High protein Panera orders, with macros

Every number below comes from Panera's US nutrition guide effective September 2, 2026. Panera lists nutrition per menu item, in half and whole sizes for salads, sandwiches and bowls, and cup and bowl sizes for soups, so the orders below are built by adding up those items. Panera's guide does not list chicken as a separate add-on, so every order uses set menu items. Recipes and portions can vary by bakery-cafe, so treat these as close estimates, not lab values.

The menu items that matter

These are the items with the most useful protein for the calories.

Two things stand out. Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup is the cheapest protein on the menu in calorie terms, with 10 grams for 120 calories in a cup, which makes it a useful add-on to almost any order. And the Smokehouse BBQ Chicken sandwich is unusually low in fat for a whole sandwich at 21 grams, compared with 51 grams for the Chicken Bacon Rancher, which has about the same protein.

Four orders, by goal

Cut. The Cobb gives the most protein of any Panera salad, and the soup adds 10 more grams for 120 calories. Carbs stay moderate and there is no bread on the tray.

Lean bulk. A whole Smokehouse BBQ Chicken sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup put you near 60 grams of protein with plenty of carbs, while fat stays low at 25.5 grams.

Training day. Half a sandwich and half a salad gives you 71 grams of carbs to fuel or refill around a session, with 42 grams of protein, at a moderate 700 calories.

Rest day. Fewer carbs, more fat from the Caesar, and protein held in the mid 40s. It is a change from the Cobb without giving up much protein.

Half sizes and soup sizes

Panera lists most salads, sandwiches and Market Bowls in half and whole sizes, and soups in a cup or a bowl. That makes it easy to scale an order up or down. A half portion is exactly half the whole in Panera's guide (the half Cobb is 290 calories and 20 grams of protein, the whole is 580 and 40), and a bowl of soup is about one and a half times a cup. On a cut, a whole salad plus a cup of soup usually beats a whole sandwich for protein per calorie. On a bulk, step up to the whole sandwich and the bowl of soup.

Simple rules that work at any Panera

1. Start with the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken when calories are tight; it has the most protein of any salad.
2. Add a cup of Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup for 10 grams of protein at 120 calories.
3. Pick a sandwich on training days and a salad on rest days.
4. Compare fat before you order a sandwich: the whole chicken sandwiches in the table above all land between 45 and 52 grams of protein, but fat ranges from 21 to 51 grams.
5. Use half sizes to build a mix instead of ordering two whole items.
6. Check Panera's current nutrition guide when the menu changes; seasonal soups and salads come and go.

How this fits a full day

A single meal is only part of the picture. Many people who lift or run eat more carbohydrate on hard training days and less on rest days, which is why the training-day and rest-day orders above split the way they do. If you would rather not work this out every time, restaurant recommendations in Siloh Pro pick orders that fit your plan for that day.