How many calories are in chicken salad?
The kind made with mayo, on a bed of greens.
360calories with 2 tbsp of mayonnaise
29 g of protein, 3 g of fiber. The biggest line is the mayo, 198 calories.
C+ Clears 3 of 6 meters as a meal. Misses Processing, Muscle and Hunger.
About 364 calories with 2 tablespoons of mayo, served on 2 cups of romaine, with 29 g of protein. The mayo is the biggest line at 198 calories, more than the chicken (140).
Chicken salad has nearly the protein of a good lunch, almost all of it from a palm of chicken. What drags it down is the mayo, which is ultra-processed and more than half the calories, so it misses Processing. It also has little fiber past the celery and the bed of greens, and at 29 g of protein it lands just under the Muscle and Hunger lines, so it comes out a C+. Mayo is easy to overdo when it’s mixed in, since you can’t see how much went in, and at 4 tablespoons the same bowl is about 562.
We’d add half a cup of chickpeas, which brings 6 g of fiber and 7.5 g of protein and makes it a B+ at about 500 calories. Then use one tablespoon of mayo instead of two. That saves 99 calories, brings the mayo down to a quarter of the bowl and makes it an A.
The six meters
- Energylight360 cal
- Processingmixed46% whole food
- Musclelow29 g protein
- Hungersome3 g fiber, 1.3 cal a gram
- Nutrientsdense1½ cups of plants
- Glucosesteady0 g fast carbs
Each meter's name opens its page on meals.guide, which explains the six jobs a meal does.
Sodium 280 mg, 36% of a meal's share of the day's 2,300 mg. Salt isn't one of the six meters, so it never changes the grade.
Part by part
| Ingredient | Amount | Calories | Protein | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast | a palm, 3 oz, 85 g | 140 | 26.7 g | 0 g |
| Mayo | 2 tbsp, 28 g | 198 | 0 g | 0 g |
| Celery | half a cup, 60 g | 9 | 0.5 g | 1 g |
| Romaine | 2 cups, 112 g | 16 | 2 g | 2 g |
| Total | 285 g | 364 | 29 g | 3 g |
At three amounts of dressing
| Mayonnaise | Calories | Dressing's share | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tbsp | 260 | 37% | B |
| 2 tbsp | 360 | 54% | C+ |
| 4 tbsp, a ladle or a 2 oz cup | 560 | 70% | C |
Add half a cup of black beans
C+toB+
Graded on meals.guide's six meters for a 170 lb person eating 2,000 calories over three meals. Food values from the USDA's Nutritive Value of Foods.
1 sources
- Gebhardt SE, Thomas RG. Nutritive Value of Foods. USDA ARS, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, 2002ars.usda.gov
