The Big Mac has been on McDonald’s menu for nearly 60 years, during which time it has become the chain’s signature item and arguably the most famous hamburger in the world.
The recipe—two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun—is like a mantra for fans of the Golden Arches. And it has not changed much since it was first concocted in 1967 by franchisee Jim Delligatti, who felt McDonald’s needed a bigger burger.
On Thursday, the chain is giving the Big Mac its biggest makeover ever (at least in the U.S.), transforming the double-decker beef sandwich into a platform for its hottest new menu category: chicken.
The Chicken Big Mac, which has been offered on and off internationally for years and was tested at about 50 Miami restaurants in 2022, will be available nationwide for four weeks, or while supplies last.
It arrives as consumers continue a torrid love affair with chicken. The protein is now neck-in-neck with beef at McDonald’s in terms of sales, and chains that specialize in chicken, such as Wingstop and Raising Cane’s, have been some of the fastest-growing in recent years.
It also comes as McDonald’s looks for ways to bring more customers to its restaurants after several quarters of negative traffic.
The Chicken Big Mac mimics the beef version in almost every way. | Photo courtesy of McDonald's
The 42,000-unit burger giant already has a lot of chicken on the menu. There are its popular Chicken McNuggets, the trusty McChicken and the newer McCrispy, hatched during the chicken sandwich wars of the early 2020s. With the Chicken Big Mac, it wanted to double down on the category in a bold way.
“We had the opportunity to do chicken like no one else,” said Marcelo Fajnerman, VP of menu strategy for McDonald’s U.S., in an interview. “Many people can do a chicken sandwich. Only McDonald’s can do a Chicken Big Mac.”
Not only that, he said, but customers have been asking for it. After learning that it was an option overseas, some trailblazers even went so far as to ask McDonald’s locations to cobble together a version of the sandwich using the ingredients they had on hand.
“The excitement was huge,” Fajnerman said. And McDonald’s in recent years has earned a reputation for listening to its customers, especially on social media, where cultural trends often take root.
The Chicken Big Mac landing in restaurants this week is virtually the same as its international predecessor. It features all of the components of the beefy original with two exceptions. There are no minced onions, which did not jive with the flavor profile of this iteration, Fajnerman said. (They would also have presented an operational challenge because, on a traditional Big Mac, the onions are cooked together with the beef.)
And in place of the two beef patties, the Chicken Big Mac has slabs of crispy, tempura-battered chicken. The filets are a new SKU for domestic McDonald’s, which determined that its existing chicken patty options were not a good fit for the Big Mac. The peppery McChicken overpowered the Big Mac sauce, and the thick McCrispy threw off the bun/sauce/protein ratio, Fajnerman said.
The chain ultimately landed on a product that is very similar to its Chicken McNuggets, which are also made with tempura batter. The white meat patty has a “clean” chicken flavor that allows the tangy sauce to shine, and the tempura brings a crispy dimension to the typical Big Mac bite.
Because the Chicken Big Mac has existed internationally for years, much of the R&D had already been done by McDonald’s global menu staff. The U.S. team under Fajnerman spent the past year or so scaling up production of the new patties and operationalizing the sandwich for its restaurants. For employees, the biggest difference between the chicken and beef Big Macs is that the partially cooked chicken patties are dropped in the fryer rather than cooked on a grill like beef.
As for price, a McDonald's spokesperson said that is determined by individual restaurants and can vary from place to place. As of June, the average price of a beef Big Mac in the U.S. was $5.69, according to the Economist's Big Mac Index.
At a tasting event held for press and social media influencers Wednesday at McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago, some attendees noted the satisfying crunch of the Chicken Big Mac imparted by the fried patties. Others said the Big Mac sauce paired well with the chicken. Napkins were needed, though, as the saucy sandwich tended to come apart somewhat during consumption.
Fajnerman said early customer reactions to the sandwich have been positive. “Based on what we know from other markets, we expect this to be both a sales driver and a traffic driver,” he said.
And though the Chicken Big Mac will only be available for a short time, Fajnerman did not rule out a return, or even a permanent spot on the menu someday.
“I wouldn’t say no. Maybe I would say maybe,” he said. “We will know in the future.”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.