Chicken Breast vs Salmon

Chicken breast has more protein than salmon: 22.5g against 20.4g per 100g raw. The 2.1g gap is about 10%, a lot smaller than the question usually implies. Where these two genuinely part ways is fat — salmon carries 13.4g per 100g against chicken breast's 1.93g, close to seven times as much. That is the number to weigh if you are choosing between them.

The result that catches people out is cholesterol, because it runs backwards from the fat. The fatty fish holds less of it: 55mg per 100g in salmon against 72.7mg in chicken breast, about a third more in the chicken. Saturated fat goes the expected way, 3.05g in salmon to chicken breast's 0.35g, which leaves roughly 10g of salmon's fat outside the saturated column. The figures here cover total and saturated fat only, so that is as far as this page will take the breakdown.

Which one is “healthier” depends on what your week is short of, and neither wins it outright. If you are chasing a protein target while keeping fat down — the usual shape of a weight-loss week — chicken breast is the straightforward pick, and it is the leaner block of protein by a wide margin. Salmon gives up that leanness for a much higher fat figure, and the protein you get back for it is 2.1g lower per 100g, not higher — which is the trade, stated plainly. Two things worth knowing before you use these numbers: both rows are raw, so cooking concentrates them, and the salmon here is farmed Atlantic — wild salmon is a different fish nutritionally.