McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce is coming back again.
The burger giant said on Monday that it is bringing back the cult hit sauce for a limited time starting March 31, the third reintroduction of the dipping sauce since the cartoon program Rick & Morty reminded customers of its existence in a 2017 episode—but the first return in four years.
This time, however, the product is available exclusively on the McDonald’s app. The sauce will be provided free with any order of Chicken McNuggets.
The company has been hinting at the reintroduction on social media all weekend, asking customers via its Times Square billboard and on social to text a number for information on a mysterious sauce drop. The news was made official at midnight ET Monday on the company’s Twitter feed.
The sauce was originally introduced in 1998 as a tie-in to the Disney movie Mulan. The sauce features soy, garlic, ginger and vinegar. It will be part of the chain’s lineup of sauces provided with Chicken McNuggets, including Sweet n’ Sour, Ranch, Honey, Spicy Buffalo, Tangy BBQ and Honey Mustard.
This time, the sauces will be served in five limited-edition, golden foil packets that together spell “Szechuan.”
The sauce became a social media phenomenon after the Rick & Morty episode—one customer paid $15,000 on eBay for a sauce packet from 1998. The company then sent creators of the program a bottle of the sauce and shortly thereafter brought it back for a one-day run—but quantities were so limited that customers got angry. McDonald’s apologized and brought it back again a few months later.
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