Half the fat is in the chicken skin...so take it off!
Half of the fat and saturated fat in chicken breast and thigh is in the skin, which is why so many of us enjoy our chicken skinless. I personally find the skin, dare I say it, "yucky" particularly if it's soft and not completely crispy. I actually can't remember the last time I ate the skin on chicken.
Here's the thing though...do you remove the skin before or after you cook it?
If you cook your chicken with the skin on only to take it off at the dinner table, then that's where all the great-tasting marinade, BBQ sauce, or BBQ rubs and seasonings are going to be. Plus it makes sense that some of the fat in the skin is going to melt into the chicken meat as it cooks. So go ahead and take the skin off before you prepare the chicken for grilling. It will grill much the same way as it did before except this time all the seasoning and flavor won't come off with the skin.
- 4 ounces of roasted chicken breast with skin contains 225 calories, 8.8 grams of fat and 2.5 grams of saturated fat
- 4 ounces of roasted chicken breast WITHOUT skin contains 187 calories, 4 grams of fat and 1.2 grams of saturated fat
You save about 40 calories, 4.5 grams of fat and 1.3 grams of saturated fat per chicken breast just by cooking and eating it skinless.
