The Waffle House restaurant is a franchise that’s best known for its breakfast food, including waffles, eggs and hash browns. However, the restaurants also offer some lighter options for lunch and dinner, including a grilled chicken sandwich that doesn’t have nearly as many calories or fat grams as some of its more highly featured choices.

A single grilled chicken sandwich from Waffle House has about 200 calories, 3 g fat, 26 g carbohydrates and 20 g protein. Nutritional facts may vary slightly from restaurant to restaurant, since each item is cooked to order and can accommodate individual preferences for preparation methods and additional ingredients, the according to the Waffle House menu.

Grilling is a low-calorie preparation method that reduces fat and calories from a dish’s totals. Grilling and broiling allow fat to drip away from chicken while preserving the meat’s juices and natural flavors.

Waffle House doesn’t release detailed ingredient lists for its dishes, but its grilled chicken sandwich is primarily chicken, mild spices and a bun made with refined white flour, yeast, water and small amounts of additives. Additional toppings will change total nutritional values for the sandwich; for example, a tablespoon of mayonnaise adds about 100 calories and 11.5 g fat.

The grilled chicken sandwich is one of the healthiest items on Waffle House’s menu. A single waffle from the chain runs about 315 calories, 12.5 g fat and 45 g carbohydrates, and an order of hash browns has about 400 calories, 27 g fat and 30 g carbohydrates. To improve the health value of a grilled chicken sandwich and cut both fat and calories, make it at home using extra vegetables, a smaller serving of chicken, no mayo and a whole-wheat bun. You can look up the nutritional information for your version by plugging ingredients into an online calorie counter and dividing total amounts by the number of servings in your recipe.

The grilled chicken sandwich fits into the grains and meat groups of MyPyramid from the USDA, which recommends daily servings of whole grains, lean proteins, nonfat dairy products, fruits and vegetables for the best health value. According to HelpGuide.org, restaurant meals tend to be far higher in sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol than items prepared at home, so consider making your own sandwich to stick with natural ingredients and limit portion size.