Want Real Eggs at McDonald's? Just Ask!

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated August 10, 2018
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J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

I gotta admit it: I have a secret love for McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. On the morning after a rough night out, I wake up with a deep hole in the pit of my stomach. A McDonald's bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit-shaped hole that I only know of one way to fill. If you don't know what I'm talking about or feel like averting your eyes in disgust at the image of that neatly-wrapped bundle of salt and fat above, then you may as well hit the close button on your browser right now. This is not the post for you.

For the rest of you, come with me. I've got a little secret to share.

Are we all in agreement that the biscuit option at McDonald's is the best of the sandwich-holders, handily defeating the lame English muffins, trouncing those squishy round things they like to call bagels, and narrowly edging out the salty-sweet pleasure of a McGriddle?

And are we also in agreement that the worst part of their biscuit sandwiches is that strangely folded egg patty? It's pre-cooked, reheated, rubbery, oddly flavored, not completely unpleasant, but definitely not egg-like.

Well here's the deal: you can get your McDonald's biscuit sandwiches (or any breakfast sandwich, for that matter) made with a 100% real egg, cracked and cooked fresh on-premises. All you've got to do is tell the cashier that you'd like your sandwich made with a "round egg" and they'll replace your folded egg patty with a real egg, free of charge.

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It'll even appear on your receipt that way. The round eggs are the same ones they use on the Egg McMuffin, made from a real egg cooked on the flattop in a ring-shaped mold. The difference it makes for the sandwich is huge.

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An egg sandwich from McDonald's that actually tastes like egg? Who'da thunk it?

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Take a look at their relative cross-sections. The round egg even has a touch of lightly-cooked, soft yolk in the center. Just like a real fried egg. Almost.

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