How many calories are in chicken liver?
A 3 oz (85 g) serving of pan-fried chicken liver is 146 calories. Per 100 g cooked liver runs 172 calories, and a single whole liver, about 44 g, is 76. What makes the number interesting is the protein sitting inside it: 21.9 g in that same 3 oz plate.
You'd need to walk about 29 minutes to burn the 146 calories in a 3 oz (85 g) cooked serving.
How long does it take to burn off chicken liver?
A 3 oz (85 g) cooked serving is 146 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 146 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 29 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 18 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 21 min |
| Jogging | 17 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 32 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 (85 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Chicken liver quick facts
- US servings from one liver to a six-ounce plate
- Four USDA records for one food
- Cholesterol is the row to watch
- How does chicken liver compare?
- Most popular chicken liver brands
- FAQ
Chicken liver quick facts
The number people usually want is for livers that have already been through a pan, because that is how chicken liver reaches an American plate: sauteed in butter with onions, sometimes with a splash of sherry, sometimes crumbled over a salad. So the main record here is SR Legacy 174491, "Chicken, liver, all classes, cooked, pan-fried". Raw and simmered livers have their own records and their own numbers, and both sit in the variants table below.
The 3 oz (85 g) serving is the standard US cooked-meat portion — the deck-of-cards piece a restaurant plates and a recipe assumes. Everything in the right-hand column is that record scaled to 85 g.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 3 oz (85 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 172 | 146 | — |
| Total fat | 6.43 g | 5.5 g | 7% |
| Saturated fat | 2.03 g | 1.7 g | 9% |
| Carbohydrate | 1.11 g | 0.9 g | 0% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0 g | 0 g | — |
| Protein | 25.78 g | 21.9 g | 44% |
| Sodium | 92 mg | 78 mg | 3% |
| Cholesterol | 564 mg | 479 mg | 160% |
| Potassium | 315 mg | 268 mg | 6% |
% 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 because the SR Legacy edition does not publish that value for this record, and plain liver has no added sugar to publish in any case. Sodium is genuinely low: 78 mg in the serving, roughly a thirtieth of a teaspoon of table salt, before anything you cook it in. The salt and butter in your pan are yours to add and yours to count. Daily Values used across the page are the FDA figures on the Nutrition Facts label.
US servings from one liver to a six-ounce plate
Chicken livers are awkward to log because they come in pieces, not slices. A whole cooked liver averages about 44 g, so counting them is usually faster than reaching for a scale.
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g | 49 kcal |
| One whole cooked liver | 44 g | 76 kcal |
| Two livers | 88 g | 151 kcal |
| 3 oz cooked, standard serving | 85 g | 146 kcal |
| 6 oz cooked, dinner plate | 170 g | 292 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 172 kcal |
The 3 oz cooked portion is the USDA household measure. The one-liver, two-liver, 6 oz and 1 oz lines are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings.
One thing worth knowing before you weigh: a single liver at 76 calories is a little over half the 3 oz serving, not a third of it. Two livers land at 151 calories, just past the standard portion. Restaurants tend to plate five or six, which is past the 6 oz line of 292 calories rather than anything you would call a small dish.
Four USDA records for one food
USDA carries four SR Legacy records for chicken liver, and they disagree by more than you would guess. The gap between them is almost entirely water.
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical piece | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw chicken liver | 119 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 134 kcal |
| Simmered chicken liver | 167 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 142 kcal |
| Pan-fried chicken liver | 172 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 146 kcal |
| One whole cooked liver | 172 kcal | 1 liver (44 g) | 76 kcal |
| Canned chicken liver pate | 201 kcal | 1 oz (28 g) | 57 kcal |
| Broiled chicken liver, branded | 190 kcal | 3 oz (84 g) | 160 kcal |
Raw to pan-fried is 119 to 172 per 100 g, a 45% jump, and the fat barely participates: 4.83 g raw against 6.43 g cooked. Water leaves, protein and fat stay, and the same food gets denser. Simmering pushes out slightly less water than a hot pan does, which is why the boiled record lands at 167 rather than 172.
Pate is a different animal. At 201 calories per 100 g it is the highest of the four records, but the calories are not the reason to watch it — sodium is. Canned chicken liver pate carries 386 mg per 100 g against 92 mg for plain cooked liver, more than four times as much, because fat and salt are what turn liver into a spread.
Supermarket packages are almost always raw, and their labels reflect that. Heritage Farm and Sanderson Farms livers are listed at 116 calories per 100 g, Tyson's at 97 to 101, all within range of the USDA raw record. One broiled branded product, Shor Habor, sits at 190 per 100 g, and a chicken liver pate from Schaller & Weber reaches 232 — the same pattern as the USDA rows, with cooking and added fat doing the work.
Cholesterol is the row to watch
Nothing else on this page comes near a Daily Value limit. A 3 oz serving is 3% of the sodium DV, 9% of saturated fat and 7% of total fat. Cholesterol is 479 mg, which is 160% of the 300 mg Daily Value — more than a full day in a plate that costs 146 calories.
That is the trade the food makes. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans advise keeping dietary cholesterol as low as possible while still eating a nutritionally adequate pattern, and no other common poultry cut gets close to liver on that row. If you have been told to watch cholesterol, this is the one item here worth portioning deliberately; if you have not, the size of the number is still a reason to treat liver as an occasional plate rather than a default protein.
The flip side is the protein column. 21.9 g in 3 oz is 44% of the 50 g Daily Value, delivered in fewer calories than most sandwiches, and MyPlate counts organ meats in the protein foods group alongside poultry and seafood.
How does chicken liver compare?
The honest comparison is raw against raw, because the three nearest poultry records are all uncooked cuts weighed at 4 oz.
| Food | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken liver, pan-fried | 172 kcal | 3 oz cooked, 85 g | 146 kcal |
| Chicken liver, raw | 119 kcal | 4 oz raw, 113 g | 134 kcal |
| Chicken breast, skinless, raw | 120 kcal | 4 oz raw, 113 g | 136 kcal |
| Chicken, meat only, raw | 119 kcal | 4 oz raw, 113 g | 134 kcal |
| Turkey drumstick, meat only, raw | 118 kcal | 4 oz raw, 113 g | 133 kcal |
Our take: raw for raw, chicken liver is indistinguishable from skinless chicken breast — 119 against 120 calories per 100 g, a difference no kitchen scale should care about. The reputation liver has for being rich comes from the pan, not the ingredient. Cooked, the 3 oz liver serving is the biggest number in this table at 146 calories, but only because the other three rows are still raw and still full of water. If you want the leanest plate, weigh liver raw and cook it dry; if you want the most protein per calorie, plain breast still edges it. If you want the most nutrition-dense 150 calories on the poultry counter, liver wins and the cholesterol row is the price.
Most popular chicken liver 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) |
|---|---|
| Heritage Farm Chicken Livers | 116 cal |
| Tyson IF Unbreaded Chicken Livers | 101 cal |
| Tyson All Natural Chicken Livers | 97 cal |
| Sanderson Farms Fresh Chicken Livers | 116 cal |
| Shor Habor Broiled Chicken Liver | 190 cal |
| Schaller & Weber Chicken Liver Pate | 232 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Chicken liver FAQs
How many calories are in 3 oz of chicken liver?
A 3 oz (85 g) cooked serving carries 146 calories, since pan-fried chicken liver runs 172 calories per 100 g. That same plate gives you 21.9 g of protein, 5.5 g of fat and under a gram of carbohydrate, which makes it one of the leanest protein servings on a meat counter.
How many calories are in one chicken liver?
One whole cooked liver weighs about 44 g and holds 76 calories, a little over half of a 3 oz serving. Two of them come to 88 g and 151 calories by our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure. Most restaurant portions run five or six livers.
Is chicken liver high in protein?
Yes: 25.78 g per 100 g cooked, and 21.9 g in a 3 oz serving, which is 44% of the FDA Daily Value of 50 g. That protein arrives inside 146 calories, so the whole serving costs less than many light snacks while covering nearly half the day's protein target.
How much cholesterol is in chicken liver?
A 3 oz serving has 479 mg of cholesterol, 160% of the 300 mg Daily Value, and 100 g has 564 mg. No other number on this page is close to its limit. If your doctor has told you to watch cholesterol, liver is the one food here to portion carefully.
Raw vs cooked chicken liver calories - what changes?
Raw chicken liver is 119 calories per 100 g and pan-fried is 172, a 45% jump. Almost all of it is water leaving the pan: fat moves only from 4.83 g to 6.43 g. Weigh the livers raw and use the raw record; weigh them after the pan and use the cooked one.
Are fried chicken livers fattening?
Pan-fried chicken liver is 172 calories per 100 g with 6.43 g of fat, so the liver itself is not the problem. Breading and deep frying are, because batter adds flour and oil that USDA counts under different records. A 3 oz pan-fried serving lands at 146 calories with no coating at all.
How many calories in chicken liver pate?
Canned chicken liver pate is 201 calories per 100 g, so a 1 oz spread is about 57 calories by our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure. The catch is sodium: 386 mg per 100 g against 92 mg for plain cooked liver, more than four times as much.
Is chicken liver good for weight loss?
At 146 calories for 21.9 g of protein, a 3 oz serving is one of the cheapest protein plates you can log, and it is 44% of the Daily Value. Cholesterol at 160% DV is the reason many people treat liver as a weekly plate rather than a daily one.
Similar foods
- Spaghetti And Meatballs — 961 cal per plate
- BBQ Chicken — 149 cal per 3 oz
- Onigiri — 180 cal per onigiri
- Steelhead trout — 143 cal for 3 oz cooked
- Roast Beef — 142 cal per 3 oz
- Stuffed pepper — 265 cal for 1/2 pepper with filling
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the pan and BodyPal counts the livers for you, sauce and all.
