Iron in Chicken Liver Compared to Beef Liver

Iron With Chicken Liver vs. Beef Liver

Iron With Chicken Liver vs. Beef Liver
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Updated on August 28, 2025
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Iron is an essential mineral found in all cells of the body and integral to a variety of processes. But iron deficiency is common; research shows that it affects 1 in 4 people in the United States.

Iron deficiency causes weakness and fatigue, among other symptoms. If you’re looking to increase the amount of iron in your diet, chicken and beef liver are good sources to explore. Read on to learn more.

Iron Content of Chicken Liver vs. Beef Liver

There are two forms of dietary iron: heme, which comes from animal sources, and nonheme, which comes from plant sources. Heme iron, the form found in chicken and beef liver, is more easily absorbed by the body, compared with the nonheme form.

Chicken liver is a rich source of iron. Beef liver also provides a good amount of iron, but, generally speaking, it contains about half as much iron in one portion as chicken liver does.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that one 3-ounce (oz) portion of cooked and simmered chicken liver contains 9.86 milligrams (mg) of iron. Braised beef liver, on the other hand, has 6.54 mg of iron in one 4-oz serving, according to the USDA.

Dietary Reference Intakes

For adults between the ages of 19 and 50, the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements recommends 8 mg of iron per day for adult males and 18 mg per day for adult females. The organization also recommends pregnant people get 27 mg daily, and people who are lactating should have between 9 and 10 mg per day, depending on age.

This means that for adults who aren’t pregnant or lactating, one serving of cooked chicken liver could cover anywhere from half to all of a person’s daily iron requirements.

But remember, there is such a thing as too much iron. The tolerable upper limit of intake for iron is 40 mg per day for anyone under the age of 14 and 45 mg for all other age groups. Toxicity can occur with high iron intake.

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Kayli Anderson, RDN

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Member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Kayli Anderson has over a decade of experience in nutrition, culinary education, and lifestyle medicine. She believes that eating well should be simple, pleasurable, and sustainable. Anderson has worked with clients from all walks of life, but she currently specializes in nutrition therapy and lifestyle medicine for women. She’s the founder of PlantBasedMavens.com, a hub for women to get evidence-based, practical, and woman-centered guidance on nutrition and cooking, hormone health, fertility, pregnancy, movement, mental well-being, nontoxic living, and more.

Anderson is board-certified in lifestyle medicine and serves as lead faculty of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s (ACLM) "Food as Medicine" course. She is past chair of the ACLM's registered dietitian member interest group, secretary of the women's health member interest group, and nutrition faculty for many of ACLM's other course offerings. She is the coauthor of the Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and works with many of the leading organizations in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to develop nutrition content, recipes, and educational programs.

Anderson frequently speaks on the topics of women’s health and plant-based nutrition and has coauthored two lifestyle medicine textbooks, including the first one on women’s health, Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan.

She received a master's degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She's a student of herbal medicine and women's integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden.

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Jason Dority

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Jason Dority has been writing health-related articles and developing community resources for healthier lifestyles since 2007. He currently works for the Indiana University School of Medicine's Diabetes Translational Research Center. Dority holds a Master of Science in biology from Indiana University.

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