How Much Protein Is in Chickpea (Chana)?

The short answer

A standard 1-cup (164 g) serving of boiled chickpeas delivers about 15 grams of protein, alongside roughly 269 calories and 12.5 grams of fibre. That’s close to the protein in two large eggs, from a food that’s also a serious source of fibre, folate, iron and complex carbohydrate.

What’s in one cup of boiled chana

Here’s the full picture for the serving most people actually eat — a cup of cooked chickpeas. Notice the protein and fibre arrive together, which is most of why chana is so filling.

Chickpea protein by form, per serving

This is where the question gets interesting. The protein in a chickpea doesn’t change, but the water and air around it do — so a handful of roasted chana and a bowl of hummus land in very different places. These are realistic, everyday servings rather than a flat 100 g, because that’s how you actually eat them.

Why the form changes the number

It comes down to water. Dry chickpeas are roughly 19–20 g protein per 100 g; cooking them triples their weight with absorbed water, so the same protein now sits in 100 g of cooked chana at about 9 g. Nothing was lost — it’s just diluted.

Gram flour (besan) and dry-roasted chana keep the dense, dry-weight number, which is why they read so high on a label. But you eat far less of them at a sitting, so per realistic serving they don’t actually run away with it. Hummus goes the other way: blending chickpeas with water, oil and tahini stretches a little protein across a lot of dip.

Is chana a complete protein?

Not quite on its own — and that’s completely fine. Like most legumes, chickpeas are relatively low in the sulphur amino acid methionine, which makes them “incomplete.” But they’re generous in lysine, the very amino acid that grains run short on. That mismatch is the whole trick to completing them.

Completing chickpea protein

You don’t have to engineer it — these pairings already live in every cuisine. A chickpea food plus a grain, somewhere across the same day, gives you all nine amino acids in good amounts. No combining at the exact same bite required.

Your daily protein target

Before working out how much chana you need, you need a target. The baseline for a healthy adult is about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Active people, those building muscle, and older adults all do better higher up the range.

How much chana hits your target

Chickpeas can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but they’re rarely your only protein. Here’s how to think about chana’s contribution to a day — and where to top it up.

Chickpea vs other pulses

Chana holds its own in the pulse aisle. Here’s the protein in a cooked cup of the usual suspects — soybeans lead the legumes, but chickpeas sit comfortably in the upper middle, and well ahead of most people’s assumptions.

Who should lean on chana

Three high-protein chana recipes

Three ways to put chickpea protein front and centre — one snack, one breakfast, one full plate — each pairing chana with a grain so the amino acids land complete.