Chick Fil A Diet Lemonade Recipe

Chick-fil-A is a popular fast food restaurant in the United States known for its chicken sandwiches. Aside from chicken sandwiches, you'll also find a selection of breakfast items, salads, sides, and desserts at Chick-fil-A, as well as an array of dipping sauces. In addition to its regular menu offerings, the chain also has a few smaller portions on its kids' menu, and you can create your own meal for $10 or less at this popular chain.

Many of the most popular items at Chick-fil-A, such as breaded chicken sandwiches, Waffle Fries, and potato chips, are high in calories, fat, carbohydrate, and sodium.

The chain also offers several grilled chicken options, which are lower in calories and fat. Chick-fil-A makes information about the nutrition content of its menu readily available on its website. You can use the handy chart to estimate the calorie, fat, and sodium content of your meal. If you have special dietary considerations, the chain also offers information about the ingredients it uses as well as a list of food allergens that may be present on its menu.

What Experts Say

"Chick-fil-A offers salads but doesn't otherwise include many veggies with menu options. Many of the menu options are lower in fiber and veggies and higher in sodium. If eating here on a regular basis, choose meals that include veggies and higher fiber foods (like whole grains and beans) and are lower in sodium to help maintain overall nutritional balance."

— Willow Jarosh, MS, RD

Navigating the Menu

What to Order & Avoid at Chick-fil-A
Most Nutritious Options	Least Nutritious Options
Egg-White Grill (Breakfast)	Hash Brown Scramble Burrito With Nuggets (Breakfast)
Grilled Chicken Sandwich (Entrées)	Spicy Deluxe Sandwich with Colby Jack (Entrées)
Market Salad (Salads)	Spicy Southwest Salad with Chick-n-Strips (Salads)
Kale Crunch Side (Sides)	Waffle Potato Fries (Sides)
Grilled Nuggets Kid's Meal (Kid's Menu)	Chick-n-Strips Kid's Meal (Kid's Menu)
Icedream Cup (Treats)	Cookies & Cream Milkshake (Treats)
Unsweetened Iced Tea (Drinks)	Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade (Drinks)
Barbeque Sauce (Dipping Sauces)	Garden Herb Ranch Sauce (Dipping Sauces)

Most Nutritious Option

For the most nutritious option at Chick-fil-A, order the franchise's popular grilled chicken sandwich, which delivers 28g protein for only 320 calories and 680mg sodium.

Breakfast

Chick-fil-A offers a number of breakfast items, though many of them are made with fried chicken, cheese, and carb-heavy biscuits and bagels. Some of the lighter choices on the breakfast menu, such as Greek yogurt parfaits, can be made into healthier options with a few simple swaps.

✓ Egg White Grill

Chick-fil-A's most nutritious breakfast option is the egg white grill sandwich. With a piece of grilled chicken, egg whites, and American cheese, all served on a multigrain English muffin, this filling breakfast selection is a great choice. It also comes in with 290 calories, 8g fat, 3.5g saturated fat, 30g carbohydrate, 26g protein, and 980mg sodium.

✗ Hash Brown Scramble Burrito With Nuggets

While the egg white grill sandwich provides a healthy amount of protein with relatively low calories, the hash brown scramble burrito with nuggets comes loaded with calories and sodium.

With Chick-fil-A's signature nuggets, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and cheese all rolled in a flour tortilla, this breakfast option includes 700 calories, 40g fat, 12g saturated fat, 51g carbohydrates, 34g protein, and 1,750mg sodium.

Chicken can be an excellent lean source of protein at any meal. However, when it's fried, the nutritional benefits can be overshadowed by added calories and fat. Grilled chicken is a healthier choice, so consider ordering the scramble burrito with a grilled fillet.

When it comes to sandwich making (whether breakfast or lunch) your choice of bread can make a big difference to a meal's calories and carb count. Instead of high-carb choices like biscuits and bagels, try making a breakfast sandwich at Chick-fil-A on an English muffin. With only 150 calories, it can be a sensible and satisfying vehicle for protein-packed eggs.

Entrées

Chick-fil-A is known for its chicken sandwiches. While most of them are breaded and fried, the menu also offers several grilled options. These choices are lower in fat and have fewer calories than the classic crispy chicken selections. They're also lower in sodium, which can be helpful if you're trying to reduce your salt intake.

✓ Grilled Chicken Sandwich

The grilled chicken sandwich delivers 320 calories, 6g fat, 1g saturated fat, 41g carbohydrates, 28g protein, 680mg sodium, making it the most nutritious entree option at Chick-fil-A. With a marinated boneless chicken breast, lettuce, and tomato, and served on a multigrain bun, the sandwich is also the franchise's most nutritious menu option overall.

✗ Spicy Deluxe Sandwich with Colby Jack

The spicy deluxe sandwich with Colby jack cheese, meanwhile, delivers 550 calories, 25g fat, 8g saturated fat, 47g carbohydrate, 34g protein, and 1,820mg sodium.

To lower the carb count, reach for a chicken wrap instead of a sandwich on a bun. Carefully considering which kind of cheese you get on your sandwich can make your choice lower in fat. The easiest way is to skip the cheese altogether.

Salads

The salad options at Chick-fil-A come in standard fast food style. While salads can be a healthy meal, larger portions topped with fried chicken, crunchy extras like croutons, and doused in salad dressing can make these options high in calories and fat.

✓ Market Salad

The market salad at Chick-fil-A has mixed greens, blue cheese, apples, strawberries, blueberries, and is topped with grilled chicken breast. Without any dressing, the salad provides 540 calories, 31g fat, 6g saturated fat, 41g carbohydrates, 28g protein, and 1,020mg sodium.

The smaller side salad (available on the sides menu) has 160 calories, 10g fat, 3g saturated fat, 13g carbohydrate, 6g protein, and 170mg sodium.

✗ Spicy Southwest Salad with Chick-n-Strips

The spicy Southwest salad with chick-n-strips comes loaded with tomatoes, cheese, corn, black beans, chiles, bell peppers, all on a bed of mixed greens and topped with tortilla strips, pepitas, and chick-n-strips. It also has 890 calories, 61g fat, 12g saturated fat, 44g carbohydrate, 43g protein, and 1,710mg sodium.

To make a salad more nutritious, go for grilled chicken and skip any high-fat or high-calorie extras. If you don't want to completely skip salad dressing, avoid creamy options, which tend to be high in calories and fat.

Salad dressing is easy to overdo; start out by adding just a little and evenly coating the greens of your salad. Before you reach for more, check the serving size to ensure you know how many calories the dressing will add to your salad. If you're trying to watch your sugar intake, remember that condiments like salad dressing can be a source of added or hidden sugar in your diet. Chick-fil-A's Fat-Free Honey Mustard dressing has 19g of sugar per serving and the Zesty Apple Cider Vinaigrette has 14g, as well as 230 calories.

A single serving of Light Italian Dressing adds just 25 calories and 1g fat to your salad, while a serving of Chick-fil-A's Creamy Salsa Dressing adds 290 calories and 31g fat.

Toppings like black beans and corn, crunchy tortilla strips, and pepitas can easily add 100 calories each to a salad (but beans also add fiber, and beans and pepitas contribute protein). Extras like bacon bits, which may add some protein, also tend to be high in sodium. Other than grilled chicken, adding a chopped egg is another good source of protein.

If you're building a salad at Chick-fil-A, load up on produce options, which includes crisp veggies, fiber-filled fruit like apples, and even antioxidant-rich blueberries.

Sides

Chick-fil-A's menu of sides complements the main menu in taste but can add a lot of unnecessary calories, fat, and sodium to your order. However, there are a few healthier options you can choose from to round out your meal.

✓ Kale Crunch Side

The kale crunch side — a bowl of nutritious kale and cabbage with a vinaigrette made from apple cider and Dijon mustard — is Chick-fil-A's most nutritious side available. Add it to your order for only 120 calories, 9g fat, 1g saturated fat, 8g carbohydrate, 3g protein, and 140mg sodium.

While a bowl of chicken noodle soup has fewer calories than the kale crunch side, it's much higher in sodium and doesn't have the nutritional benefits of the blend of kale, cabbage, apple cider vinegar, and almonds.

✗ Waffle Potato Fries

A large serving of the restaurant's signature waffle potato fries contains 600 calories, 35g fat, 5g fat, 65g carbohydrates, 7g protein, and 340mg sodium.

If you're looking for alternate flavors, you can also get fruit from the breakfast menu as a side. Choosing a parfait without cookie crumble and granola or a simple fruit cup will boost your fruit and vegetable intake for the day without adding the fat, calories, and sodium of starchy fries.

Kid's Meals

While Chick-fil-A's kid's meals menu only contains three options, the dishes do offer small portion sizes of the franchise's most popular dishes. From nuggets to chick-n-strips, you can choose a smaller meal in your order.

✓ Grilled Nuggets Kid's Meal

The grilled nuggets kid's meal includes five nuggets and a choice of side and a kid's drink (plus a prize). The 5-nugget meal (without sides) comes to 80 calories, 2g fat, 0g saturated fat, 1g carbohydrates, 16g protein, and 270mg sodium.

✗ Chick-n-Strips Kid's Meal

The chick-n-strips kid's meal, meanwhile, includes two pieces of breaded and fried chicken strips and comes to 200 calories, 9g fat, 2g saturated fat, 11g carbohydrates, 19g protein, and 580mg sodium. To make the kid's meal as nutritious as possible, choose a side of fruit cup (as opposed to the apple sauce, mac & cheese, or waffle potato fries), and a low-calorie and low-sugar drink.

Treats

Chick-fil-A's dessert menu features some fast-food favorites like cookies, milkshakes, and ice cream. You can avoid added calories, fat, and sugar by skipping dessert completely, but sweet treats can also be enjoyed in moderation.

✓ Icedream Cup

Chick-fil-A offers a simple vanilla ice cream — called the Icedream Cup — that's both tasty and sweet. Order it for only 140 calories, 3.5g fat, 2.5g saturated fat, 24g carbohydrates, 4g protein, and 70mg sodium. For an additional 40 calories, 8g carbohydrates, and 20mg sodium, you can get this ice cream served in a cone instead.

✗ Cookies & Cream Milkshake

Meanwhile, a cookies & cream milkshake provides 630 calories, 25g fat, 15g saturated fat, 90g carbohydrate, 13g protein, 410mg sodium, and 84g sugar. A single chocolate chip cookie might seem like a more sensible treat, but the chocolate chunk cookie on Chick-fil-A's dessert menu has 370 calories, 49g carbs, and 26g sugar.

While blended coffee drinks can be some of the highest-calorie fast food choices, a small frosted coffee (blended with vanilla ice cream) at Chick-fil-A has fewer calories and less sugar than one cookie: 250 calories, 43g carbs, and 39g sugar.

You can also create a slightly sweet, and healthier, treat from the sides menu: the Greek yogurt parfait with chocolate cookie crumbs has 240 calories, 8g fat, and 26g sugar.

Drinks

Water is always the healthiest choice to accompany your meal, but depending on your specific tastes and dietary needs, you may consider other options. Like most fast food restaurants, Chick-fil-A offers a variety of fountain sodas, bottled drinks, lemonade, iced tea, and coffee.

✓ Unsweetened Iced Tea (Small)

For 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g carbohydrate, 0g sugar, 0g protein, and 5mg sodium, order the small unsweetened iced tea. This no-calorie and low-sodium drink is a healthy alternative to other fizzy and sugary drinks.

✗ Lemonade (Large)

A large signature Chick-fil-A lemonade has 300 calories, 0g fat, 78g carbohydrate, 74g sugar, 0g protein, and 15mg sodium. A small-sized diet version of Chick-fil-A's classic lemonade has 30 calories and 6g sugar but is sweetened with Splenda. If you're trying to avoid no-calorie sweeteners, it may not be the right choice for you.

If you're looking for other non-water options, you may want to look beyond the regular beverage menu. While milk and juice can add calories and sugar to your meal, you can often find smaller, pre-portioned sizes of these drinks on the kids' menu.

Unless you're ordering for a group, avoid gallon-sized beverages. The gallon jug of Chick-fil-A's regular lemonade contains over a day's worth of calories (2090) and 517g sugar. Pouring from a large bottle makes figuring out individual serving sizes more difficult, and it can be easy to lose track.

Dipping Sauces

Sauces add calories and can be high in sodium and sugar. Your best bet is to skip any extras for dipping, but if you do choose a sauce carefully review the nutrition content first and keep track of the serving size.

✓ Barbeque Sauce

If you're craving a tangy dipping sauce, order the barbeque sauce, which will add a peppery kick to your chicken dish. Enjoy it for 45 calories, 0g fat, 0g saturated fat, 11g carbohydrates, 0g protein, 9g sugar, and 200mg sodium.

✗ Garden Herb Ranch Sauce

If you're trying to avoid adding high calories and sodium to your meal, skip the garden herb ranch sauce. It contains 140 calories, 15g fat, 2.5g saturated fat, 1g carbohydrates, 1g sugar, 1g protein, and 210mg sodium. It also contains the highest amount of cholesterol out of all dipping sauces, at 15 grams.

Diet-Specific Options

If you eat a special diet or have certain dietary considerations, you may find it difficult to dine out—especially when you don't have the ability to customize your meal.

Compared to other fast food chains, Chick-fil-A isn't the most customizable, but it does offer choices that may be suitable for people who follow gluten-free, low-carb, low-FODMAP, diabetes-friendly, low-fat, low-sodium, vegetarian, and vegan diets.

Gluten-Free

Hash Browns
Grilled Chicken Fillet (no bun or gluten-free bun)
Grilled Nuggets
Grilled Market Salad
Waffle Fries

One way Chick-fil-A has set itself apart from the competition is by offering gluten-free buns, which can be subbed for breakfast and chicken sandwiches. While the bun is the only certified gluten-free item at Chick-fil-A, there are other choices on the regular menu that do not contain wheat or gluten. Order the grilled chicken fillet on a gluten-free bun with a side of waffle fries for a full meal.

If you are gluten-sensitive or have celiac disease, keep in mind that even menu items that are not made with gluten or wheat-containing ingredients may have been produced, transported, stored, or prepared alongside ingredients that do.

To reduce the potential for cross-contamination, let the Chick-fil-A employee taking and making your order know if you have a gluten or wheat allergy.

They may be able to take specific steps to prevent cross-contamination with gluten-containing ingredients, such as using different equipment or wearing gloves to prepare your food.

Low-Carb

Side Salad
Grilled Nuggets
Chick-fil-A Nuggets
Scramble Bowl (no hash browns)

For a low-carb meal, order a 5-pack of the Chick-fil-A nuggets alongside the side salad for 20 total grams of carbohydrates.

Low-FODMAP

Waffle Fries
Hash Browns, Eggs (side order)
Plain Grilled Chicken (fillet or nuggets—ask for no marinade or cheese)
Gluten-Free Bun (if tolerated—contains molasses and raisins)
Grilled Market Salad (without meat, cheese, nuts, black beans, dressing, or seasoned toppings) or plain Side Salad

If you stick to a low-FODMAP diet, eating out can be a challenge—especially when it comes to fast food. Chick-fil-A does offer a few options that may be suitable for a low-FODMAP diet, depending on your individual tolerances.

For a full meal, order the plain grilled chicken, making sure to request it plain with no marinades or cheese, and a side of waffle fries.

Diabetes-Friendly

Fruit Cup
Hash Brown Scramble Bowl
Superfood Side
Chick-Fil-A Nuggets
Coffee (black), Unsweetened Iced Tea

Create your own diabetes-friendly meal by ordering a collection of sides including Chick-fil-A nuggets and a fruit cup.

Low-Fat

Greek Yogurt Parfait
Grilled Market Salad (no cheese or dressing)
Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap
Chicken Noodle Soup
Fat-Free Honey Mustard Dressing

You can make your Chick-fil-A meal low-fat by being mindful of your order. Choose the grilled chicken cool wrap for only 13g fat.

Low-Sodium

Fruit Cup
Greek Yogurt Parfait
Kale Crunch Side
Simply Orange Juice
Coffee

For a low-sodium meal, order from the breakfast menu and enjoy the Greek yogurt parfait, which has only 80mg sodium.

Vegetarian

Biscuits
Cobb Salad
Greek Yogurt Parfait
All dessert menu items

Chick-fil-A's is focused on meat and uses various animal products to create its menu. However, if you eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, you will still have a few items to choose from. For a vegetarian meal, order the Cobb salad at Chick-fil-A.

Vegan

Waffle Fries
Hash Browns
Sunflower Multigrain Bagel
Chicken Cool Wrap (without meat and cheese)
Spicy Southwest Salad or Grilled Market Salad (no meat, no cheese)

Keep in mind that because the kitchen contains animal products, your meal may be prepared by employees who have handled meat even if it does not contain animal products. As your order the nutritious grilled market salad, make sure you ask for no meat and no cheese.

Food Allergies and Safety

Chick-fil-A Allergen Statement

Due to the handcrafted nature of our food, variations in our supplier ingredients, and our use of shared cooking and preparation areas, we cannot ensure that our food is free from any allergens. We prepare our foods following procedures to prevent allergen cross-contact, but products containing wheat, egg, soy and milk are all made in our kitchens.

Chick-fil-A makes information about the known and potential allergens present in its menu available on its website. The chart also includes a breakdown of ingredients for each item on the menu which can help guide your choices.

You can view the entire Chick-fil-A menu with the following allergens indicated next to each item:

Soy
Milk
Fish
Eggs
Wheat
Tree Nuts

Although the FDA does not consider it allergenic, Chick-fil-A notes it uses 100% refined peanut oil for cooking (though it is not specifically indicated for individual menu items).

Some individuals with a peanut allergy can safely consume peanut oil, but if you are allergic to nuts you may choose to avoid any food cooked with the oil.

The chain also cautions that other common food allergens, such as sesame, that are not included on the list may be present (for example, the buns Chick-fil-A uses may have been produced in a factory that uses milk and sesame).

As a general best practice, exercise caution when dining out if you have food allergies.

A Word From Verywell

Whether you're following a special diet to accommodate food allergies or in support of your overall health goals, Chick-fil-A's menu presents you with several opportunities to create a healthier fast food meal.

With the chain's grilled chicken options, you can have some classic fast food fare without all the added calories, fat, and sodium that's typical of fried chicken. You can also request plain meats without marinades.

Keeping track of serving sizes and portions, getting to know the nutrition information and ingredients of different menu options before you order, and considering calorie and carb-saving swaps, can help you create a satisfying meal without adding too many extra calories, fat, carbs, sodium, or sugar to your daily intake.