How many pounds is 5 cups of chicken breast

How many chicken breasts are in a pound? This is a question that will help make shopping, prepping, and budgeting a lot easier! Today, I will show you all the averages you need to know and how you can calculate the exact amount per pound in different scenarios.

If you enjoy educational content like this, make sure to check out the many other articles I have on my site. And if you are looking for some delicious recipes to make with your new-found knowledge, try this Chicken Marsala Recipe and my famous Greek Chicken Souvlaki!

How many pounds is 5 cups of chicken breast

Table of Contents

  • Why Is It Important To Know? 
  • How Much Does 1 Chicken Breast Weigh?
  • How Much Does A Chicken Breast Weigh With The Bone-In?
  • Weight Of Deboned Chicken Breast With The Skin On
  • How Many Chicken Breasts Are In A Pound? 
  • Summary Of How Many Chicken Breasts In 1 Lb
  • FAQs
    • Do cooked chicken breasts weigh less than raw chicken breasts?
    • Are frozen chicken breasts heavier than raw chicken breasts?
    • How many cups are in a pound of chicken?

Why Is It Important To Know? 

Why do you have to know how many chicken breasts are in a pound? 

Well, there are actually a couple of reasons this is beneficial information.

The first is that it allows you to easily use recipes that call for X ounces or pounds of chicken breasts. This just makes shopping much easier because you can count the number of breasts and not worry about their size. You will NEVER get the perfect weight (that the recipe calls for) using a set number of chicken breasts. So averages work just fine too.

The second is that it can help you calculate recipe costs for functions or catering events. Let’s say you work out that you need 20 chicken breasts in total. This enables you to calculate how much that will roughly weigh in pounds, which can then be multiplied by the cost per pound.

There are some other reasons I won’t bore you with. But I’ve found that these are generally what people are trying to figure out.

How many pounds is 5 cups of chicken breast

How Much Does 1 Chicken Breast Weigh?

Now, chicken breast is one of the most common cuts that come from a chicken. It’s part of the white meat on the chicken and is located at the front underneath the neck and above the leg.

Each chicken will give you one chicken breast that consists of two breast halves. These halves are the “small” breasts you buy in-store. Whole chicken breasts are large and plump.

On average, a chicken breast (aka a split chicken breast) will weigh about 6 ounces (170 grams). That translates to 0.375 pounds. This is a breast without skin or a bone inside.

Unfortunately, this number isn’t set in stone. As you can imagine, some will weigh significantly less and others significantly more. 

Smaller split chicken breasts can weigh as little as 4 ounces, while bigger ones can weigh up to 10 ounces!

How many pounds is 5 cups of chicken breast

How Much Does A Chicken Breast Weigh With The Bone-In?

Obviously, when looking at “How many chicken breasts are in a pound?” you have to consider what type of chicken breast you are working with.

You get chicken breasts that are skinless and boneless (the ones we just talked about above).

Then you get chicken breasts that have the skin on and bone in. You also get breasts that have just the skin on or just the bone in. All of these affect the final weight of the chicken breasts.

The bone in a chicken breast weighs about 20% of the total weight. So, on average, your bone-in (skin-off) chicken breast will weigh 7.2 ounces (204 grams). That’s about 0.45 pounds.

Weight Of Deboned Chicken Breast With The Skin On

The skin of a chicken weighs about 1 ounce (28 grams). So, a deboned chicken breast with skin on weighs roughly 7 ounces (198 grams). Again, that’s 0.437 pounds.

Remember, the exact weight can vary depending on the actual size of the chicken breast. This is just an average.

How Many Chicken Breasts Are In A Pound? 

So, let’s get to the main question of this article: how many boneless chicken breasts are in a pound (with their skin removed as well)?

On average, a skinless boneless chicken breast weighs 6 ounces each. This means that in 1 pound (which is 16 ounces), you will have 2.66 chicken breasts.

If you look at the outlying weights, each chicken breast can weigh between 4 to 10 ounces each. 

For smaller (4-ounce) options, you will need 4 chicken breasts for 1 pound. And for larger 10-ounce options, you will need 1.6 chicken breasts per pound.

How Many If They Have Their Bone-In And Skin-On?

A bone-in and skin-on chicken breast weigh about 8.2 ounces. In 1 pound, you will then need 1.95 chicken breasts.

For small chicken breasts with their bone in and skin on, you would need 2.75 breasts for a pound. And for larger breasts that weigh about 13 ounces each, you would only need 1.23 chicken breasts per pound.

How many pounds is 5 cups of chicken breast

Summary Of How Many Chicken Breasts In 1 Lb

This may seem like an overwhelming and confusing amount of information. So let me break it down for you into a much simpler format.

Small-Sized Chicken Breast Per Pound

Boneless, skinless: 4 ounces each = 4 per pound

Bone-in, skinless: 4.8 ounces each = 3.33 per pound

Bone-in, skin-on: 5.8 ounces = 2.76 per pound

Bone-out, skin-on: 5 ounces = 3.2 per pound

Average-Sized Chicken Breast Per Pound

Boneless, skinless: 6 ounces each = 2.66 per pound

Bone-in, skinless: 7.2 ounces each = 2.22 per pound

Bone-in, skin-on: 8.2 ounces = 1.95 per pound

Bone-out, skin-on: 7 ounces = 2.29 per pound

Large-Sized Chicken Breast Per Pound

Boneless, skinless: 10 ounces each = 1.6 per pound

Bone-in, skinless: 12 ounces each = 1.33 per pound

Bone-in, skin-on: 13 ounces = 1.23 per pound

Bone-out, skin-on: 11 ounces = 1.45 per pound

FAQs

Do cooked chicken breasts weigh less than raw chicken breasts?

Cooked chicken breasts lose moisture and thus weight. On average, you can expect a chicken breast to lose about 25% of its original weight. That means a 6-ounce skinless and boneless cooked chicken breast will now weigh 4.5 ounces. This ultimately affects how many chicken breasts are in 1 pound.

Are frozen chicken breasts heavier than raw chicken breasts?

It depends on whether you buy frozen breasts or if you freeze them at home yourself. Companies add a coating over the chicken breasts to help prevent them from sticking to each other. This obviously adds some weight to the overall number of chicken breasts you need per pound.

How many cups are in a pound of chicken?

1 pound of boneless and skinless diced chicken breasts will make about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of chicken. However, there are loads of variable factors. One is how finely you chop the chicken. The finer it is chopped, the fewer cups of chicken you will get. The other, as always, is the exact size of the chicken breasts.

How many cups of chicken breast in a pound?

In general: One pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts equals 3 cups of chicken. That makes around 4 servings, as an average serving is 3/4 cup of chicken per person.

How much is 4 cups of chicken in lbs?

To end up with four cups diced chicken, cook 1 1/3 pounds of raw, skinless boneless chicken.

How many pounds of chicken breasts is 2 cups?

Generally, 3/4 pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts will yield 2 cups of cubed cooked chicken.

How many chicken breasts is 1cup?

It varies per cup size, of course, but this is based on the standard cup size. For a bone-in breast chicken that is cooked and cubed a pound into 2 medium-sized cuts, this should yield a 1 ½ cups. This will give you a . 67 pound for a cup.