How many calories are in a chicken caesar salad?
A restaurant-style chicken caesar salad without dressing weighs about 286 g and carries 180 calories. Per 100 g the same salad is only 63 calories, lighter per gram than every other chicken garden salad in the same USDA set. The catch is not the calorie line at all. It is the 758 mg of sodium sitting under it.
You'd need to walk about 36 minutes to burn the 180 calories in one salad (286 g).
How long does it take to burn off 180 kcal of chicken Caesar salad?
One salad (286 g) is 180 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 180 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 36 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 22 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 26 min |
| Jogging | 21 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 40 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (286 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Chicken caesar salad quick facts
- US servings from one cup to a restaurant entree
- Grilled crispy and cheesy versions
- Sodium is the row to watch
- How does chicken caesar salad compare?
- Most popular chicken caesar salad brands
- FAQ
Chicken caesar salad quick facts
The number below comes from FNDDS 2706818, "Chicken or turkey caesar garden salad, chicken and/or turkey, lettuce, tomato, cheese, no dressing". That is the roasted-chicken build: leaves, tomato, a scatter of cheese and sliced grilled meat, with the dressing still in the cup on the side. USDA keeps the breaded, fried version as a separate record, and it is a genuinely different food — that one gets its own section further down.
Read this table as the salad itself, not the salad plus dressing. Nothing here has been averaged across sources; every value is the single FNDDS record scaled to the 286 g serving USDA lists for it.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 salad (286 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 63 | 180 | — |
| Total fat | 1.94 g | 5.5 g | 7% |
| Saturated fat | 0.75 g | 2.1 g | 11% |
| Carbohydrate | 2.99 g | 8.6 g | 3% |
| Dietary fiber | 1 g | 2.9 g | 10% |
| Total sugars | 0.99 g | 2.8 g | — |
| Protein | 8.52 g | 24.4 g | 49% |
| Sodium | 265 mg | 758 mg | 33% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
Two rows you would see on a packaged label are missing here: added sugars and trans fat. USDA does not publish either value for mixed dishes in this FNDDS release, so leaving them blank is more honest than guessing. Cholesterol comes in at 66 mg per salad (22% DV) and potassium at 829 mg (18% DV), both of which track the chicken and cheese rather than the greens. Total sugars have no Daily Value at all, which is why that cell stays empty.
The protein line is the one worth staring at. Nearly half a day's protein for 180 calories is a ratio very few restaurant entrees match, and it is the whole reason this salad has outlived every other diner-menu holdover.
US servings from one cup to a restaurant entree
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g | 18 kcal |
| 1 cup, chopped | 90 g | 57 kcal |
| 2 cups | 180 g | 113 kcal |
| One salad, USDA serving | 286 g | 180 kcal |
| One restaurant entree salad | 311 g | 196 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 63 kcal |
The 90 g cup, the 286 g salad and the 311 g entree are all household measures USDA publishes for this record. The 2-cup line and the 1 oz line are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings, and they exist because that is how people actually log a salad they built at a salad bar.
Here is the cup trap. A cup of chopped salad is 90 g, but a cup of packed leaves with a chicken breast dropped on top can weigh twice that, and the calorie count follows the weight, not the cup. If you are logging by volume, weigh the bowl once and you will never guess again. The gap between a 90 g cup and a 286 g bowl is 123 calories — small in absolute terms, but a factor of three in a food that people log by eye.
Grilled crispy and cheesy versions
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grilled chicken, no dressing | 63 kcal | one salad, 286 g | 180 kcal |
| Breaded, fried chicken, no dressing | 115 kcal | one salad, 314 g | 361 kcal |
| Extra cheese, no dressing | 93 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 84 kcal |
| Garden salad with tomato, no dressing | 64 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 58 kcal |
| Store-bought salad with dressing | 180 kcal | 1 cup with 1.5 tbsp dressing, 100 g | 180 kcal |
Swapping grilled chicken for crispy is the single biggest lever on this plate. The breaded record runs 115 calories per 100 g against 63, and the fat gap is wider than the calorie gap: 6.85 g per 100 g versus 1.94 g, about three and a half times as much. Scaled to its own 314 g serving that is 21.5 g of fat — our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure — against 5.5 g for the grilled bowl. Protein moves the wrong way too, from 8.52 g per 100 g down to 6.31 g, because breading displaces meat.
Cheese is the quieter variable. The garden-salad record with extra cheese sits at 93 calories per 100 g, half again as much as the caesar record, and almost all of that difference is fat. The plain tomato-and-greens version, at 64 calories per 100 g, is essentially the same as the caesar build once you strip the parmesan out.
Then there is the tub from the refrigerated case. Retail chicken caesar salads sold as a single unit — Boar's Head EverRoast, Marketside, Garden Highway with parmesan, Ukrop's — cluster at 180 to 184 calories per 100 g, because dressing is packed in the mix rather than sold beside it. Archer Farms comes in lower at 166 per 100 g, and one outlier, Sunnyside Farms, sits at 83. That spread is the dressing, not the chicken.
Sodium is the row to watch
One undressed salad delivers 758 mg of sodium, 33% of the FDA Daily Value of 2,300 mg. That is roughly a third of a teaspoon of table salt, and it arrives before a single drop of caesar dressing, which is itself an anchovy-and-parmesan emulsion built on salt.
Put that next to the calorie line and the picture flips. At 180 calories the salad is a third of a modest lunch; at 758 mg it is a third of the whole day's sodium allowance. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans treat 2,300 mg as the ceiling, not a target, so a dressed restaurant version can eat most of it in one sitting. If sodium is something you are tracking, ask for the dressing on the side and use half of it — that single move changes more than any swap in the greens.
The upside is on the protein line. At 24.4 g per salad, this covers about half the Daily Value from a food the MyPlate protein group counts twice over, since both the chicken and the cheese contribute. For a 350 to 450 calorie lunch, the salad plus a slice of bread lands in range with protein to spare.
How does chicken caesar salad compare?
| Salad | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken caesar, no dressing | 63 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 57 kcal |
| Chicken garden salad, tomato or carrots | 64 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 58 kcal |
| Chicken garden salad, other vegetables | 66 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 59 kcal |
| Chicken garden salad with cheese | 93 kcal | 1 cup, 90 g | 84 kcal |
Per-cup values for all four rows are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figures, so the comparison is apples to apples.
Our take: on calories alone the caesar build wins this table by a hair — 63 per 100 g is the lowest of the four, and the two nearest garden salads are within three calories of it. But it also has the least protein per 100 g of the group, 8.52 g against 10.1, 10.85 and 10.26 g. If you are eating for satiety, the plain chicken garden salad with other vegetables gives you more protein for essentially the same calories. If you are eating for the taste of parmesan and lemon, the caesar record costs you almost nothing to choose. The decision that actually matters is not which salad, it is grilled versus crispy and how much dressing lands on top.
Most popular chicken caesar salad brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Boar's Head EverRoast Chicken Caesar Salad | 180 cal |
| Marketside Chicken Caesar Salad | 180 cal |
| Garden Highway Chicken Caesar Salad with Parmesan | 180 cal |
| Ukrop's Chicken Caesar Salad | 184 cal |
| Archer Farms Chicken Caesar Salad | 166 cal |
| Sunnyside Farms Chicken Caesar Salad | 83 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Chicken caesar salad FAQs
How many calories are in a chicken caesar salad?
180 calories for a 286 g salad of lettuce, chicken, tomato and cheese with no dressing, which works out to 63 calories per 100 g. That figure covers the greens, the meat and the cheese only. Pour on the dressing and the number climbs fast.
How many calories in a chicken caesar salad with dressing?
Around 180 calories per 100 g once dressing is mixed into the tub, nearly three times the 63 calories per 100 g of the undressed USDA row. A 283 g deli salad at 184 calories per 100 g lands at 521 calories, so the dressing does most of the damage.
How much protein is in a chicken caesar salad?
24.4 g of protein in a 286 g salad, or 49% of the Daily Value, from about 8.5 g per 100 g. That is a full lunch's worth of protein for 180 calories, which is why the dish keeps showing up in high-protein meal plans decades after it stopped being fashionable.
How many calories in a grilled chicken caesar salad?
180 calories for the standard 286 g bowl. The USDA record behind this page is the grilled version, chicken or turkey with lettuce, tomato and cheese, no breading and no dressing, at 63 calories per 100 g. Crispy chicken pushes the same salad to 115 per 100 g.
Is grilled or crispy chicken caesar salad healthier?
63 calories per 100 g grilled against 115 breaded and fried, so the crispy version is close to double per gram. Fat is the bigger gap: 1.94 g per 100 g grilled versus 6.85 g breaded. Protein actually drops as well, from 8.52 g to 6.31 g per 100 g.
How many carbs are in a chicken caesar salad?
8.6 g of carbohydrate in a 286 g salad, just 3% of the Daily Value, with 2.9 g of that as fiber and 2.8 g as sugars. Lettuce, tomato and a little cheese carry almost no starch. Croutons and sweetened dressing are what add carbs to a restaurant plate.
Why is chicken caesar salad so high in sodium?
758 mg in one 286 g salad, or 33% of the Daily Value, before any dressing is poured. The cheese and the seasoned chicken carry most of it, and that is roughly a third of a teaspoon of table salt sitting in what looks like a bowl of leaves.
Is chicken caesar salad good for weight loss?
180 calories and 24.4 g of protein for a full 286 g bowl make it an easy lunch to fit into a day, as long as it stays undressed. Caesar dressing and croutons can add more calories than the salad itself, and a store tub runs 180 calories per 100 g.
Similar foods
- Carrot — 53 cal per cup chopped
- Papaya salad — 190 cal per plate
- Onion — 46 cal per cup sliced
- Sweet Potato — 103 cal per medium, baked
- Broccoli — 55 cal per cup chopped
- Ear of Corn — 99 cal per medium ear
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts it for you, dressing and all.
