Low Calorie Chicken Wraps – Tried and Tasted

By WLR's Jenny Fletcher

Finding the time to make a healthy lunch is not always easy – sometimes we just can’t fit it in and find ourselves ‘lunchless’ with a rumbling tummy! With this in mind, the Tried and Tasted Team wanted to test the best of the lunch options available if you can’t find the time to make yours. As usual we’ve been out and about in the supermarkets scanning the shelves and have come up with five healthy chicken wraps all under 310 calories to put to the taste test.

Grabbing a wrap on the go is not always the healthiest option. Many are packed with sauces and dressings that up the calories and pile on the pounds – but are ‘healthy’ chicken wraps any better? Your trusty Tried and Tasted Team has fearlessly eaten some delicious (and some not-so-delicious) low calorie wraps and rated them on appearance, smell, taste, satisfaction and texture. Have a look and see what they thought so that next time you find yourself stuck without lunch and in a panic, you can make the right choice!

And don’t forget, if you love a lunchtime low calorie wrap but want to make your own, there’s plenty of great ideas in the WLR recipe database. Why not take a look and get inspired to create a healthy chicken wrap of your own . Try it free for 24 hours!

Our Tasters scored all the wraps out of 5 and they have all been ranked in order according to their score.

Product Name	Marks and Spencer Count on Us Nacho Chicken Wrap	Boots Shapers Barbecue Chicken Wrap	Morrisons Eat Smart Chicken Fajita Wrap
Ranking	1	2	3
Appearance	Every taster commented on how colourful and healthy this wrap looked. Packed full of chicken and veg we were hopeful it would make an appetising lunch!	Another fairly colourful wrap that looked tasty. The Tasters were looking forward to the plentiful lashings of barbecue sauce too!	Another promising start to tempt us. Not as colourful as the higher placed wraps but still plenty of fresh salad which pleased our Tasters.
Smell	Not a strong smell but a good mix of herbs and spices.	The dominant smell was barbecue sauce – but we liked it!	No real smell to excite us – the Tasters were disappointed (although at least it didn’t smell horrible!)
Taste	This wrap tasted delicious and definitely not low calorie! The Taste Team loved the mixture of flavours and spice. Our only complaint was that it was slightly on the dry side – we would have liked more sauce!	Barbecue sauce was a real winner with our Taste Team. It made a dull chicken salad a little tastier and we were reaching for seconds. This wrap does require that you like barbecue sauce – one Taster who doesn’t was left feeling a bit queasy!	Spicy and tangy as you would expect from a chicken fajita wrap, although the team were a bit disappointed that the spices overpowered everything else. Other than the spice it was a bit bland but not unpleasant.
Filling/Satisfying?	We thought the serving size seemed slightly small but we enjoyed it nonetheless and thought it would make a satisfying lunch.	As long as you like the sauce you’ll be happy to munch this for lunch and feel full afterwards.	‘Fairly satisfying,’ ‘okay,’ ‘might be.’ The general consensus was ‘fairly average,’ a bit like the wrap. Perhaps you would need an extra snack to fill you up.
Texture/Consistency	A good crunch and not a hint of sogginess in sight! Phew!	Another crunchy and fresh low calorie wrap! Yum!	A bit squidgy and didn’t seem as fresh as the two higher scoring wraps, but it wasn’t soggy which was a definite positive.
Conclusion	This wrap looked and tasted great and the Tasters were unanimous in giving it their top vote. Watch out, as it is at the high end of the scale for calories and fat and is the highest in price (our team clearly have expensive taste!) but if you’ve got a spare bit of dosh and are in a rush you won’t go wrong with this healthy chicken wrap.	A very close second for Boots, but scored slightly lower because not all the Tasters were keen on barbecue sauce. Good appearance and texture – just watch out if you’re not a fan of that sauce! Medium on calories but be wary of the higher fat content – again we couldn’t tell that it was a low calorie wrap!	This wrap wasn’t anything special to wow you, but it won’t make you want to spit it out again! It’s not a very exciting lunchtime treat and we think you can find better. However it is a good low calorie and low fat wrap compared to the others which might sway your choice.
Serving Size	1 pack	1 pack	1 pack
Calories	300	283	255
Fat	4.6g	4.9g	4.0g
Price	£2.75	£2.60	£2.00

Product Name	Sainsbury’s Be Good to Yourself Honey and Mustard Chicken Salad Wrap	Boots Shapers Red Thai Chicken Wrap
Ranking	4	5
Appearance	‘Anaemic, boring and bland’ said the Tasters, (except for one who put ‘lively’ – we think she was looking at the wrong wrap). We were not excited to eat this one.	Another slightly pale wrap with not much going on. One Taster felt it was ‘a bit pathetic looking.’
Smell	Despite the appearance, the Taste Team felt it smelled ‘fresh.’ However most noted that the strongest smells were lettuce and cucumber! As these are not renowned for being pungent, it didn’t bode well.	No smell – which was unfortunate as this meant there was no warning of what was to come!
Taste	Mustardy! And a bit more mustard! This is the only low calorie, low fat wrap available at Sainsbury’s so if you don’t like mustard then shop elsewhere! Mustard is always strong and in this case overpowered all the other flavours. If you like mustard you’ll be fine – unfortunately most of our Tasters don’t.	Oh no! This was not a good tasting experience. The Taste Team really do suffer sometimes! The ‘Thai’ flavours tasted artificial and chemically – like a mouthful of perfume. Boots attempt at Thai would have been more at home in their perfume aisle than our lunchboxes. Avoid feeling queasy by avoiding this low calorie wrap. And we don’t recommend you wear it as perfume either!
Filling/Satisfying?	Even for our one mustard-lover, this amount of the stuff was a bit much. We don’t think we can stomach a whole wrap of this mustard mayhem! It also tasted like a low calorie wrap which didn’t impress our tasters much.	Another one that we wouldn’t be able to finish. Less satisfying – more sickening.
Texture/Consistency	‘Clingy, claggy, stodgy’ said one Taster. The rest of the team were slightly more forgiving but did agree this wrap was slightly on the soggy side – and no one likes a soggy wrap!	‘Like eating a slug!’ Need we say more?
Conclusion	This healthy chicken wrap didn’t go down well with the Taste Team, even with the one member who did like mustard. Its real low-point was the sogginess (and the mustard). It’s high in calories, although medium for fat but in the end it just didn’t cut the mustard!	Boots really disappointed us with their healthy chicken wrap. Despite their successful barbecue wrap, everything went wrong with this one. It wins on being a low calorie and low fat wrap, but there’s no need for the mouthful of artificial chemicals. We are prepared to count our calories but we won’t compromise on taste!
Serving Size	1 pack	1 pack
Calories	305	234
Fat	4.4g	3.6g
Price	£2.30	£2.25

The winner of the healthy chicken wraps round was Marks and Spencer Count on Us Nacho Chicken wrap. Full of flavour and delicious ingredients and no sogginess! Although we tasted some good (and not so good) low calorie and low fat wraps, the Taste Team felt that they are still high in calories for what you get. So if you have the time, a homemade lunch will do you much better and you’ll get more for your calories. If you’re in a rush and need lunch on the go we’ve found some delicious options for you to try – just don’t forget to log them!

That’s a wrap guys!