Spicy chicken nuggets are back at McDonald's. Here's how the McDonald's menu has changed through the years
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- The McDonald's menu has changed drastically since Ray Kroc opened his first franchise in 1955.
- McDonald's limited its menu in response to COVID-19, but it has also recently added new options.
- McDonald's just relaunched spicy chicken nuggets in select locations for a limited time.
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The new menu included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie.
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In 2013, McDonald's had a whopping 145 items on its menu, with more being added consistently. Around the world, McDonald's visitors can try a variety of exclusive menu items not available in the US, like a chicken sandwich topped with mozzarella sticks in South Korea.
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McDonald's stopped serving all-day breakfast and removed its chicken tenders, grilled chicken sandwich, and salads from menus nationwide.
"To simplify operations in our kitchens and for our crew, and ensure the best possible experience for our customers, we are working with our franchisees and local restaurants to focus on serving our most popular choices and will begin temporarily removing some items from the menu," Bill Garrett, McDonald's senior vice president of operations, said in a statement to Business Insider in March 2020.
While some items are back, others have been permanently cut from the menu.
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The new item called Triple Thick Milkshakes were made using Multimixer. The addition of milkshakes to the McDonald's menu would completely shift the future of the chain.
After Multimixer salesman Ray Kroc visited the original McDonald's brothers to sell them more mixers, he became intrigued in the business. He would go on to purchase the small business and become the tycoon and leader of the fast-food giant for 30 years.
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McFlurries have come out in a variety of delicious flavors including Oreo, M&M, and the brand new Oreo Shamrock McFlurry.
In addition to McFlurries, McDonald's still offers "triple-thick" milkshakes in chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
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It was created in 1962 by Lou Groen, a McDonald's franchise owner in Cincinnati, Ohio, after he realized hamburger sales were declining on Fridays during the season of Lent. By 1965, it was a staple on menus nationwide and is still popular each spring.
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The ad, which showed a bass wall decoration singing "Gimme Back That Filet-O-Fish" cemented the sandwich's place in McDonald's history.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, 300 million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches were sold in 2013 alone.
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Created by owner and operator Jim Delligatti of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1967, the first "Big Mac" featured a triple-decker burger and sold for 45 cents.
When the burger was chosen to roll out across the US, there was a lot of deliberation over the name. Two other name options included the Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger, but both were nixed.
However, Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old secretary for the company's advertising department in 1967, had the winning name — "Big Mac." According to the AP, executives and other employees at the time laughed at the name. However, it stuck and went on to become "one of the best-known product names of all time."
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Little has changed about the burger's appearance since its debut. However, McDonald's announced on October 1, 2018, that it would remove all artificial preservatives, flavors, and coloring from the Big Mac.
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The Double Big Mac contains four beef patties instead of two. The chain also released a smaller version of the Big Mac, called the Little Mac, that only has one patty and two buns.
The coronavirus pandemic and meat plant closures caused some competing chains to cut back on stacked burgers. However, while McDonald's says its meat supply chain has been unaffected, the double-stacked Big Mac has been removed from menus, at least for now.
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Southern California franchisee Mike Pernecky had asked the chain to release a burger bigger than the Quarter Pounder. Pernecky worked with the McDonald's corporate culinary team to develop the Angus burgers, helping the chain to release the new entrée in Deluxe, Bacon & Cheese, and Mushroom & Swiss styles.
However, after a three-month deliberation, McDonald's made the decision to pull its thicker burgers in 2013. That same year, McDonald's also pulled its Fish McBites, a spin-off of the popular Filet-O-Fish sandwich.
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However, while Double Quarter Pounders are a staple on most US-based McDonald's menus, you won't always find them worldwide.
In August 2019, McDonald's announced it would be bringing the famous burger back to the UK and Ireland after an eight-year hiatus. However, the burger only remained on menus for seven weeks before it was discontinued again.
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The "Cactus Jack" meal included a Quarter Pounder with cheese, bacon, and lettuce, plus a medium fry with barbecue sauce, and a Sprite with extra ice, all for just $6.
After its release, the meal deal exploded on the internet, even causing some locations to experience a burger shortage as a result of the hoards of people trying to get their hands on Scott's signature order.
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According to USA Today, many diners in the 1980s were looking to reduce their fat intake and were shaking up their diets by introducing more lean protein and poultry and cutting out red meat. For McDonald's, adding chicken to their menu was a no-brainer.
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The menu item was thought to be in response to the flourishing market for fast-food chicken products, as well as the smash success of Wendy's spicy chicken nuggets.
However, Business Insider's Irene Jiang found that while the idea for spicy chicken nuggets was interesting, the reality fell far short of her expectations.
The limited-edition spicy chicken nuggets were discontinued not long after they launched, but have since been brought back to participating restaurants for a limited time. Check your local McDonald's menu to see if they offer the new spicy nuggets, as they've been spotted at locations in Texas and New York.
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The BTS meal came with a 10-piece chicken nugget, french fries, a Coke, and two new sauces — the Sweet Chili and Cajun sauces. The meal cost $9.68 when purchased by an Insider reporter in New York City in the medium size, while the large size ran for around $12.29.
According to a report by Insider, fans of BTS were so desperate to get their hands on the new meal collaboration that people were reselling the paper bags, boxes, drink cups, and sauces that come with the meal for more than double the standard selling price.
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The chicken sandwich didn't perform as well as expected and was quickly replaced with the now-famous Chicken McNuggets. After the chicken nuggets took off, the McChicken made its way back onto menus in 1988.
It was removed and re-released several times over the next decade, only to be removed most recently at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The sandwich was released nationally on February 24 after a successful testing period in select cities.
The sandwich comes in three versions: original, spicy, and deluxe. Some have compared the chain's new offerings with competitors like Chick-fil-A, and one Insider reporter even noted that they tasted almost identical.
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However, they disappeared off of menus in 2013.
"As always, we are constantly evolving our menu and listening to our customers to meet their changing needs," McDonald's representative Danya Proud said in a statement.
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"Our customers expect and deserve more from us, which pushed us to not only pursue a buttermilk crispy tender option but also ensure 100% white meat chicken with no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives," a McDonald's representative told Business Insider at the time. "We are now also offering our most extensive line of dipping sauces ever with this new dish."
After they were released, they promptly sold out in a huge success not replicated until the Popeyes chicken sandwich. The chicken tenders still appear to be a popular menu item, despite being removed from menus as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The original idea for the Happy Meal is said to have come from a McDonald's employee in Guatemala named Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño. Fernández de Cofiño developed a meal deal she called the "Menu Ronald," which included a hamburger, small fries, and a small sundae specifically for kids.
McDonald's advertising executive Bob Bernstein then introduced the idea to swap the small sundae for a plastic toy. In 1979, McDonald's rolled out its first Happy Meal nationwide. The first one was circus-themed.
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In 2018, McDonald's removed chocolate milk and cheeseburgers from its Happy Meal menu.
The chain has promised that at least 50% of Happy Meals will be 600 or fewer calories and also have reduced sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar by 2022.
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After four years of lackluster sales, it was removed from the chain's menu. However, in 1989, the McRib returned. Until 2005, the item could be found on many McDonald's menus worldwide and is a staple at locations in Germany and Luxembourg.
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McDonald's relaunched its McRib sandwich across the US on December 2, 2020, after legions of McRib fans begged the fast-food chain to bring the menu item back nationally for years.
The fast-food chain had been hyping up the menu item's long-awaited return for weeks, including launching a sweepstake that gives 10,000 fans the chance to get a free sandwich. The limited-time-only menu item was brought back again in October 2021, but is no longer available.
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Supersize fries came in a 7-ounce carton, versus the 6-ounce carton of the "large" fries size. In 2004, McDonald's announced it would be phasing out its supersized options in what spokesman Walt Riker described as a move towards "menu simplification."
Many, however, believed the action to be a result of the 2004 documentary film, "Supersize Me," in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate McDonald's food every day for a month and documented his deteriorating health.
Riker said at the time that the decision had "nothing to do with that (film) whatsoever."
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The menu featured items considered to be low-fat, low-calorie, and low-carb, including a grilled chicken sandwich and fruit yogurt.
"We created the McDonald's Real Life Choices program to make it easy for our customers to eat at McDonald's no matter what their lifestyle," Ed Acre, a McDonald's restaurant owner, said at the time.
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However, salads were removed as part of the new, "simplified" coronavirus pandemic menu.
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In 2012, McDonald's opened its first vegetarian restaurant in Amritsar, India. In India, most of the population are Hindu and don't consume beef, and in 2012, 42% of the population reported avoiding meat altogether.
According to McDonald's India's website, the menu still offers a number of interesting vegetarian menu items, including the McVeggie and the vegan McAloo which features a fried patty made from potatoes and peas.
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Though the burger has yet to roll out nationwide, Business Insider had the opportunity to try the new menu item, which comes off the heels of the successful Impossible Whopper sold at Burger King.
There's a huge opportunity in the fast-food industry for vegan and vegetarian menu items. According to a previous article by Business Insider, the addition of the Impossible Whopper showed to boost sales at Burger King, something analysts believe McDonald's may be trying to replicate in its own restaurants.
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Kroc later told the story of how the Egg McMuffin came to be in his 1977 autobiography, "Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald's."
"He didn't want me to reject it out of hand, which I might have done, because it was a crazy idea — a breakfast sandwich," Kroc wrote. "It consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle, with the yolk broken, and was dressed with a slice of cheese and a slice of grilled Canadian bacon. This was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin. I boggled a bit at the presentation. But then I tasted it, and I was sold."
According to Time, Patty Turner, the wife of a McDonald's executive, came up with the name "Egg McMuffin." By 1975, the Egg McMuffin was being sold nationwide for the low price of 63 cents.
By 1981, breakfast accounted for 18% of all McDonald's sales, Time reported.
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In 1993, McDonald's opened the first McCafé in Melbourne, Australia. In 2015, the company expanded its breakfast menu to be all day. McDonald's also released two new chicken-based breakfast sandwiches nationwide in an effort to compete with rival restaurants Chick-fil-A, Wendy's, and Popeyes.
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McDonald's US President Joe Erlinger tweeted after the announcement in March 2020, "All day breakfast's response to this news: 'I'll be back.'"
However, years later, All Day Breakfast still has not returned to most US restaurants, and many McDonald's franchisees and workers are rallying for the famous all-day menu to never return.
"As McDonald's and franchisees evaluate if and how we bring All Day Breakfast back to our menus, we want to ensure these improvements will remain consistent for our customers," McDonald's said in a statement to Business Insider. "Any final decision will be made in partnership with our franchisees, based on consumer demand, and designed to drive the business while minimizing operational disruptions."
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The new coffee chain would operate as a smaller sect of the larger McDonald's franchise. The first US location opened in Chicago, Illinois, in 2001. McDonald's relaunched McCafé branded products in 2017 after shifting its focus away from the coffee brand.
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You can purchase everything from coffee favorites like caramel macchiatos and french vanilla lattes to the iconic Shamrock Shake.
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Spam is extremely popular on the island state. However, while one Hawaii-based blogger said you could still find the item on Hawaiian McDonald's menus in 2019, Spam appears to have since been removed.
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The McDonald's Big Breakfast platter includes a biscuit, sausage, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and hash browns.
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A national menu item in the 1980s and 1990s, McDonald's pizza is now discontinued in most locations. As of 2017, there were only three McDonald's locations in the US that still sold it — Pomeroy, Ohio; Spenser, West Virginia; and Orlando, Florida.
Now, according to Yelp reviews, only the Orlando location still sells pizza, which makes sense considering it is one of the largest McDonald's in the world. The menu also includes paninis.
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The very first "McLobster" was released in 1993 and was brought back on-and-off throughout the 2000s.
In 2016, McDonald's relaunched its $9 lobster roll in a number of New England locations. Made with "100% North Atlantic lobster meat," the rolls have yet to make their buttery return to menus in the past few years.
There are a number of other McDonald's menu items you can no longer order in the US, including mozzarella sticks and McSpaghetti.
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