Due to the tasty meat, many people enjoy and consume turkey and chicken. Both of them are categorized as poultry. Even though they are different from one another, they share a lot of similarities. Both are delectable and extremely protein-rich. It can be roasted, baked, or grilled. Compared to beef, both have fewer calories and fats. Both of them contain lean beef. You might be asking if there is much difference between turkey meat and chicken meat since they are both poultry products with similar tastes.
The key distinction is the number of calories and fat in white and dark meat. White meat has less fat and calories than dark meat, which may suit your tastes better. However, dark meat turkey is healthier if you attempt to lose weight because it has less fat and calories than dark meat chicken.
What is Chicken?
Humans frequently consume the meat of chickens because it is delicious. The most prevalent and widely-used household birds are these.
People keep chickens for their meat and eggs. They eat everything. They consume both plant and animal debris as food. They dig through the ground to find seeds, insects, and other small animals.
Their lifespan can range from five to ten years, depending on the breed. The remarkable plumage of roosters, which consists of long flowing tails and shining pointed feathers on their necks and backs, distinguishes them from hens.
They cohabitate in broods. To incubate the eggs and raise the young, males and females collaborate.
The eggs must wait 21 days to hatch. The hen can hear the chicks peeping inside their shells before hatching, and she will cluck to encourage them to break the shell.
What is Turkey?
Turkeys come in two different species. The giant turkey is a native of the Americas. The Yucatan Peninsula’s ocellated and wild or domestic turkeys from Eastern and Central North America are included.
The apex of males’ beaks has a fleshy wattle hanging there. The male is bigger and more colorful than the female, being one of the largest birds.
On the farm, they are more hostile to people and animals. Snoods play a role in both intra- and intersexual selection.
In captivity, female turkeys choose to mate with males who have long snoods. The snoods turn redder during the mating season because they contain a lot of blood. It also becomes longer by a few millimeters.
The human race consumes them. Domestic turkeys are favored since they develop into larger birds and acquire a lot of flesh on their bodies. On major occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas, Americans consume turkey.
What is the Difference Between Turkey and Chicken?
Here are the main differences between turkey and chicken:
Classification
The meat of domesticated birds, like chicken and turkey, is known as poultry meat. White meat is meat from poultry, whereas red meat is from animals. Due to a lower concentration of myoglobin and, consequently, a lower concentration of iron attached to it, white flesh is naturally lighter in color.
Appearance
When compared to chicken, a whole turkey appears to be larger and has meat that is a deeper color. Both chicken and turkey tend to have darker leg meat than their lighter breast and wing meat. This is because both of these birds lack wings and walk instead, which causes their leg muscles to develop more.
Taste and Use
Even though these two dishes are typically thought to have comparable flavors, turkey is frequently said to have a stronger flavor. Unexpectedly, one study discovered that turkey meat tastes more like a pig than chicken; both taste fatty, salty, sweet, and umami.
Turkey meat requires more seasoning and a longer cooking time due to its greater size. According to the USDA, all fowl, including turkey and chicken, should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F or 74°C. Throughout the year, chicken is more frequently consumed than turkey, typically reserved for celebratory events like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Nutrition
The nutritional value of these two types of meat might differ depending on several factors, including the cut, the age of the animal, and the cooking technique.
The nutritional information for a full, roasted turkey with meat and skin and a broiler or fryer of roasted chicken with flesh and skin is provided below.
Macronutrients and Calories
While turkey meat has 64% water and 36% nutrients, chicken flesh contains only about 60% water and 40% nutrients.
According to the FDA’s Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed, the average serving sizes for these two varieties of meat per person is as follows: A cup of diced or chopped chicken or turkey weighs 3 ounces, or 85 grams, per cup.
As you can see, the typical serving size of turkey is substantially less than that of chicken, despite being less nutrient-dense.
Calories
Chicken delivers 239 calories in a 100g serving of these items, while turkey meat has 189 calories. The calorie content of various fowl parts varies. The wing meat has the highest calories, followed by the legs. As a result, the breast is the leanest cut of chicken and turkey. The breast and wings of the chicken have more calories. But calorie-wise, turkey legs are calorically dense than chicken legs.
Protein
Turkey has 28.5g of protein per 100g serving, compared to 27.3g for chicken. Both of these meats provide very high-quality proteins that are abundant in all nine essential amino acids. Tryptophan, lysine, and histidine are notably abundant in turkey and chicken.
These foods have more than the recommended daily intake of these amino acids in a 100g serving. Isoleucine and valine concentrations in chicken flesh are noticeably lower than in turkey. Turkey is an excellent protein source compared to the other two varieties of meat.
Fats
Unlike protein, chicken has a far larger fat content when compared to turkey. A 100g dish of chicken contains 13.6g of fat, while a similar serving of turkey meat has 7.39g of fat.
When comparing the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids, chicken meat is marginally richer despite having a substantially larger overall fat content. More than twice as many monounsaturated fatty acids are present in chicken flesh.
Turkey and chicken both have a lot of cholesterol. Turkey meat has less saturated fat than one may anticipate. Chicken has more fat than other meats, but it has less cholesterol. Compared to chicken, which has 88g of cholesterol per 100g serving, turkey has 109g.
Removing the skin from chicken or turkey before eating is crucial to remember that it minimizes the amount of fat consumed. However, the majority of the fat in chicken skin, as the Harvard School of Public Health, is a good kind of unsaturated fat.
Carbohydrates
Turkey and chicken don’t have a lot of carbs like most meats. Turkey has absolutely no carbs compared to chicken’s 0.06g.
Vitamins
Especially the B complex vitamins, meat is a great source of numerous vitamins. The vitamins B3, B5, and B6 are extraordinarily abundant in both turkey and chicken meat. But although chicken flesh is only marginally higher in vitamin B5, turkey is noticeably richer in vitamins B3 and B6.
Nearly 2.5 times as much vitamin B12 is present in Turkey. Additionally, turkey meat has more folate and vitamin B2. Vitamin D is adequately present in turkey but not in chicken.
Turkey meat does not contain vitamin K, in contrast to chicken, which does. Vitamin A and E are almost three times more abundant in chicken meat.
Meat from turkeys and chickens is devoid of vitamins C.Overall when compared to chicken; turkey is more vitamin-rich.
Minerals
All major minerals are present in sufficient amounts in turkey and chicken flesh. Turkey is also more abundant in minerals, with higher choline, magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus, and selenium concentrations. Turkey has a somewhat greater potassium content. Contrarily, chicken has a marginally higher concentration of iron, calcium, and manganese. There is less salt in chicken.
Health Benefits
Here are the health benefits of both turkey and chicken:
- In addition to having less salt, chicken is a good source of protein, phosphorus, vitamin B6, niacin, and selenium. According to a study, niacin can assist in preventing Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive impairment. Niacin and vitamin B6 work together to boost the body’s energy metabolism. Chicken is a good source of selenium, a trace mineral.
- The immune system is strengthened by selenium to combat bacterial and viral infections, cancer cells, and the herpes virus. A healthy heart increases HDL (good cholesterol) ratio to LDL (bad cholesterol). With older people, animal protein aids in bone preservation. The high protein content of chicken helps older people prevent bone loss.
- Turkey is a high source of riboflavin, phosphorus, protein, and selenium and has a low saturated fat content. It also contains plenty of zinc, which strengthens immunity. Strong antioxidant zinc supports healthy endocrine function and hormone level maintenance. Turkey has the same amounts of niacin and vitamin B6 as chicken.
- While studies have shown that consumption of red or processed meat is strongly linked to cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, consumption of poultry is not (15). A daily portion of chicken can replace one of your daily servings of red meat, lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease by 19%.
- The decrease in salt, heme iron, and saturated fat intake may account for these variations between red meat and poultry. Turkey has less heme iron and saturated fat than chicken, but chicken has more polyunsaturated fat and less sodium and cholesterol.
Conclusion
Birds like chicken and turkey are well-known internationally. They are typically kept for their flesh. The difference between the two is that although chickens have a frill on their heads, turkeys have larger bodies. The presence of feathers on the heads and necks of turkeys distinguishes them from chickens as their greatest distinguishing characteristic. The nutritional similarity of chicken and turkey means that your best option will mostly depend on your taste preferences, weight-loss objectives, local availability, and cost.
Both are great options for a wholesome, premium protein supply. We can conclude that both chicken and turkey have a high-quality protein based on the number of calories, fat, and protein present in each form of meat. If you choose the breast meat, you must choose chicken breast; however, if you want the thigh meat, you must choose turkey meat.
