These small 4 oz chicken breasts are perfect for meal prepping. They are easy to make and come out super juicy and flavorful in the Air Fryer. I've included 4 oz chicken breast nutrition so you can track your macros.
Is there a difference between 4 ounces cooked chicken breast and 4 ounces raw chicken breast?
When I first started tracking my macros I would just type in "chicken breast" and log that into my tracker. This was years ago when I was still working my first job as a dietitian at a hospital.
Never did I stop and think, should I type in "raw chicken breasts" or "cooked chicken breasts" because there is a HUGE difference. Especially if you're tracking your calories and protein intake for weight loss. Or on the opposite side if you're trying to gain weight.
When we cook our food, in this case chicken breasts, we lose water and juices during the cooking process. This makes the calories and protein more concentrated per ounce.
So if you're logging 4oz of RAW chicken breast into your app, when you're actually eating 4oz of COOKED chicken breasts, you're unknowing eating more calories and protein then what you think.
And if you're eating a lot of chicken breasts for the week, say you meal prepped 3 pounds of chicken, you're going to be eating way more calories than you think and this will hinder weight loss.
Chicken Breast Calories
So as mentioned above chicken breast calories vary if you're tracking raw chicken breast calories or cooked chicken breast calories.
Are you tracking grilled chicken breast? Baked Chicken Breast? Boiled chicken breast? Shredded Chicken Breast? Ground Chicken Breast?
Did you put and seasonings on that contain calories? Seasonings that contain fillers or starches, or sweet rubs that contain sugar or brown sugar have calories and will increase the calories in your chicken breast.
Seasonings will actually change the chicken breast nutrition. Especially ones that have high mineral contents like Redmonds Real Salt. Adding a high quality salt is an easy way to beef up the nutritional content of chicken breast.
Omaha Steaks Chicken Breasts
I don't remember the last time I've seen chicken breasts that were this small and in perfect 4oz portions. This Omaha Steaks chicken breast in air fryer recipe is great for someone wanting to calorie or portion control.
One of our friends left these at our house and we used them up right before the expiration date. They were super tasty despite their small size.
How much is 4oz of chicken breast?
In terms of cost, chicken breast is anywhere from $1.99-8.99 per pound depending on the store.
Is it organic? Is it free range or locally sourced? These can increase the price. So 4 ounces of chicken can cost anywhere between $0.50 and $2.25.
What does 4 oz of chicken look like?
4 oz of chicken breasts is about the size of your palm of your hand, of an average person. If you have very large hands, chances are more chicken breast would fit in it.
Why you'll love these Air Fryer 4 oz Chicken Breasts
- Portion Control - these chicken breasts are 4 ounces which are great for meal prep!
- Quick and Easy Recipe - these small chicken breasts are cooked in just 8 minutes!
- Easy Clean Up - using an air fryer to cook these chicken breasts make clean up a breeze!
Ingredients
- boneless skinless chicken breast: small 4 oz chicken breasts (high protein and low fat)
- seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika
Tips & Tricks
Have fun with seasonings! I just sprinkled a bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika on the chicken before putting them into the air fryer.
You can even make each chicken breast with a different flavor profile to switch things up with meal prep.
Tools to make these Air Fried Small Chicken Breasts
I absolutely love my 5.8 Quart Cosori Air Fryer. It has a large square basket which I prefer over round baskets.
You'll also need a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken breasts are at 165F.
How to make 4 oz chicken breasts in an air fryer
- First pat your chicken breasts with a pepper towel.
- Then season your chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika
- Then cook the chicken breasts at 390F for 8 minutes flipping half way through. Chicken breasts are done when they reach an internal temperature of 165F.
Substitutions
If you don't want to use the salt, pepper, garlic and paprika to season your chicken breasts, you can use your favorite chicken seasonings.
What to serve with 4 oz boneless skinless chicken breasts
These chicken breasts go great on top of a salad. I made a simple salad and Balsamic vinaigrette for lunch. With the remaining chicken breasts, I paired them with this Cauliflower Mac and Cheese to keep the recipe low carb.
You can also serve these small chicken breasts with Air Fryer Parmesan Asparagus or Air Fryer Broccolini.
Or if you want a basic meal prep, make this Instant Pot Basmati Rice while you're cooking the chicken breasts in the air fryer.
How to store
Store the chicken breasts in an airtight glass container for up to 5 days.
How to reheat
Remove the lid from the storage container and microwave on high for 1 to 1.5 minutes until the chicken is warm.
4 oz Chicken Breast Nutrition
All of information below is based on boneless skinless chicken breasts nutrition from cronometer. I prefer cronometer to my fitness pal because it uses USDA database for nutrition information.
The chicken breast nutrition is the same wether it's baked chicken breast, grilled chicken breast or broiled chicken breast. Fried chicken breast would be different because of the oil that it has been fried in.
Calories in 4 oz chicken breast
- 4oz chicken breast calories cooked: 169 calories, 34g protein, 0g carbs, 3.6g fat
- 4oz chicken breast calories raw: 136 calories, 25.5g protein, 0g carbs, 3g fat
4 oz chicken breast macros (raw)
- 4 oz chicken breast protein: 25.5g protein
- 4 oz chicken breast carbs: 0g carbs
- 4 oz chicken breast fat: 3g fat
FAQs
4oz of cooked chicken breast has 169 calories whereas 4oz raw chicken breast has 136 calories
It depends on how the chicken was raised. What it was fed? Did it get to free range? Was it pumped full of hormones? When was it slaughtered. So many different factors come to play.
Chicken breasts can be as small as 4 ounces or in upwards to 1 pound plus.
34g of protein if 4 oz cooked and 25.5g protein if 4 oz raw
More Chicken Breast Recipes
You may also like this Air Fryer Chicken and Veggies, Blackstone Chicken Breasts, Air Fryer Chicken Tikka, creamy salsa chicken recipe or this Instant Pot Frozen Shredded Chicken Breasts recipe.
Air fryer 4 oz chicken breast
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts 4 4oz chicken breasts
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- First pat your chicken breasts with a pepper towel.
- Then season your chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika
- Then cook the chicken breasts at 390F for 8 minutes flipping half way through. Chicken breasts are done when they reach an internal temperature of 165F.
Notes
Nutrition
Pin this recipe for later
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Amanda Haley
Used this recipe for my meal prep and it turned out so good. Thank you 🙂
Miles
This recipe looks so good! Would definitely try this!
Lara
I hope you love it!
Genevieve
This was so helpful! Most chicken breasts are so big, but I buy pre-portioned ones. Thank you for the easy instructions!
Lara
Any time!
Dana
This recipe made for easy meal prep for my week. No flavorless chicken here!
Melissa
I made these last night. They came out perfect! The seasoning was AMAZING! Thank you so much for this!
Lara
Hi Melissa,
So glad you enjoyed them!
Mocktail.net
Normally chicken breast is difficult to cook to keep it still juicy. Thanks to this air fryer recipe I cooked the juiciest chicken breast ever and was so flavorful!
Lara
So glad you enjoyed it!
Sandi
This was an awesome recipe. The chicken was perfect in our salads.
Lara
So glad you loved it!
Erin
I needed a quick dinner, and this was perfect! I like how minimal the seasoning was. Perfect for my picky son!
Healing Tomato
Sent this recipe to friends who are chicken lovers. They can't stop raving about how easy and delicious this meal was. Your step by step instructions are well written, especially for those who are not comfortable with cooking. Keep the great recipes coming.
Karen @ Seasonal Cravings
I love how you talk about the different sizes of chicken breasts because I have such trouble with that. We are loving our air fryer right now and my teens enjoy when I make these and they can build burrito bowls whenever they want! Thanks~
Macaria Valerie
This Air Fryer 4 oz Chicken Breast recipe is fantastic! I love how quick and easy it is to achieve perfectly juicy and tender using the air fryer. The seasoning looks simple yet flavorful, making it a great option for meal prep or a healthy, delicious dinner. I can’t wait to try this out—thanks for sharing such a convenient and tasty recipe!