McDonald’s Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad is one of the healthiest menu items you can get at the world’s largest fast-food chain. The McDonald’s Premium Southwest Salad is available with buttermilk crispy chicken or with grilled chicken, with the latter being the healthiest of course.
For comparison, the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad has 350 calories, while the Southwest Salad with Buttermilk Crispy Chicken is 520 calories. Choosing crispy chicken instead of grilled adds 170 calories, 14 grams of fat, and 19 grams of carbs.
The Southwest Salad is delicious, and it’s a healthier choice than most hamburgers and chicken sandwiches. And you can always make it healthier by swapping out ingredients to reduce carbs and fat.
Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad Nutritional Information
The Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken features healthy ingredients such as all white meat chicken fillet seasoned with salt, parsley and garlic powder.
The chicken has no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors. And it also includes baby kale, baby spinach, chopped romaine lettuce, carrots, red leaf lettuce, poblano peppers, tomatoes, corn, black beans, cilantro, chili-lime tortilla strips, and Jack and cheddar cheeses.
Apart from the previously mentioned ingredients, the salad comes with Newman’s Southwest Dressing and a lime wedge.
As mentioned above, the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad has 350 total calories; 28 percent of those calories are from fat, 42 percent from protein, and 30 percent from carbohydrates.
You can see the full nutritional breakdown of a McDonald’s Southwest Salad in the table below:
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Calories | 350 |
| Calories From Fat | 99 |
| Total Fat | 11g |
| Saturated Fat | 4.5g |
| Trans Fat | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 110mg |
| Sodium | 1070mg |
| Carbohydrates | 27g |
| Fiber | 6g |
| Sugars | 9g |
| Protein | 37g |
You can shave off some calories by ordering the salad without cheese and Newman’s Own Dressing.
Southwest Butter Milk Crispy Chicken Salad Nutritional Information
Just like the Grilled Chicken Salad, McDonald’s Southwest Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Salad comes with an all white meat chicken fillet with no added colors or preservatives. And it also features baby kale, chopped romaine lettuce, baby spinach, roasted corn, tomatoes, black beans, poblano peppers, carrots, red leaf lettuce, chili-lime tortilla strips, cilantro, cheddar and Jack cheeses served with Newman’s Own Southwest Dressing and a lime wedge.
The Crispy Chicken Salad has 520 total calories; 43 percent of those calories are from fat, 35 percent from carbs, and 22 percent from protein.
You can see the full nutritional breakdown of a Southwest Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Salad in the table below:
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Calories | 520 |
| Calories From Fat | 225 |
| Total Fat | 25g |
| Saturated Fat | 6g |
| Trans Fat | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 75mg |
| Sodium | 960mg |
| Carbohydrates | 46g |
| Fiber | 8g |
| Sugars | 9g |
| Protein | 28g |
You can shave off some calories by ordering the salad without the crispy chicken fillet, cheese, and Newman’s Own Dressing.
For example, a Premium Southwest Salad without Chicken only has 160 calories, 63 calories from fat, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 200 mg of sodium, 19 grams of carbs, 4 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.
Allergens
McDonald’s Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad contains Milk, while the Southwest Crispy Chicken Salad contains Wheat and Milk.
Ingredients and Allergen Information via: McDonalds.com.
