How many calories are in a chicken drumstick without skin?
One medium chicken drumstick with the skin removed weighs about 50 g and carries 85 calories. The meat itself runs 169 calories per 100 g, nearly 56% of that from protein. That is one of the cheapest pieces of meat on the plate, calorie for calorie, and it comes with a bone that slows you down.
You'd need to walk about 17 minutes to burn the 85 calories in one medium drumstick (50 g).
How long does it take to burn off 85 kcal of skinless Drumstick?
One medium drumstick (50 g) is 85 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 85 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 17 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 11 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 12 min |
| Jogging | 10 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 19 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (50 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Skinless drumstick quick facts
- US servings, from one ounce to a cup of diced meat
- Skin on, skin off, and the whole leg
- What one drumstick does to your daily values
- How does a skinless drumstick compare?
- Most popular chicken drumstick without skin brands
- FAQ
Skinless drumstick quick facts
The number below comes from the USDA record for a grilled chicken drumstick, skin not eaten (FNDDS 2706011). That is the exact piece most people are holding when they look this up: the drumstick was cooked with its skin on, the way almost everyone cooks it, and the skin was left on the plate. Records for a whole chicken leg cover a different cut, drumstick plus thigh, and the thigh is the fattier half, so they sit further down this page instead of in the headline.
One more thing worth pinning down before the table: these are cooked weights. Poultry loses roughly a quarter of its weight in the pan or the oven, so 4 oz of raw drumstick meat lands near 3 oz cooked. Weigh the meat after it comes off the heat, or you will log more calories than you ate.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 medium drumstick (50 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 169 | 85 | — |
| Total fat | 7.53 g | 3.8 g | 5% |
| Saturated fat | 1.73 g | 0.9 g | 4% |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0 g | 0 g | — |
| Protein | 23.57 g | 11.8 g | 24% |
| Sodium | 432 mg | 216 mg | 9% |
| Cholesterol | 126 mg | 63 mg | 21% |
| Potassium | 249 mg | 125 mg | 3% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
There is no added sugars row and no trans fat row here, because USDA does not publish either value for this record; unpackaged meat cooked without sauce carries no sugar of any kind, added or otherwise, which the total sugars row already shows at 0 g.
US servings, from one ounce to a cup of diced meat
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz, cooked | 28 g | 48 kcal |
| 1 small drumstick | 40 g | 68 kcal |
| 1 medium drumstick | 50 g | 85 kcal |
| 1 large drumstick | 65 g | 110 kcal |
| 1 cup, cooked, diced | 135 g | 228 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 169 kcal |
The cup of diced meat is a real USDA household measure, and it is the one that catches people out. A cup of pulled drumstick meat is 135 g, more than two and a half medium drumsticks, so a chicken salad built on "a cup of chicken" is a 228-calorie base before anything else goes in the bowl. The ounce line is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA serving, and so is any two- or three-drumstick total further down the page.
Small, medium and large cover a real spread. The gap between a small drumstick and a large one is 42 calories, half a drumstick's worth, which is why "two drumsticks" is a shakier log entry than a number on a scale.
Skin on, skin off, and the whole leg
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical piece | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drumstick, skin not eaten | 169 kcal | 1 medium drumstick (50 g) | 85 kcal |
| Drumstick with the skin eaten | 204 kcal | 1 medium drumstick (60 g) | 122 kcal |
| Two skinless drumsticks | 169 kcal | 100 g, our arithmetic | 169 kcal |
| Skinless drumstick meat, diced | 169 kcal | 1 cup, cooked, diced (135 g) | 228 kcal |
| Whole chicken leg, skin not eaten | 183 kcal | 1 medium leg (120 g) | 220 kcal |
| Whole chicken leg, skin eaten | 228 kcal | 1 medium leg (140 g) | 319 kcal |
| Breaded baked leg, coating eaten | 226 kcal | 1 cup, cooked, diced (135 g) | 305 kcal |
Skin off versus skin on is the whole point of the search, and the saving works twice. The meat itself drops from 204 to 169 calories per 100 g, and the piece gets lighter, because the skin you discarded was part of the 60 g. Net result: 122 calories becomes 85. Do that with four drumsticks at dinner and you have set aside 148 calories without touching the portion.
The whole-leg rows are a different animal. A leg is the drumstick plus the thigh, and thigh meat is fattier, so even skinless it runs 183 calories per 100 g against 169. Eat that leg with the skin and you are at 319 calories for one piece, nearly five times a small skinless drumstick. Breaded and baked, with the coating eaten, a cup of leg meat reaches 305 calories and picks up 3.98 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, the only version on this page that has any carbs at all.
There are no packaged brands to compare here. USDA's Branded database returns no skinless drumstick with a nutrition label, because raw drumsticks are sold by weight at the meat counter; the branded packs that do exist are breaded or marinated products, which is a different food with different numbers.
What one drumstick does to your daily values
Protein is the reason to eat this cut. One medium drumstick covers 24% of the Daily Value with 11.8 g, for 85 calories and zero carbohydrate. Run the arithmetic on the 100 g row and about 56% of the calories in skinless drumstick meat come from protein, which is a ratio you normally only see in white meat and fish. MyPlate counts a 1 oz-equivalent of poultry toward the protein group, so a medium drumstick is close to two of them.
Fat is a quiet row: 3.8 g total and 0.9 g saturated, which is 5% and 4% of the FDA Daily Values. Neither number doubles with the skin on: 7.53 g of fat per 100 g against 11.85 g is about 36% less fat sitting on the same protein.
Two rows deserve a second look. Cholesterol is 63 mg per drumstick, 21% of the Daily Value, and it does not leave with the skin, because it lives in the muscle. And sodium reads 216 mg, 9% of the Daily Value, roughly a tenth of a teaspoon of table salt. That is seasoning, not chicken; the USDA record describes a drumstick grilled the way people actually grill it. Cook it unsalted and the number falls, brine it and it climbs well past this. The Dietary Guidelines put the ceiling at 2,300 mg a day, so if you are watching sodium, the seasoning is the lever here, not the cut.
How does a skinless drumstick compare?
All four rows use the same USDA household measure, one cup of cooked diced meat, so the comparison is apples to apples.
| Cut | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken drumstick, skin not eaten | 169 kcal | 1 cup, cooked, diced (135 g) | 228 kcal |
| Chicken leg, sauteed, skin eaten | 228 kcal | 1 cup, cooked, diced (135 g) | 308 kcal |
| Chicken thigh, baked, skin eaten | 231 kcal | 1 cup, cooked, diced (135 g) | 312 kcal |
| Chicken leg, baked, coating eaten | 226 kcal | 1 cup, cooked, diced (135 g) | 305 kcal |
Our take: the skinless drumstick is the lightest of the four by a wide margin, 228 calories a cup against 305 to 312 for the other three, and its protein is within half a gram of the baked thigh's. For weight loss, this is the dark-meat cut to keep in rotation, because you get thigh-level protein for about 27% fewer calories per 100 g. For staying full on a long afternoon, the skin-on leg earns its 319 calories with fat that holds; just log it as what it is. The breaded version is the one to think twice about, since the coating adds calories and carbs while the protein per 100 g drops to 20.99 g.
Most popular chicken drumstick without skin brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Tyson Chicken Drumsticks | 134 cal |
| Food Lion Bone-In Fresh Chicken Drumsticks | 136 cal |
| Perdue Chicken Drumsticks | 161 cal |
| Great Value Chicken Drumsticks | 134 cal |
| Just Bare Chicken Drumsticks | 134 cal |
| Gold'n Plump Chicken Drumsticks | 143 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Chicken drumstick FAQs
How many calories are in a chicken drumstick without skin?
A medium grilled drumstick with the skin left on the plate is 85 calories at 50 g of meat. A small 40 g one is 68 calories and a large 65 g one is 110. The USDA figure behind all three is 169 calories per 100 g of cooked meat.
How much protein is in a skinless chicken drumstick?
One medium skinless drumstick gives 11.8 g of protein, 24% of the Daily Value, for 85 calories. Per 100 g the meat carries 23.57 g. Because there is no carbohydrate at all, roughly 56% of the calories in skinless drumstick meat come from protein and the rest from fat.
How many calories in 2 chicken drumsticks without skin?
Two medium skinless drumsticks weigh about 100 g of meat and come to 169 calories with 23.6 g of protein. That is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not a USDA serving. Three of them, around 150 g, land at 254 calories.
Does removing the skin from a drumstick save calories?
Yes, and by more than most people expect: 37 calories per drumstick. USDA lists the same grilled drumstick at 122 calories when the skin is eaten and 85 when it is not, because the skin is both extra weight and the fattiest part of the piece.
How many calories in a grilled chicken drumstick with skin?
A medium grilled drumstick eaten with the skin is 122 calories at 60 g, or 204 calories per 100 g. Fat jumps from 7.53 g to 11.85 g per 100 g while protein barely moves, so the skin adds calories without adding much of what you are after.
How much does one chicken drumstick weigh without skin?
Count on about 50 g of meat from a medium drumstick once the skin is off, with small ones near 40 g and large ones near 65 g. Those are meat weights, not the weight of the raw piece with bone and skin still attached, so weigh what you actually eat.
Is a skinless drumstick healthier than a chicken thigh?
Per 100 g, skinless drumstick meat is 169 calories against 231 for a baked chicken thigh with the skin eaten, with 7.53 g of fat against 14.62 g. Protein is close, 23.57 g against 23.12 g, so the drumstick delivers the same protein for about 27% fewer calories.
How much sodium is in a chicken drumstick?
One medium skinless drumstick carries 216 mg of sodium, 9% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, and 432 mg per 100 g. That is not the meat itself but the seasoning USDA assumes on a grilled drumstick; salting it yourself at the table changes the number in either direction.
Similar foods
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- Cider — 202 cal per can or bottle (12 fl oz)
- Beer — 155 cal for 12 fl oz can
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the plate and BodyPal counts the drumsticks for you, skin on or skin off.
