Potbelly Vs Jersey Mike's Chicken Salad: Which Chain Serves The Healthier Sub?

Potbelly and Jersey Mike's are two sandwich giants, big names that one might feasibly turn to when looking for a delicious sando. When it comes to chicken salad sandwiches, the two subs stack up pretty closely ... until you pull up the nutritional info. While we previously discussed brown sugar being the secret ingredient to superior chicken salad, both the Potbelly and Jersey Mike's chicken salad contains little enough sugar that we're pretty sure it's not a factor. What the subs do contain is a mayo-based mix of white-meat chicken spiked with crunchy veg. You might be tricked into thinking that one fast casual chicken salad sandwich is exactly like another, but you would be incorrect. Made with the same specifications, Potbelly's chicken salad sub has fewer potentially detrimental macros and more nutritious factors in almost every way that counts.

For comparison, both sandwiches we examined were the "regular" size, made with white bread, and devoid of extra toppings besides Provolone cheese. If you know what it means to order a sub "Mike's Way" at Jersey Mike's, go ahead and scratch that out — we didn't account for any oil, vinegar, or seasonings. What we learned is that the Jersey Mike's chicken salad sub had more calories, more fat (including trans fats), and way more sodium than the Potbelly version, while also containing less fiber and protein. The two subs were almost identical when it came to carbs, and Potbelly's sandwich did contain more cholesterol. Of course, you may wish to take a closer look at the numbers.

Can a sandwich with 760 calories and nine grams of saturated fat ever be considered health food? The only time that answer might be "yes" is when the competition is touting 790 calories and 10.54 grams, as is the case for the Jersey Mike's chicken salad sub. Let's make one thing clear: neither of these sandwiches is probably reasonable for a daily indulgence when it comes to most folks. Sometimes, however, enjoying a treat involves making the best decision, and that one is clearly the Potbelly sandwich. The caloric difference may not be that striking, but that's far from the end of the story, as Jersey Mike's sub also contains nearly a full gram of trans fats.

That's not even discussing the presence of salt, the real elephant in the room. We know a popular Jersey Mike's sub, the Original Italian, is a sodium bomb, and its chicken salad sandwich isn't much better, with a whopping 1,717 milligrams of the stuff. The Potbelly sandwich, on the other hand, contains 940 milligrams, which almost sounds downright reasonable in comparison (though keep in mind the American Heart Association recommends a max of 2,300 milligrams daily for most adults). 

Potbelly's sandwich also can boast four grams of dietary fiber to just three in the Jersey Mike's handheld and 44 grams of protein as opposed to 40. Like we said, the Potbelly chicken salad sub definitely contains macros at which many self-professed "healthy" eaters might look askance. When it comes to stacking head-to-head with a similar sando at Jersey Mike's, however, you might be forgiven for hightailing it to Potbelly.