast at the same cooked weight — original article outline diagram
    Original editorial diagram of this article’s sections; no product photograph or clinical finding is depicted.

    Sources for this article

    1. USDA FoodData Central — SR Legacy April 2018 composition and portion tables
      Source consulted: 2026-09-20. This is a reference resource, not a claim that we conducted the studies or tested a product.