Do you love having fried chicken or anything deep-fried during your weekends or any late night meal? Then, Cracker Barrel is the way to go.
But here’s the catch: Fried chicken and crispy dishes often come with breading that is a big no-no for keto dieters.
Does this mean that there’s nothing for you at Cracker Barrel? Not necessarily.
The good news for you is this restaurant has come a long way, and they now have one of the most extensive menus in the market.
Even better news is their menu features some dishes that keto dieters can eat for every meal!
Do you want to know what these are?
Keep on reading…
How to Order Low Carb at Cracker Barrel
If you don’t know which are the best low carb Cracker Barrel meals for the keto diet, here are some tips that you can try.
1. Order from their breakfast menu.
The Cracker Barrel Morning Breakfast Menu is one of the best options that you have when ordering keto at Cracker Barrel.
This is because it’s packed with all the keto faves—bacon, sausages, eggs, and many more!
The good news is you can order this without any sides, so you won’t have any problems calculating your macros. We’ve compiled all the best breakfast meals that are perfect for the keto diet below.
2. Choose low-carb breakfast add-ons.
If you’re not satisfied with just one breakfast dish, you can try adding a keto-friendly breakfast add on—hamburger steak (33g fat, 33g protein, 0 net carbs) and Hickory smoked Ham (13g fat, 33g protein, and 1g net carb).
You can even order any two of the breakfast meals that we’ll share with your below.
3. Don’t take a look at the daily specials.
Their daily specials will give you big discounts, so they’re quite tempting.
However, most of these specials come with a high carbohydrate side dish like fries, hash browns, and many more.
4. Go with vegetable sides.
Besides shying away from high carb sides, we recommend adding vegetable sides to boost your fiber intake (*).
Here are some of the options that you can choose from:
- Turnip Greens (4g fat, 10g protein, and 2g net carbs)
- Boiled Cabbage (5g fat, 2g protein, and 4g net carbs)
- Country Green Beans (3g fat, 1g protein, and 4g net carbs)
- Steamed Broccoli (0g fat, 4g protein, and 2g net carbs)
5. Ask for low-carb dressings for your salads.
Another way to increase your fiber consumption is to order a vegetable salad. However, you should be careful with the type of dressing that comes with it. Some of the best Cracker Barrel dressings for a ketogenic diet are:
- Buttermilk Caesar (29g fat, 3g protein, and 2.5g net carbs)
- Buttermilk Ranch (25g fat, 1g protein, and 3g net carbs)
- Blue Cheese (32g fat, 3g protein, and 3g net carbs)
Low Carb Cracker Barrel Dishes for Ketogenic Diet
When you’re on keto, you will tend to avoid comfort foods or the foods that make you feel at home since most of them are rich in carbohydrates.
The good thing is Cracker Barrel combined two of the things that you love most—low carb and nostalgia—in these dishes:
Low Carb Cracker Barrel Salads
As expected, one of the best Cracker Barrel low-carb options is no other than the salads.
Mixed Green Side Salad
This is a simple salad as it only has lettuce, cucumber slices, and cherry tomatoes. What makes this a great pick is its blue cheese dressing that is not just low carb but adds a creamy taste to the salad.
An order of this salad will give you 15 calories, 0g fat, 1g protein, 2g fiber, and 2g net carbs. (2)
Southern Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
The Southern Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad is a great and excellent Barrel take on the classic caesar salad. This one has lettuce, grilled chicken strips, cherry tomatoes, and parmesan shavings.
The best news is it contains the fewest calories in all salads in the Cracker Barrel menu. It only has 500 calories, 28g fat, 40g protein, 5g fiber, and 17g net carbs.
Remove the croutons, and you may still be able to reduce the carbohydrates significantly.
Country Chef Salad
If you want everything in your salad—fats, protein, and fiber. The Country Chef Salad is a good pick for you.
This is because it has almost everything you can ever find in a salad—lettuce, bacon bits, ham slices, grilled chicken strips, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, croutons, and cheese.
Even if it has the works, it still is quite low-calorie. It only has 570 calories, 33g fat, 45g protein, 6g fiber, and 27g net carbs.
Again, you can ask to hold the croutons to make this as low carb as possible.
Low Carb Cracker Barrel Soups
You may be surprised to find noodle soup recommendations for the keto diet. You may think that these noodle soups use keto pasta alternatives to be considered keto. (3)
They don’t.
However, these soups’ carbohydrate content is low enough (even if they have noodles) to keep you in ketosis.
Turkey Noodle Soup
This warm and comforting creamy soup comes with generous amounts of turkey cubes, mushrooms, croutons, and elbow macaroni.
A cup of this soup contains 4.5g fat, 9g protein, and 7.5 net carbs.
We recommend ditching the croutons to keep it keto-friendly.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Ahhh, chicken noodle soup.
This is one soup that’s comforting for almost all of us. Same with the turkey noodle soup, this is also creamy and comes with lots of chicken strips.
One cup of this soup will give you 4g fat, 7g protein, and 9.5g net carbs.
Low Carb Cracker Barrel Morning Breakfast Meals
Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the Cracker Barrel low-carb morning breakfast options.
The good news is these are available all day long, so you’ll have something tasty and satisfying to order in the restaurant any time of the day.
Below are our recommendations for the keto diet.
Eggs
Order eggs, and you’ll get 2 eggs cooked your way. Just make sure that you won’t order this with any bread or biscuits, and you’ll get only 10g fat, 14g protein, and 2g net carbs.
Egg Whites
For a healthier version, you can order just egg whites. Again, don’t order any biscuits and pieces of bread with this, and you’ll get only 0g fat, 11g protein, and 2g net carbs.
Bacon
Of course, we won’t forget the keto favorite—bacon! In one order, you’ll get three pieces of thick-sliced bacon. These contain 16g fat, 15g protein, and 0 net carbs.
Smoked Sausage
If you want something smoky, their smoked sausage is the best way to go. In order, you’ll get two smoked sausage patties without any sides.
Finish these, and you’ll get 17g, 14g protein, and 0.5g net carbs.
Turkey Sausage
A lighter version of their smoked sausage is the Turkey sausage. Again, an order features two turkey sausages containing 6g fat, 13g protein, and 1g net carb.
Grilled Southwest Sausage
An order of this will give you two links of sausage that is perfectly grilled to provide it with that fantastic smoky taste!
Get this without any side, and you’ll get 44g fat, 20g protein, and 6g net carbs.
Country Ham
A slice of country ham contains 13g fat, 33g protein, and only 1g net carbs.
Low Carb Cracker Barrel Lunch and Dinner Options
Another thing that we’ll love about Cracker Barrel is their extensive range of lunch and dinner dishes. These dishes are offered with three country vegetables, real butter, buttermilk biscuits, or corn muffins.
Here are some of the best low carb options for the ketogenic diet.
Grilled Country Pork Chops
Who can say no to a tender and juicy pork chop dinner? Not us.
The good news is you don’t have to say no to it too!
You can get 2 pieces of their succulent grilled pork chops which contain only 25g fat, 70g protein, and 0 net carbs.
You may also order it with sides to make the meal more filling. Just make sure that the sides you’ll choose are suitable for the ketogenic diet.
Lemon Pepper Grilled Rainbow Trout
For a light yet delicious dinner or lunch, we recommend the Lemon pepper Grilled Rainbow Trout. It features two lightly seasoned and grilled boneless spring water fillets.
When ordering the Lemon pepper Grilled Rainbow Trout, we recommend ditching the corn muffin and stick with the vegetable sides only.
You’ll get only around 14g fats, 43g protein, and 0.5g net carbs when you do.
Ribeye Steak
For their Ribeye Steak, Cracker Barrel uses a 28-day aged steak for maximum flavor and tenders. It’s then lightly seasoned and grilled. This is often served with house salad and baked potato.
Ask them to hold the potato and get the salad without the crackers. The Ribeye Steak contains 47g fat, 52g protein, and 0 net carbs.
Grilled Sirloin Steak
Another steak option that you’ll love is the grilled sirloin steak. For this dish, they use a USDA Choice steak seasoned with garlic butter then grilled to perfection.
Finish this meal, and you’ll get 20g fat, 53g protein, and 0 net carbs. Make sure to shy away from the corn muffin and buttermilk biscuits.
Grilled Chicken Tenderloins
One of the best options that you have when on keto is a chicken dish.
Well, Cracker Barrel takes grilled chicken to a whole new level by using marinated chicken tenders. It’s then grilled in a way that it will remain juicy and flavorful.
The good news is these chicken tenders contain a good amount of proteins and fats and low carbs. The dish will give you 6g fat, 37g protein, and 5g net carbs.
Aside from ditching the biscuits or muffins, make sure to ask the server to hold the sauce as well so you can further reduce its carbohydrate content.
Chili Jack Chicken
This is one of the dishes in Cracker Barrel’s Southwestern-inspired line. The dish includes grilled chicken tenderloins sautéed in hatch chiles and topped with melted Cheddar and Jack Cheese.
The dish is loved by many as it comes in an explosion of flavors—cheesy with a spicy kick. We love that it’s keto-friendly as it contains only 18g fat, 56g protein, and 12g net carbs.
Haddock
Here’s one dish that will satisfy your tastebuds while giving you the lowest amounts of calories and carbohydrates possible!
The dish features a North Atlantic boneless whitefish fillet coated with a mix of cornmeal and flour and then grilled until it’s fork-tender.
Even with the cornmeal and flour breading, this is considered low carb as it only has 13g of net carbs. It also contains 15g fat and 49g protein.
While we love its light and crispy crust, we recommend asking the servers to ditch it to make it suitable for people on a strict ketogenic diet.
Which Dishes Should You Avoid To Order at Cracker Barrel on Keto?
But of course, not all items in the Cracker Barrel menu are suitable for keto.
If you want to make sure that your body won’t get kicked out of ketosis, here are some of the Cracker Barrel meals that you should never order:
- Country Fried Turkey
- Southern Fried Chicken
- Sunday Homestyle Chicken
- Chicken N’ Dumplins
- Chicken Fried Chicken
- Fried Chicken Tenders
- Country Fried Steak
- Cracker Barrel Sampler
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Country Fried Shrimp
- Three Cheese Squash Casserole
- Hashbrown Casserole
- All Mashed Potatoes
- Steak fries
- Mac N’ Cheese
- Fried Okra
- All Beans
- Loaded Hashbrown Casserole
- Homestyle Chicken BLT
- All Desserts
- Homestyle Chicken Salad
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
Final Words
The best way to stick to your keto diet indeed is to make your food. However, it’s comforting to know that plenty of restaurants offer lots of keto-compatible options.
Since they are famous for their fried chicken, it makes sense for you to avoid eating at Cracker Barrel when you’re on keto.
Don’t get yourself down too fast.
They have plenty of keto options that you can choose from. You just need to keep in mind all the tips we’ve shared with you when ordering from this restaurant.
You can also order in a keto way at different restaurant or event desert shop, like Cheesecake Factory. We’ve done a detailed guide on our site.
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