Can You Get A Healthy Meal At Wendy's?

It's the classic drive-through dilemma that we've all faced at one time or another: Should you indulge in whatever happens to be the biggest, baddest burger on the menu, or should you be virtuous and go for one of the leaner menu choices?

It used to be simple. The menu-topping burger was featured in full-color photos so vibrant they looked to have been shot in 3-D. The patties looked like they'd just come off a backyard grill, the bacon -- there was always bacon -- looked crisp and tasty, and the bun looked like a baker's masterpiece.

The chicken sandwich was listed on the menu with a price.

These days, though, chains pay as much attention to the lighter offerings as to the belt-buster burgers. Chicken sandwiches are being gussied up with a dizzying array of flavors and sauces, placed on bakery buns and just generally made much more appealing both to the eye and the taste buds.

What happened? The big three fast-food chains realized that more and more customers were passing them by in favor of other places, where grilled chicken offerings were not just a sidebar but in fact part of the main attraction.

We conducted a drive-through smackdown involving the little sister member of the big three: Wendy's. We compared the Baconator to the Ultimate Chicken Grill sandwich. The Baconator was paired with a large order of fries, while the Ultimate Chicken Grill got a side salad with light ranch dressing alongside.

Now, for the tale of the tape:

Baconator: 840 calories, 51 grams fat, 195 mg cholesterol, 1,880 mg sodium, 38 grams carbs
Large fries: 550 calories, 26 grams fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 480 mg sodium, 72 grams carbs
Total for this meal: 1,390 calories, 77 grams fat, 195 mg cholesterol, 2360 mg sodium, 110 grams carbs

Ultimate Chicken Grill: 320 calories, 7 grams fat, 70 mg cholesterol, 950 mg sodium, 36 grams carbs
Side Salad with Light Ranch: 130 calories, 8 grams fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 400 mg sodium, 13 grams carbs
Total for this meal: 550 calories, 15 grams fat, 80 mg cholesterol, 1350 mg sodium, 49 grams carbs.

So the Baconator and fries meal has more than twice the calories and cholesterol, five times the fat and significantly more sodium and carbs than the Ultimate Chicken Grill and side salad meal.

But what about the taste? Let's face it: If the low-impact meal tastes like packing peanuts and leaves you unsatisfied, you'll just end up snacking or worse.

Here, that's not a problem.

The Baconator, for all its size, fat content and advertising hype, is actually not a terribly satisfying burger. Part of the problem is the bacon, which is the precooked ready-to-use stuff that's everywhere in the fast-food industry today. It never quite reaches crispiness; it is, at best, leathery.

The patties were overcooked and the cheese largely flavorless. The meat tasted better, with a better consistency than other fried burgers on the market, but overall the Baconator was a bit of a letdown.

The Ultimate Chicken Grill, while far from a taste bonanza, does at least offer a nicely tangy honey mustard sauce and loads of fresh leaf lettuce and sliced tomato. This is very much how my chicken sandwiches look at home when you throw a breast or three on the grill.

This chicken sandwich offers a lot of taste and satisfaction for the relatively puny dietary impact. It beat the Baconator hands-down.

As far as the sides go, it's very much a matter of choice. While Wendy's fries aren't the best around, when fresh-cooked they're quite tasty. The side salad is a good value for the money, but awfully hard to eat when driving.

We'll have to call it a draw on the sides, giving the Ultimate Chicken Grill meal the clear win over the Baconator in this test.