Chicken is a healthy choice for most occasions, with white meat lower in fat than the dark meat. You can cook white-meat chicken and serve it as a main course or use leftover chicken in sandwiches, salads and soups. Roasting is one of the healthiest ways to prepare chicken.
Nutritional Overview
A cup serving of roasted white-meat chicken weighs 140 g, or 5 oz. It has 242 calories and is free of carbohydrates. The chicken has 6 g of total fat, including 1.8 g of saturated fat and 119 mg of cholesterol. Saturated fat and cholesterol can increase your risk of heart disease. Healthy adults on a 2,000-calorie diet should keep saturated fat at less than 22 g and cholesterol to no more than 300 mg, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Protein
A cup of roasted white-meat chicken provides 43 g of protein. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines suggest getting 10 to 30 percent of your total calories from protein. So if you're on a 2,000-calorie diet, you should get 50 to 150 g of protein daily. The healthiest choices are low-fat proteins, such as chicken breast.
Minerals
White-meat chicken has 1.5 mg of iron, 38 mg of magnesium and 1.7 mg of zinc per cup serving. This is 9 to 11 percent of the daily value for each of these essential minerals. Iron is necessary for healthy red blood cells, zinc supports a strong immune system, and magnesium is necessary for muscle function. The chicken has 34 mcg selenium, or 49 percent of the daily value for this anti-oxidant. It has 346 mg potassium and 108 mg sodium.
Vitamins
Chicken is a good source of riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6 and pantothenic acid. It provides 0.8 mg of vitamin B-6, or 40 percent of the daily value, 17 mg of niacin, or 85 percent of the daily value, 1.4 mg of pantothenic acid and 0.2 mg of riboflavin, or 10 to 14 percent of the daily value for these vitamins.
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