10 McDonald's Breakfast Sandwich Hacks You'll Wish You Knew Sooner
McDonald's has the best fast food breakfast sandwiches in the game, that's not debatable. But did you know that you can take the basic McDonald's breakfast menu to the next level? By using these hacks you will be able to create the breakfast of your dreams, and perhaps, also your nightmares.
Food hacks are prone to going viral on TikTok and YouTube, and given how popular McDonald's is worldwide it makes sense there would be a ton for the chain. When it comes to breakfast sandwiches, there have been quite a few over the years. Between viral videos and established secret menu options at McDonald's, there are a number of ways to mix and match the chain's breakfast items into new configurations.
Some of these hacks involve ordering your breakfast sandwich a certain way (which, yes, you will get charged extra for if you get extra ingredients). Others will require some assembly on the part of the diner. McDonald's employees can push the limits, but sometimes it's on you figure out how to make it yourself with the items they will sell you.
1. Swap out your folded egg for a fresh one
This is an entry-level McDonald's breakfast hack, but it's one you need to know. McDonald's serves two types of eggs in its breakfast sandwiches (three in total, but we'll get to that later). The McGriddles, sometimes bagels, and biscuit sandwiches with eggs are served with folded eggs, which are not made fresh on the premises. Instead, the liquid egg used to make the folded egg is pre-cooked and folded before being flash-frozen. The McMuffin, on the other hand, is served with a freshly cracked round egg.
We could see why health-conscious McDonald's diners might want the fresh round egg instead of the folded egg on their sandwich. If you go up to the counter and order a round egg instead atop your biscuit or McGriddles sandwich, you will be able to get it. This will ensure that you get a real egg on your sandwich. Well, it's one way of doing it. There is another that is known by even fewer diners.
2. Or you can substitute scrambled eggs
You can also substitute scrambled eggs for folded eggs on the sandwiches that come with the latter option. These scrambled eggs come served with the chain's Big Breakfasts and inside its sausage breakfast burritos. While similar in appearance to the folded egg you'll find in the chain's McGriddles, the scrambled eggs are actually more authentic. They are made fresh and do not come pre-cooked like the folded eggs. The difference between the two is night and day.
According to the McDonald's website, these scrambled eggs are actually made from eggs cracked on location. Instead of eating the least fresh eggs on the menu, try asking for these scrambled eggs for a better breakfast order for free. Using this breakfast egg hack will get you a fresher version of the same sandwich you order and you likely will not have to pay a cent more for it either.
3. Turn Hash Browns into buns
Every breakfast sandwich needs a good vessel. There are a handful of factors involved in determining your favorite. Flavor, as well as structural integrity, are the reason many of the popular choices like bagels and biscuits can be found at McDonald's. For some, these conventions are not enough and there is a need to push the boundaries. Let that boundary-pushing begin with the most recent and benign of these hacks – the hash brown buns.
Putting McDonald's hash browns into your breakfast sandwich is a technique as old as the chain breakfast menu itself. Taking this a step further is this hash brown hack, where you order two hash browns instead of buns on your breakfast sandwich of choice. It is, at the very least, a gluten free and Keto-friendly alternative to the Sausage and Egg McMuffin, as seen in the original viral TikTok it was shown off in.
4. Or try eggs as buns instead
TikTok influencer Hellthyjunkfood shared a video of them ordering a breakfast sandwich with this unconventional set. Instead of eating the eggs inside the sandwich, as is the norm, they ordered a breakfast sandwich with eggs as buns. No, it's not a triple egg sandwich, as this suggestion might bring to mind, but a breakfast sandwich turned inside out.
This creation contained a fresh round McDonald's egg on each side acting as the buns. The filling is a sausage patty and melted cheese. This order ends up being a higher protein, lower carb alternative to a McDonald's breakfast that is usually stacked in the opposite direction.
Eggs are high in healthy proteins, so this may actually be healthier than the default sandwich for many diners. Just make sure to equip napkins before going in for this sandwich that will certainly get your fingers greasy, although not as greasy as the hash brown buns at least.
5. Stranger still, try the McMuffin with sausage buns
This creation is truly taking the way you can stack McDonald's breakfast ingredients to a new level. It starts by ordering a Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McMuffin without the muffin. Instead, you need to order it with the sausage as the bun. That means two sausage patties instead of a carbohydrate-loaded English muffin, for example, with a round egg and melted cheese on the inside.
TikTok user Blondeswhoeat posted this hack and before indulging in her sandwich she upped the ante a step higher by adding hash browns. This double meat sandwich now included everything you could want in a glorious fast food breakfast, only in an unconventional order.
We recommend this one for meat lovers, but it's also worth mentioning that this works to make any McDonald's breakfast sandwich lower in carbs and fats. The biscuits are just as bad as the muffins. If you are watching your heart health, the American Heart Association considers a diet high in these simple carbs a risk to cardiovascular health.
6. Get a Sausage and Egg McMuffin for cheap
This viral TikTok hack is admittedly outdated when it comes to how to get a cheaper sausage and egg McMuffin at McDonald's. When it comes to getting your money's worth though, the point still stands that the fast food chains rip you off when it comes to egg prices. The non-egg version of the breakfast sandwiches are significantly cheaper, especially when you take into account the price of a dozen eggs at your nearest market.
So yes, you can make an egg at home for your sandwich for a significantly cheaper breakfast experience. Chances are high that it will taste better too. If you don't want to go the homemade route, or are going to McDonald's because it's fast and you're going somewhere, there is still the option of getting an extra round egg or scrambled eggs on the side for between $2 and $3 per serving. On its own, this won't do much to impact the overall price of your meal (it will cost the same as the sandwich with the egg), but be sure to check the app for deals that may change that equation.
7. Add honey butter to your chicken biscuit
One of the secret winners of the McDonald's breakfast menu is the chicken biscuit. Although this isn't the most balanced breakfast and doesn't include an egg or cheese, the chicken biscuit takes McDonald's McChicken patty and places it on one of the chain's biscuits. It's a buttery slice of soul food from the burger chain, but it does have one fatal flaw that keeps it from being an instant classic for everyone.
The chicken biscuit at McDonald's is rather dry, which is exactly the problem this TikTok hack is meant to solve. TikTok creator Sarahmargareeats reminded us that during breakfast time you can order packets of butter on the side. This is meant for pancakes, but loyal McDonald's diners will remember that, oddly enough, honey is one of McDonald's dipping sauces and this one is available all day, including at breakfast time. Add honey and butter to your hot chicken biscuit to create sweet, warm deliciousness. You'll never eat a dry biscuit sandwich from McDonald's ever again after knowing this hack.
8. Recreate the Triple Stack
There have been a couple of times over the chain's history that McDonald's has allowed the breakfast Triple Stacks to rear their monstrous head. The last time these graced the menu officially was in 2018, when McDonald's offered three different Triple Stacks on the breakfast menu.
Essentially, these sandwiches are the Big Mac of the breakfast menu. Each behemoth is topped with two sausage patties and bacon, as well as the regular egg and cheese you will find on all the standard versions of these sandwiches. These were truly stacked high. The best part was that you could get the Triple Stack on a McGriddles, McMuffin, or a biscuit.
These long-lost items can be still created via menu hackery. You just have to order a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich and order bacon and a sausage patty on the side. It's a little annoying and you end up paying almost the price of two sandwiches. But if this doesn't immediately disgust you, it's probably worth trying once in your life.
9. Put eggs on a burger for a brunch sandwich
This hack began as an urban legend called the Mc10:35. Those were back in the days when McDonald's stopped serving breakfast at 10:30 am universally and hadn't yet experimented with and then turned its back on all-day breakfast. However, over the years, diners and food sleuths have found different ways to make a proper brunch burger at McDonald's. A cheeseburger with an egg, that is, to go along with your not-so French fries.
Back in the heyday of all-day breakfast 2018, this McDonald's hack was attempted and succeeded time and time again. Be it a Big Mac or a McChicken, you could ask to add round eggs or folded eggs to burgers or whatever type of sandwich you like.
In more recent times, this hasn't been a hack you can do all day, but it's still possible if you get to McDonald's as the window for breakfast is closing. Just make sure to ask nicely for an egg on the side, and see if the location still has some, and you can create your own McBrunch.
10. Upgrade your burrito or sandwich with picante ranch
This is another hack from Sarahmargareeats that takes advantage of mixing the extra freebies you can get from McDonald's into sauces that will totally transform your breakfast. This time around, it's a combination of McDonald's ranch with its picante salsa, a condiment that is usually seen at breakfast due to it being a companion the breakfast burrito. Yes, folks, this sausage burrito is the only Tex-Mex-inspired item on McDonald's menu whatsoever.
The trick is to order a side of picante salsa as well as a side of ranch dipping sauce. This is one of the dipping sauces that McDonald's has all day (technically you can ask for BBQ sauce in the morning too if you really want to). Then you just mix the salsa into the ranch cup and dip away. The video is shown using a burrito as the vessel, but we can imagine it's just as easy to turn this into a spread to put on your McDonald's breakfast sandwich of choice.