Red meat is most famously associated with the carnivore diet, but don’t sleep on poultry. From crispy skin chips to rich bone broths, there are enough ways to cook chicken to keep things interesting. It’s also more budget-friendly than steak.
Whether you’re new to the diet or looking to expand your meal rotation, we’ve collected a few chicken recipes that should point you in the right direction.
Before we hop into the recipes, here are a few tips to increase variety, nutrition, and taste:
- Use pasture-raised chicken for the best nutritional value.
- Keep the skin on for added fat content.
- Salt to taste, but be mindful of overall sodium intake.
- Mix different cuts (thighs, breasts, wings, legs).
- Use different cooking methods (pan-frying, baking, air-frying, etc.).
- Make carnivore-friendly snacks ahead of time (e.g. chicken skin chips).
- Make chicken stock with your leftover bones.
12 convenient carnivore chicken recipes
Here are our favorite carnivore-friendly chicken recipes. While you are limited with a carnivore diet, there are still plenty of ways to mix up your meals.
Depending on how strict you are with carnivore guidelines, you may need to omit some spices and/or other ingredients. Each recipe has simple instructions for a pure carnivore approach.
1. 1-ingredient ground chicken chips
This recipe from Kirbie Cravings uses razor-thin layers of ground chicken to create a tortilla-esque chip. Use sour cream as a dip if you are allowing dairy.
2. Crispy chicken skin strips
For chicken strips that are made from skin and extra crispy, use this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo. This is a great way to use skins from kids who don’t like the skin on their chicken.
3. Chicken and egg scramble
This one is just as easy as it sounds. Pan-fry chopped chicken until golden, then add beaten eggs and cook until just set. The eggs absorb the chicken fat, adding more flavor.
4. Carnivore chicken “alfredo”
Shred cooked chicken into thin strips, then toss with melted butter and cream. The result mimics alfredo while staying carnivore. Top with crispy chicken strips for extra texture.
5. Chicken liver pâté
You need the additional vitamins found in organ meats while on carnivore, and making a pate may be the tastiest way to do that. Primal Sam shows us how to get it done.
6. Carnivore crispy chicken wings with butter
The Primal has a perfectly simple recipe for chicken wings: Just toss wings in butter and roast at a high temp. If you have trouble with the butter burning, use melted ghee instead.
7. Carnivore chicken and butter soup
The Primal also has an easy carnivore chicken soup recipe. There are a few ways you can build flavor more than they suggest, though. Salt your chicken thighs and breasts in advance, sear the chicken skin side down to build additional flavor, deglaze your pan with butter and cream, and then add your broth. Let the chicken finish cooking at a simmer, remove the bones, and enjoy.
8. Carnivore pork rind chicken strips
The core of this recipe is swapping ground pork rinds for flour. After that, it’s a normal chicken fry: coat in pork rinds, toss in beaten egg, coat in pork rinds again. If you want the full experience, fry your chicken in beef tallow. Otherwise, use an oven or air fryer.
9. Brown butter chicken hearts
Browning butter is a great way to get at some nutty flavors that are otherwise off-limits on the carnivore diet. Cook the butter low and slow, and then add your chicken hearts. As discussed by Keto Focus, these get really tough if you overcook them, so make sure you keep a close eye on them.
10. Carnivore chicken casserole
Nothing can go wrong when layering shredded chicken with eggs and cheese. Mix your cheeses, add both dark and light meat in, and top with crispy chicken skin. These casseroles are also perfect for batch cooking and reheating.
11. Carnivore chicken bone broth
Ribeye Rach walks you through a quintessential skill of any carnivore diet aficionado: making your own bone broth. This broth can be used in just about anything, and it is absolutely delicious.
12. Carnivore pan-fried chicken livers
Getting used to eating liver is another essential skill of being on the carnivore diet. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the signature offal flavor of liver and other organs if you want. For example, if you are allowing dairy, soaking liver in buttermilk is a great way to cut some of that flavor. Here’s a recipe from The Primal that shows you how to sauté up some chicken livers.
What ingredients can you use with chicken on carnivore?
That depends on how strict you are. Think of the carnivore diet as pressing the “reset button” on your nutrition. By focusing exclusively on animal products, you’re working with foods that typically cause fewer allergic reactions and contain inflammatories. This makes it easier to establish a clear baseline for how different foods affect your body.
While this might seem restrictive, there’s logic behind the limitation. The carnivore diet serves as the most stringent form of elimination eating, offering a controlled environment where you can truly understand your body’s response to different foods. It’s particularly valuable for those who need to pinpoint exactly what foods might be causing their health issues.
In other words, your options are limited, but for good reasons.
Here’s what you can eat with your chicken:
- Other poultry, like duck, turkey, and game birds.
- Other meats like beef, lamb, pork, bison, venison, and elk.
- Fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, cod, etc.
- Shellfish like shrimp, scallops, and oysters.
- Eggs.
- Dairy, including butter, heavy cream, low-lactose cheese (hard, aged varieties like cheddar or parmesan), raw milk, kefir, and yogurt.
- Animal fats like duck fat, chicken fat (schmaltz), lard, and tallow.
- Organ meats, including chicken liver, heart, and gizzards.
- Collagen and gelatin from bone broth or as powdered supplements.
- Salt.
- Water.
What you can’t eat with your chicken:
- All fruits and vegetables.
- High-lactose dairy products.
- Legumes, nuts, and seeds.
- Any grains or bread products.
- All alcohol.
- All sugars, including honey and maple syrup.
- Any beverages besides water.
- Anything else that isn’t in the list above!
There are also competing opinions on the severity of the restrictions. For example, some people exclude all dairy and spices, while others allow spices and low-lactose dairy.
In our (non-professional!) opinion, since most people arrive at the carnivore diet attempting to solve an inflammatory issue, we would consider limiting dairy as well. This diet is already incredibly restrictive and best executed as a temporary exercise supervised by a nutritionist, and potentially clouding your results for a marginal increase in variety seems counterproductive.
Why sourcing quality chicken is critical for the carnivore diet
The carnivore diet has gained significant traction, particularly among those dealing with autoimmune conditions and food sensitivities. However, the quality of your chicken can affect your results. Even the strictest carnivore protocol can be compromised by consuming chicken raised with antibiotics, hormones, or inflammatory feed practices [*].
The nutritional difference between pasture-raised and conventionally raised chickens is substantial [*]:
- Pasture-raised chicken contains a lower ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3, which is widely recommended by dieticians and nutritionists [*].
- Pasture-raised chicken contains 21% less fat and 30% less saturated fat.
- Pasture-raised chicken contains significantly higher percentages of Vitamin A.
- Pasture-raised chickens are typically free from: growth hormones, routine antibiotics, artificial feed additives, and stress hormones associated with confined feeding operations.
When following a carnivore diet for its anti-inflammatory benefits, choosing conventionally raised chicken could undermine your goals. The very purpose of eliminating plant foods is to reduce inflammation and identify food sensitivities. Using lower-quality meat products introduces variables that can skew your results and potentially maintain inflammatory responses.
The most nutritious chicken in the world
The quality of the poultry you buy has a direct impact on your body. US Wellness Meats partners with select small-scale farmers who raise their chickens on pasture, allowing them to forage naturally for insects and plants while getting plenty of sunshine and fresh air. These birds are raised without antibiotics or hormones, resulting in meat that’s not just more flavorful, but also more nutritious.
Our chickens are raised with regenerative agriculture practices, which means they contribute to improving soil health while producing superior quality meat. The birds are moved to fresh pasture regularly, ensuring they always have access to new forage while helping to fertilize and improve the land.
These are the ideal birds for the carnivore diet, and we offer bulk discounts so you can kick off your carnivore diet the right way.
See how good our pasture-raised chicken really is (delivered to your door).
Nathan Phelps
Nathan Phelps owns and writes for Crafted Copy, a boutique copywriting shop that finds the perfect words for interesting products. He is also an ethical foodie, outdoors-aficionado, and hails from Nashville, TN. He splits his time between helping sustainable businesses find new customers and managing his ever-increasing list of hobbies, which include playing guitar, baking bread, and creating board games.
