Is Chick-Fil-A’s Signature Sauce Healthy? (All Nutrition Facts)

There are many reasons to head to your local Chick-Fil-A. With the wide variety of menu items there seems to be something for everyone no matter what you like or don’t like.

Maybe you go there because you love their grilled chicken nuggets and no other fast-food restaurant sells them. Maybe you go to Chick-Fil-A to get one of their delicious chicken sandwiches and a waffle fry. 

Maybe you go because you like the fast service and the quality of the food. Or maybe… just maybe you go to Chick-Fil-A because of their famous secret sauce. 

I love Chick-Fil-A’s special sauce. I put it on my chicken sandwich, dip my waffle french fries in it, and even take a couple home to use on my homemade chicken tenders in between my visits (shhh don’t tell anyone) since it comes in an airtight container.

Since Chick-fil-A’s sauces last quite a while taking a few home allows me to get my Chick-fil-A sauce fix whenever I need to.

But is that Chick-Fil-A original sauce actually healthy or are there better choices?

What about the many other sauces that Chick-Fil-A has to offer? Are any of them healthier than the others? 

Unfortunately Chick-Fil-A’s famous dipping sauce is far from healthy. Each little container has 140 calories, 13g of fat, 2g of saturated fat and 6g of sugar so it really isn’t a healthy addition to your meal. 

With as many of those delicious sauces as many people use (myself included) those little sauce containers can add up to more calories and fat than was in your entire meal! Yes, just from using a few of those little dipping containers. 

When many people think healthy they think of Chick-Fil-A. Whether it’s because of the wide variety of salads that they offer (my favorite being the Cobb Salad) or because they have so many different grilled chicken options, it seems like a much healthier place to go than the other fast food restaurants. 

But unfortunately that isn’t always the case. 

Even if you get a Spicy Southwest Salad you could easily eat almost 900 calories if you order it with the dressing they recommend and get fried chicken on top!

So before you head to Chick-Fil-A for your next meal you should spend some time figuring out what is actually healthy there and what isn’t. So in this article let’s take a look at all of the dipping sauces that Chick-Fil-A has to offer and whether any of them are healthy. 

Chick-Fil-A’s Famous Sauce Ingredients

When discussing how healthy the Chick-Fil-A secret sauce is, it is important to know exactly what ingredients you can expect to find in the sauce itself. While the exact sauce recipe is kept a closely guarded secret, the ingredients are listed on each of the Chick-Fil-A namesake sauce packets

While some people just look at the calories, fat, sodium, etc. others prefer to know exactly what is in the food and sauces that they are eating.

We already know that the sauce tastes delicious but what exactly is in that little package of flavor?

The signature Chick-Fil-A sauce has the following ingredients:

• Soybean Oil
• Sugar
• Water
• Yellow Mustard (Distilled Vinegar, Water, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Paprika, Spice, Garlic Powder)
• Distilled Vinegar
• Egg Yolk
• Tomato Paste
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Salt
• Modified Corn Starch
• Lemon Juice Concentrate
• Mustard Flour
• Oleoresin Turmeric (Color)
• Natural Smoke Flavor
• Xanthan Gum
• Caramel Color
• Natural Flavor
• Garlic
• Dried Onion
• Calcium Disodium EDTA (To Protect Flavor)
• Chili Powder (Chili Pepper, Spice, Salt, Garlic)

All of these good things are inside of the regular Chick-Fil-A signature sauce. So if you are allergic to any of them or simply don’t want to eat one (for whatever reason) you now know whether you have to avoid it or not.

In the next section I will dive into the actual nutritional information in the sauce.

Chick-Fil-A’s Famous Sauce’s Nutrition

There are many different sauces that you can get at Chick-Fil-A. By far the most popular is the Chick-Fil-A special sauce. I will give you the details on each one and then at the bottom lay them out in a handy table so you can easily choose between them the next time you head to Chick-Fil-A. 

In each of the nutritional tables below (and throughout the article) I will give the amount of and daily value for:

• Calories
• Grams of fat
• Grams of saturated fat
• Milligrams of cholesterol
• Milligrams of sodium
• Grams of carbs
• Grams of fiber
• Grams of sugar
• Grams of protein

This should make it easier to make sure you are staying within the limits of your daily diet.

So let’s dive into the nutritional information for those delicious dipping sauces. 

Chick-Fil-A Signature Sauce Nutritional Information

Chick-Fil-A’s namesake dipping sauce has the following nutritional values: 

Chick-Fil-A Barbecue Sauce Nutritional Information

If you love BBQ sauce then you might want to get it from Chick-Fil-A as well. But what type of nutrition do these little sauce containers have? 

Although this is certainly a decently healthy Chick-Fil-A sauce when eaten in moderation (especially when compared to other sauces) moderation really is key here. It is a great option if you use 1 or 2 of them but if you use 4 or 5 of these sauces with your fries & fried chicken sandwich you will quickly reach almost 50% of your recommended daily sodium intake.

Chick-Fil-A Garden Herb Ranch Sauce Nutritional Information

Many people love ranch with their french fries so Chick-FIl-A offers this Garden Herb Ranch dip for them. This creamy sauce is a buttermilk ranch dip with herbs, garlic, and onion flavoring. This dipping sauce has the following nutritional information: 

Chick-Fil-A Honey Mustard Sauce Nutritional Information

This sauce goes great on a chicken sandwich or as a dip for your grilled or breaded nuggets. But what about the nutrition in this great tasting dip? Well surprisingly it is one of the healthiest dipping sauces that Chick-Fil-A offers. 

The honey mustard dipping sauce has:

Chick-Fil-A Polynesian Sauce Nutritional Information

This sauce is a fan favorite with Chick-Fil-A lovers everywhere. There are even all kinds of wacky recipes that can be found online using Chick-Fil-A’s Polynesian sauce. But what kind of nutritional value is there in this sauce? 

Chick-Fil-A’s Sweet & Spicy Sriracha Sauce Nutritional Information

If you like a little spice in your life then you will want to try the Sriracha sauce from Chick-Fil-A. It is a perfect blend of sweetness and spice for their grilled or breaded chicken nuggets and isn’t too bad on their sandwiches either. 

The nutritional information for the Sweet & Spicy Sriracha Sauce is: 

Chick-Fil-A Zesty Buffalo Sauce Nutritional Information

If you like some spice but aren’t a fan of the sweetness of the Sriracha sauce then the Zesty Buffalo Sauce might be for you. It has the lowest amount of calories of all the dipping sauces that Chick-Fil-A currently offers so if you are trying to save some calories this might be one of the better choices for you. 

Be warned it is the highest in regards to sodium content though. 

The nutritional information for the Zesty Buffalo Sauce is: 

This dipping sauce is 25% smaller than all of the other dipping sauces mentioned above so keep that in mind when you compare their nutritional information. 

Chick-Fil-A Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce Nutritional Information

Every fast food restaurant has BBQ dipping sauce for their nuggets but Chick-Fil-A is the only fast food restaurant that has two types of BBQ dipping sauce.

The Honey Roasted BBQ Dipping Sauce has a nice smoky flavor that really helps to bring out the delicious chicken flavors in your nuggets or sandwich. If you’ve only ever tried the normal BBQ sauce then you have got to give this sauce a try the next time you are at Chick-Fil-A. 

The nutritional info for the Honey Roasted BBQ Dipping Sauce is: 

It is important to note that the above calorie information is based on a packet of Chick-Fil-A’s dipping sauce. And the Honey Roasted BBQ sauce is less than half as large as the other ones on our list. So to get a fair comparison you really need to at least double the nutritional info above if you want an apples to apples comparison. 

Which Chick-Fil-A Sauce Is The Healthiest?

Now that I have covered the nutrition for each of the sauce packets, let’s compare them with each other to see which one is the healthiest of the bunch.

Dipping Sauces	Chick-Fil-A Sauce	Barbecue Sauce	Garden Herb Ranch	Honey Mustard	Polynesian Sauce	Sweet & Spicy Sriracha	Zesty Buffalo	Honey Roasted BBQ
Size	28g	28g	28g	28g	28g	28g	21g	12g
Calories	140	45	140	50	110	45	25	60
Fat	13g	0g	15g	0g	6g	0g	2.5g	5g
Saturated Fat	2g	0g	2.5g	0g	1g	0g	0g	1g
Cholesterol	10mg	0mg	15mg	0mg	0mg	0mg	5mg	5mg
Sodium	170mg	200mg	210mg	160mg	220mg	380mg	570mg	75mg
Carbs	7g	11g	1g	12g	14g	11g	1g	3g
Sugar	6g	9g	1g	10g	12g	10g	10g	2g

Overall, I would say that Chick-Fil-A’s regular BBQ sauce or their Honey Mustard are the two healthiest dipping options for your nuggets or fries. Both of these sauces are lower in calories but also don’t have a massive amount of sodium in them (like the Zesty Buffalo does).

What Makes Chick-fil-A’s Sauces Healthy Or Not?

When you are trying to decide how healthy (or unhealthy) Chick-Fil-A’s dipping sauces are, it’s important to consider the calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium. So let’s take a look at each of those nutritional values in each of Chick-Fil-A’s dipping sauces.

Chick-fil-A’s Sauce’s Calories

The lowest calorie Chick-Fil-A dipping sauce is the Zesty Buffalo. Coming in it at only 25 calories you can use multiple of these dipping sauces with your meal and not ruin your calorie goals for the day. currently experts recommend people trying to get between 1,600 and 3,000 calories a day (depending on your goals and body type) so adding 100 extra calories by using 4 of the Zesty Buffalo sauces wouldn’t be considered unhealthy (based on the calories). 

However, the other dipping sauces don’t fare as well when it comes to their calories. 

The Chick-FIl-A sauce, Garden Herb Ranch, Polynesian Sauce, and Honey Roasted BBQ all come in at over 100 calories (the Honey Roasted BBQ is much higher than it appears since the packet sizes are more than 50% smaller). And at 100+ calories per dipping sauce and most people using one or two packages with their nuggets and one or two with their waffle fries, you can easily consume 400-500 extra calories in your dipping sauces alone! 

The lowest calorie Chick-Fil-A dipping sauce is the Zesty Buffalo. It has 25 calories per container while the next lowest is the BBQ sauce at 45 calories per container. 

Chick-fil-A’s Sauce’s Fat

The next nutritional value that I want to look at is the fat content in these sauces. According to experts you should eat between 44 and 77 grams of fat (if you are on a 2000 calorie diet). So you need to make sure that you don’t eat too much fat daily and some of these dipping sauces are pretty high in fat. 

The two highest fat Chick-Fil-A dips are the Chick-Fil-A sauce and the creamy dipping sauce. Garden Herb Ranch. The Chick-Fil-A sauce has 13g of fat while the ranch has 15g of fat. 

That means if you use 4 packages of the Chick-Fil-A sauce or the ranch you are consuming 52-60g of fat! Just in the dipping sauces! You could be consuming more than your recommended daily fat intake in the sauces you are using for your sandwich and fries not even including the food itself! 

The Chick-Fil-A dipping sauces with the lowest fat content are the BBQ, Honey Mustard, or Sweet and Spicy Sriracha as all three of those dipping sauces have no fat (or at least not enough where it requires reporting it). 

Chick-fil-A’s Sauce’s Saturated Fat

When it comes to saturated fat many people consume far too much of it without realizing it. The American Heart Association recommends that someone on a 2000 calorie diet only get 13 saturated fat a day. But what does that mean when it comes to the different Chick-Fil-A sauces? 

The two highest Chick-Fil-A sauces when it comes to saturated fat is the signature Chick-Fil-A sauce (2g per package) and the Garden Herb Ranch (2.5g per package). 

Again using the same 4 packages that I’m sure many people use for their sandwich (or nuggets) and fries that means the Chick-Fil-A sauce would be 8g of saturated fat and the ranch would be 10g of saturated fat. So that means if you use 4 packages of Chick-Fil-A sauce you are consuming 61% of your recommended saturated fat intake on your dipping sauce alone! 

The Garden herb ranch is even worse coming in at 77% of your daily recommended saturated fat intake if you use 4 of them. 

The Chick-Fil-A sauces with the lowest saturated fat are: 

• BBQ (0g of saturated fat)
• Honey Mustard (0g of saturated fat)
• Sweet & Spicy Sriracha (0g of saturated fat)
• Zesty Buffalo (0g of saturated fat)

Chick-fil-A’s Sauce’s Sodium

The last nutritional value that I want us to look at is the sodium content. Dipping sauces and dressings are notorious for having incredibly high sodium but does that hold true with the Chick-Fil-A sauces? 

Experts recommend that you don’t get more than 2,300 mg of sodium in a day but how much sodium are in the Chick-Fil-A sauces? 

The lowest sodium Chick-Fil-A Sauce is the Honey mustard coming in at 160 mg per package. The next lowest is the Chick-Fil-A sauce that surprisingly only has 170 mg of sodium in each package. 

The highest sodium dipping sauce is the Zesty Buffalo coming in at a whopping 570 mg per package! And it even has a smaller package than the other sauces do so it’s actually even worse than that when compared by size! 

However when you think about how many of these dipping sauces you will use none of them are very low in sodium. If you use 4 Honey Mustard dipping sauces with your meal you will consume 640 mg of sodium which is 28% of your recommended daily intake. 

And that’s only if you use the best options for a dipping sauce. If you use the Zesty Buffalo sauce you will consume 2,280mg of sodium which is 99% of your recommended daily sodium, and that’s only from using those 4 sauces and doesn’t even include the food you used them with. 

Key Takeaway

None of the Chick-Fil-A sauces should be considered healthy. The one sauce that is low in calories, saturated fat, and fat content (the Zesty Buffalo) has such high sodium that even one package will completely ruin your sodium intake for the day. 

Overall the Chick-Fil-A sauce that would fit the best into most people’s diets is the Honey mustard sauce as it has decent numbers all across the board. The only issue is most people prefer all of the other Chick-Fil-A sauces instead since they taste better. 

Are Chick-Fil-A’s Sauces Healthier Than Other Fast Food Chains?

I’ve gone into great detail about the healthiness of the different Chick-Fil-A sauces but what about the sauces that are used by other fast food chains? Are they healthier than Chick-Fil-A’s sauces are? 

To make a fair comparison I went with the standard ranch dipping sauce for each popular fast food chain. In the table below I will compare how the dipping sauces each stack up. 

Ranch Dipping Sauce	Chick-Fil-A	McDonalds	Burger King	Wendys
Size	28g	22g	28g	28g
Calories	140	110	140	90
Fat	15g	12g	15g	9g
Saturated Fat	2.5g	2g	2.5	1.5g
Cholesterol	15mg	5mg	10mg	10mg
Sodium	210mg	160mg	85mg	170mg
Carbs	1g	1g	1g	2g
Sugar	1g	1g	1g	1g

As you can see from the above table the healthiest ranch dipping sauce at the four major fast food restaurants is Wendys. It has the lowest calories, the lowest fat, and the lowest saturated fat. Although it is the middle of the pack in regards to sodium and cholesterol. 

The least healthy ranch dip from the four major fast food chains is Chick-Fil-A. It is tied for the highest calories, fat, and saturated fat, and has far higher sodium than Burger King’s Ranch (which is who it tied with on those categories). Of all the Ranch dips Chick-Fil-A’s had the highest sodium by far. 

Although Chick-FIl-A’s food is absolutely delicious it can be unhealthy at times if you aren’t careful. This is even true with their salads as often their specialty dressings make them high in fat and sodium.

Just be sure you look at the nutritional information of everything that you plan on eating before you eat it… including the dipping sauces!

Chick-Fil-A Dipping Sauces Macros

If you are counting macros then you will want to know what the macros are for the different dipping sauces that Chick-fil-A has available. In the sections below I will give the macronutrients for all of the dipping sauces that Chick-fil-A currently offers.

Chick-fil-A Original Dipping Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s signature dipping sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 7 g of carbohydrates
• 13 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Barbeque Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Barbeque sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 11g of carbohydrates
• 0 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Garden Herb Ranch Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Garden Herb Ranch sauce are:

• 1 g of protein
• 1g of carbohydrates
• 15 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Honey Mustard Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Honey Mustard sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 12g of carbohydrates
• 0 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Polynesian Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Polynesian sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 12g of carbohydrates
• 0 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Sweet And Spicy Sriracha Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Sweet And Spicy Sriracha Sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 11g of carbohydrates
• 0 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Zesty Buffalo Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Zesty Buffalo Sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 1g of carbohydrates
• 2.5 g of fat

Chick-fil-A Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce Macros

The macronutrients for Chick-fil-A’s Honey Roasted BBQ Sauce are:

• 0 g of protein
• 3g of carbohydrates
• 5 g of fat