Chick-fil-A Macros Guide | How Healthy is Chick-fil-A?

All menu food images property of Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A is an extremely popular fast-food restaurant, and it’s clear to see why. Chick-fil-A focuses on quality food with simple ingredients, and it’s one of the best choices for healthy eating on the go for fast food.

As the name implies, the entire Chick fil a menu is based around chicken, which is generally a low-calorie and high-protein food.

Sure, the nutrition facts change a bit for fried options, but the chicken options from Chick-fil-A tend to be more appealing than other menu options from other fast-food chains, such as burgers & fries.

Of course, not all chicken is created equally. The grilled nuggets are going to have different macros (also known as nutritional information) than the regular nuggets. But, that’s why this guide exists!

Whether your daily diet has you searching for the lowest calorie option for a low calorie diet, the most grams of protein for a high-protein diet, or the lowest carbs for a keto diet, we’ll help you find the best options.

• Which Chick-fil-A Items Are The Healthiest?
• Chick-fil-A Menu Items with the Most Protein
• Macro-Friendly Chick-fil-A Menu Items Under 400 Calories
• Chick-fil-A Menu Items with the Lowest Fat
• Low-Carb Chick-fil-A Options for Keto Diets
• Chick-fil-A Chicken Macros
• Chick-fil-A Sauce Macros
• Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich Macros
• Chick fil-A Salads & Sides Macros
• Chick-fil-A Breakfast Macros
• Lowest Calorie Breakfast Sandwich: Egg White Grill
• Highest Calorie Breakfast Sandwich: Hash Brown Scramble Burrito
• Chick-fil-A Dessert Macros
• How to Save Calories at Chick-fil-A
• Calorie-saver #1: Remove the cheese
• Calorie-saver #2: Choose the right sauces
• Calorie-saver #3: Ask for no butter
• Calorie-saver #4: Don’t be afraid of substitutions
• Calorie-saver #5: Skip the bread
• Conclusion: Is Chick fil A Healthy?

Which Chick-fil-A Items Are The Healthiest?

Let me preface this by saying that there’s no right or wrong answer to what “healthy” means.

To you, healthy might be lower calorie, and to someone else, it might mean lower-fat or low in carbs. It’s very subjective!

That being said, we can look at the menu and make selections based on our specific goals, so let’s break down the Chick fil A menu to find some of the best options.

Chick-fil-A Menu Items with the Most Protein

If your goal is to eat a high-protein diet, here are some amazing options for you.

Sandwich with the Most Protein: Grilled Chicken Club (520 Calories, 22g Fat, 44g Carbs, 37g Protein)

Chicken Entree with the Most Protein: 30 Chick-fil-A Nuggets (950 Calories, 43g Fat, 41g Carbs, 100g Protein)

Breakfast Item With the Most Protein: Hash Brown Burrito (700 Calories, 40g Fat, 51g Carbs, 34g Protein)

Macro-Friendly Chick-fil-A Menu Items Under 400 Calories

If you want a balanced (AKA macro-friendly) option while keeping it low calorie, here are some options worth considering.

Macro-Friendly Sandwich: Cool Wrap Without Dressing (350 Calories, 13g Fat, 29g Carbs, 42g Protein)

Macro-Friendly Chicken: 12 Grilled Nuggets (200 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 2g Carbs, 38g Protein)

Macro-Friendly Breakfast: Egg White Grill (290 Calories, 7g Fat, 31g Carbs, 27g Protein)

Macro-Friendly Salad: Market Salad (310 Calories, 12g Fat, 25g Carbs, 28g Protein)

Chick-fil-A Menu Items with the Lowest Fat

When you need to eat low-fat for any reason, you may struggle to enjoy most fast food. But with Chick-fil-A, there are a lot of really great options for your low-fat diet.

For this list, we’ll look at all Chick-fil-A items with less than 10 grams of fat.

5 Piece Grilled Nuggets: 80 Calories, 2g Fat, 1g Carbs, 16g Protein

8 Piece Grilled Nuggets: 130 Calories, 3g Fat, 1g Carbs, 25g Protein

12 Piece Grilled Nuggets: 200 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 2g Carbs, 38g Protein

1 Chick-n-Strip: 100 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 5g Carbs, 10g Protein

Chicken Noodle Soup (Cup): 170 Calories, 4g Fat, 25g Carbs, 10g Protein

Chicken Noodle Soup (Bowl): 280 Calories, 6g Fat, 38g Carbs, 17g Protein

Egg White Grill: 290 Calories, 7g Fat, 31g Carbs, 27g Protein

5 Piece Chicken Nuggets: 160 Calories, 7g Fat, 7g Carbs, 17g Protein

Low-Carb Chick-fil-A Options for Keto Diets

If you’re keto or low-carb, chicken is likely a staple of your diet. If you want to keep the carbs to a minimum at Chick-fil-A, here are your best options.

5 Piece Grilled Nuggets: 80 Calories, 2g Fat, 1g Carbs, 16g Protein

8 Piece Grilled Nuggets: 130 Calories, 3g Fat, 1g Carbs, 25g Protein

12 Piece Grilled Nuggets: 200 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 2g Carbs, 38g Protein

5 Piece Chicken Nuggets: 160 Calories, 7g Fat, 7g Carbs, 17g Protein

Kale Crunch: 120 Calories, 9g Fat, 8g Carbs, 3g Protein

1 Chick-n-Strip: 100 Calories, 4.5g Fat, 5g Carbs, 10g Protein

It’s also possible to order any chicken sandwich or breakfast sandwich without a bun or English muffin, so you can easily turn any sandwich into a keto-friendly option!

Chick-fil-A Chicken Macros

When it comes to ordering chicken, you have three different options:

Chick fil A® nuggets (fried), grilled nuggets, or Chick-n-Strips.

If you’re looking to maximize your protein at Chick-fil-A, then the grilled chicken nugget options are the better choices.

If you’re keto, or simply looking to limit your carbs, the Grilled Chicken Nuggets are going to be the healthier choice (you can find more keto-friendly options over at The Diet Chef ).

Grilled Chicken vs. Fried Chicken

8 Piece Grilled Chicken Nuggets: 130 Calories, 3g Fat, 1g Carbs, 25g Protein

8 Piece Fried Chicken Nuggets: 250 Calories, 11g Fat, 11g Carbs, 27g Protein

The grilled chicken nuggets are made from lean white meat chicken breast, making them a low-calorie, high-protein option.

While the Chick fil a® nuggets are made from the same lean chicken, the breading and method of frying add many extra calories in the form of fat and carbohydrates.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if your goal is to keep your calories low, opting for grilled chicken will cut those calories in half.

And don’t worry about saturated fat, if that is a concern for your diet. Even the fried chicken nuggets only have 2.5g total saturated fat (for an 8-piece) so they are both quality options for you.

When it comes to either of these options, you’re likely not eating them plain. I mean, Chick-fil-A is partly known for its delicious dipping sauces…

Chick-fil-A Sauce Macros

Lowest Calorie Sauce: Zesty Buffalo Sauce

25 Calories, 2.5g Fat, 1g Carbs, 0g Protein

Highest Calorie Sauce: Chick-fil-A sauce

140 Calories, 13g Fat, 7g Carbs, 0g Protein

Since the packets of dipping sauces are pretty small, it’s likely that you’re going to want more than one. While that may not be an issue, it’s clear to see that those extra calories can really add up.

If you have 2 sides of Zesty Buffalo Sauce or Honey Mustard, you’ll only be consuming an extra 100 calories or less.

But if you go for the Chick-fil-A sauce or Ranch, you’ll be adding nearly 300 extra calories to your meal, so it’s wise to be mindful of how much sauce you’re using.

Looking at the salad dressing, Chick-fil-A conveniently offers “light” dressing options; at less than 100 calories per packet (and as low as 25 calories for the Light Italian Dressing), the light options will add a ton of flavor to your salads without adding a ton of calories.

Most of the other options are thicker & creamier, leading to a lot more calories.

Luckily, Chick-fil-A salads will be served with the dressing on the side, so you have the luxury of using as much or as little as you’d like.

Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich Macros

While the chicken sandwich menu at Chick-fil-A isn’t huge, the customizations are nearly endless.

All of the sandwiches listed in this graphic are exactly as pictured, but don’t include any sauces. For example, The Deluxe Sandwich includes American cheese and butter on the bun. If you wanted to leave both of those out, you can see from this nutrition guide that you’d be saving 80 calories!

Lowest Calorie Sandwich: The Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap

350 Calories, 13g Fat, 29g Carbs, 42g Protein

The Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap is a great option if you want to keep your calories low while still enjoying something other than nuggets. Be mindful, however, that this wrap is served with Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing, which adds over 300 calories, so use it sparingly.

If a wrap doesn’t cut it and you want an actual sandwich, the grilled chicken sandwich has only 380 calories with 28g of protein, making it a great option.

Highest Calorie Option: Spicy Deluxe Sandwich

550 Calories, 25g Fat, 47g Carbs, 33g Protein

It’s shocking to me that the highest-calorie menu item at Chick-fil-A is only 550 calories. That’s quite different from some of the higher-calorie options you’ll find at Burger King, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and others.

Sure, this Spicy Deluxe Sandwich is technically the highest calorie option, but quite honestly, it’s still a great option regardless of your goals.

Chick fil-A Salads & Sides Macros

For this guide, I chose to display the nutrition for salads topped with grilled chicken. How does the nutrition change for different types of chicken?

Let’s use the Grilled Market Salad as an example to find out how it changes when you swap out the chicken:

• No chicken at all: 440 Calories
• Chick-fil-A filet: 550 Calories
• Chick-n-Strips: 740 Calories
• Grilled Filet (cold or warm): 540 Calories
• Nuggets: 690 Calories
• Grilled Nuggets: 570 Calories
• Spicy Filet (warm or cold): 710 Calories

As you can see, the calories vary quite a bit. The sliced grilled chicken breast will only add 100 calories, whereas something like chicken strips will add 300 calories! Keep that in mind if you’re trying to keep your salad low-calorie.

Remember, the salads listed here do not include the dressing. They do include all the other mix-ins, like a hard-boiled egg in the cobb salad, or the tortilla strips in the spicy southwest salad.

If you want to see how many calories the dressing will add to your salad, be sure to reference the dipping sauce & dressing guide above.

When it comes to sides at Chick fil A, if you do not want a salad, the most popular option is waffle fries. While you surely are not ordering fries for the health benefits, at only about 300 calories for a small side of fries, you could do much worse.

Chick-fil-A Breakfast Macros

Ah, breakfast: the best meal of the day.

Like the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches, Chick fil A breakfast has a ton of room for customization.

Let’s say that you are in the mood for a bacon egg & cheese sandwich. You can see in the nutrition guide above that you have two options: a biscuit and an English muffin.

But the options certainly do not end there. You can order a breakfast sandwich with chicken, swap out the eggs for egg whites, get extra bacon, or swap out the American cheese for a different type of cheese.

If you’re ordering everything as-is, you can see that the most bang for your buck (bucks meaning calories, in this case) is the Egg White Grill.

Lowest Calorie Breakfast Sandwich: Egg White Grill

290 Calories, 7g Fat, 31g Carbs, 27g Protein

If you want to keep the calories low and the protein high, the Egg White Grill is a great option for breakfast. It has grilled chicken, egg whites, and American cheese on an English muffin.

If you want to pair it with a low-calorie side, you can add a fruit cup for an additional 60 calories.

Highest Calorie Breakfast Sandwich: Hash Brown Scramble Burrito

700 Calories, 40g Fat, 51g Carbs, 34g Protein

The breakfast burrito will provide the most calories at 700 in total. This burrito not only contains eggs and Monterey jack cheese, but also contains nuggets and crispy hash browns.

You have the option of ordering this same burrito without hash browns and swapping the nuggets for a grilled filet, which will bring the total calories all the way down to 500.

Chick-fil-A Dessert Macros

No meal is complete without some dessert, right?

Since these menu items are all treats, we won’t spend too much time talking about the nutrition here, but the “Icedream” is worth drawing attention to.

If you’re in the mood for a vanilla ice cream cone, Chick-fil-A actually offers one of the lowest-calorie options out there! The same cone at McDonald’s or Burger King will be 200 calories, so you’ll be getting slightly fewer calories at Chick-fil-A (and more delicious ice cream, in my opinion).

Where Chick-fil-A differs from other fast food restaurants is offering their soft serve ice cream in a cup. If you want to save some calories by skipping the cone (or you’re planning on sharing a pup cup with your dog) then you have the option here.

How to Save Calories at Chick-fil-A

When it comes to eating out at restaurants, not just Chick-fil-A, substitutions are your friend. Depending on the substitutions you make, you can easily save yourself hundreds of calories without sacrificing any flavor at all.

Calorie-saver #1: Remove the cheese

One slice of American cheese adds 50 calories, 5g fat, 1g carb, and 2g protein. Colby Jack and Pepper Jack cheese are slightly higher, adding an extra 20-30 calories on top of that.

If you’re looking to save some calories, going cheeseless can be a great place to start. If you order the Grilled Chicken Bacon Club without cheese, that brings the entire sandwich down to 430 calories! Not bad at all.

Calorie-saver #2: Choose the right sauces

The Chick-fil-A nutrition here does not include sauces on the sandwiches. We all know Chick-fil-A dipping sauce is a must, but be mindful of which you are choosing. While the Zesty Buffalo Sauce is only 25 calories, the famous Chick-fil-A sauce is 140 calories!

If you definitely want to use sauce, just try to limit yourself to one. Sure, you can use more than that, but those calories will add up quickly.

Calorie-saver #3: Ask for no butter

The nutrition for some of these sandwiches does include butter on the bun. While that makes the sandwiches even more delicious, it also adds an extra 30 calories.

Is 30 calories a lot? Nope, certainly not! I would not stress it. But if you do want to save a few calories, ask them to leave that butter off.

Calorie-saver #4: Don’t be afraid of substitutions

I mentioned it many times above, but don’t be afraid to ask for substitutions and make changes to an order.

Chick-fil-A salads include lots of mix-ins, so that is where the calories are coming from. For example, the market salad has a bunch of fruit, blue cheese, and granola included, so it can add up.

Get creative with the salad and leave the granola out, or swap out a different kind of dressing. If you want to up the protein, add some Grilled Chicken Nuggets on top!

When it comes to sandwiches, you can swap out the type of cheese or the type of chicken, or you can change up the bun. There are tons of options, so find what works best for not only your goal but your tastebuds as well.

Calorie-saver #5: Skip the bread

I’m not necessarily advocating for this because personally, I love carbs. If I’m going to order a sandwich, I absolutely want to enjoy a delicious bun, English muffin, or biscuit.

That being said, if you are truly in a tight spot (calorically speaking) or need to eat very low carb, you can ask for any sandwich without a bun.

For example, you can order an Egg White Grill for breakfast without an English Muffin, which would bring the total calories down to 150 and the carbs to just 2 grams.

Conclusion: Is Chick fil A Healthy?

If you’re asking me personally, I’d 100% say yes!

When it comes to fast food, you could do much worse than Chick-fil-a. Sure, all items aren’t going to be ideal for you depending on your goals, but the fact that the highest calorie menu item clocks in at only 550 calories, there are plenty of solid options here to fit your goals.

If you ever want to see how Chick-fil-A stacks up against other fast food options, check out how their fried chicken sandwich compares to others on the market (in the infamous Chicken Sandwich Wars) or how their waffle fries stack up against the competition.

And if you’re ever craving a delicious fried chicken sandwich and don’t feel like going out of your way to visit a Chick-fil-A, I highly recommend you check out my Crispy Chicken Sandwich Recipe.

Trust me: it’s incredible.