Cutting chicken breasts to make several servings
Did you know that, compared to any other meat, chicken breast and turkey breast have the most protein than any other meat? Whelp, they do! Per (the actual) serving size of 100 grams (3.5 ounces), chicken breast has 30.9 grams of protein. Turkey breast slides in as being the second highest meat in protein. In fact, a serving of turkey breast contains 28 grams of protein per 100 grams (3.5 ounces). That averages over half of an adult's recommended daily allowance on a 2,000 calorie diet.
For those of you who need help trying to budget meal plans for a week, allow me to show you how to slice large chicken breasts that can be prepared with two other main courses to make complete meals and stretch your hard-earned dollars.
Because an adult serving size of chicken is actually only 3.5 ounces and younger children's serving size is one, two, and three ounces (depending on their age group); one large chicken breast can actually make several servings. Just add two other main courses to the meals so that you'll get a balanced diet. Examples: potatoes with gravy, green beans, and biscuits or rice with vegetables and a roll served to the side.
A three and four ounce piece of boneless chicken breast is actually about the size of a retro flip phone (or a deck of playing cards). So, use that as an example when you're slicing meat.
Today, I am slicing two full-sized chicken breasts. Both of them together weighed about three pounds. I honestly believe that these chickens were Godzilla birds. Lol.
So, here's the big difference between boneless and bone-in chicken breasts: Three pounds of bone-in, skin-on chicken breast each will actually end up being about eight ounces of meat. Eight ounces is enough to make two, four-ounce adult servings. The packages of chicken breasts that I purchased were full breasts (not split) and they were skinless and boneless. So, I actually ended up with just under three pounds of nothing but lean meat. These two breasts, when sliced, will make about ten to twelve adult servings (depending on if you're going for the three-ounce, or four-ounce portion).
The boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I am slicing are huge. They're at least four times over the recommended serving size for one person. So, this breast can easily feed three to four adults, or make about six to eight servings for kids-size portions. Again, this depends on your children's ages. Kids ages one to six will only need one-ounce of cooked chicken breast, children ages seven to eleven need two to three-ounces of cooked chicken. Teenagers follow into the adult-size portions.
The thing that is so wonderful about preparing chicken breasts over other parts of the chicken is that it hardly shrinks in size when it's cooked. Because it is all really lean meat.
When slicing the chicken breasts, you'll have a few bits of fat that you'll want to trim off of them, but there's generally not that much. In the photo below, you'll see the amount of meat that actually came from cutting just one chicken breast. Two of these large chicken strips will equal one adult serving size.
As a rule of thumb, remember that one pound of boneless chicken meat makes four serving portions. One pound is equal to sixteen-ounces, divide that by four and it equals four-ounce servings. Four times four equals sixteen.
After slicing the second breast, I ended up having twenty strips cut. So, when I divide two into twenty, that equals ten adult serving sizes. I sliced my strips long and fairly thick, but the strips of chicken will shrink a little (not much) once they're cooked. So, you'll have to take that into consideration as well while you're slicing yours.
You can also use the palm of your hand as a guide when you're slicing meat into adult-sized portions. The meat should be cut close to the size of your palm. When cutting chicken, it's a little harder to use it as a guide. Weighing your meat helps to get the right amount precisely.
The USDA recommends 5.5 ounces of protein per day for people on a 2,000 calorie daily consumption. Adding other high protein foods, such as beans, eggs, cheese, and protein fruits, such as avocados, apricots, bananas, blackberries, cantaloupe, kiwis, oranges, peaches, and raspberries
will allow you to get all the protein that you need daily.