McDonald's is famous for its breakfast menu, and you probably already have some favorites
from the standard options. But there's no need to limit yourself to the official selections.
With that in mind, here are the best McDonald's breakfast hacks to start your day off right.
In 2015, McDonald's started to roll out all-day breakfast.
While the obvious takeaway is that you can now order McMuffins and McGriddles whenever you want,
there's another benefit: eggs are being cooked all day, which means that they're
available as an add-on to whatever you like. Thus we've entered the era of the brunch burger!
Pretty much any order is fair game for eggs, from Big Macs to Quarter Pounders.
That goes for both the round eggs, which are the fresher ones, and the yellow square folded eggs,
which are made with a liquid egg mixture. Both turn your everyday McDonald's burger
into a brunch burger special. Of course, just because you can order something doesn't mean
the cashier taking your order will know what you mean, so be prepared for some
potential pushback from employees. One of the best ways to use the egg addition is to make
Dollar Menu items more filling, resulting in a satisfying sandwich that's still pretty cheap.
McDonald's debuted its Triple Breakfast Stack sandwich in the United States back in 2018.
It consisted of two sausage patties, two slices of American cheese,
thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, and egg. For the bun, it came with the option of one
of three different kinds of bread: the McMuffin, the McGriddle, or biscuits.
While you can still find the Triple Breakfast Stack listed on McDonald's website, it comes
with the disclaimer that it's available only "at participating McDonald's for a limited time."
Unfortunately, you can't find it on the regular breakfast menu.
This means that it's once again up to customers themselves to hack their way to a beloved Triple
Breakfast Stack. To make one, order your sandwich of choice: either a Sausage McMuffin with Egg;
a Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle; or a Sausage Biscuit with Egg. Then ask to add
extra sausage and bacon. If you go with the biscuit option, remember to add cheese. It's
not as easy as ordering a straightforward Triple Stack, but it gets the job done.
In the dark days before McDonald's offered breakfast 24/7, customers had to resort to
carefully timed orders if they wanted something that used both breakfast and regular menu items.
The most famous of these was arguably the Mc10:35, also known as the McBrunch, which is essentially a
McDouble with an Egg McMuffin on top. The burger buns are typically the ones used for this hack,
though a McMuffin can be swapped in as well. The Mc10:35 got its name because it refers to
the exact moment in time when you could purchase the two orders necessary to pull it off. 10:35
a.m. was that magical in-between moment when McDonald's was switching from breakfast to lunch,
so options from both menus could be procured. The Mc10:35 also achieved
some big-screen fame when it inspired a scene in the 1999 Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy.
"Breakfast is over at 10:30."
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
"I thought it was 11:00."
"I thought that, too."
"Total mindblow."
Thanks to the switch to all-day breakfast, the time indicated in the name is no longer as vital
to the order as it once was. To try one for yourself, order an Egg McMuffin and a McDouble,
then simply place the insides of the McMuffin in the burger. If you'd rather have McMuffins as your
carbs, simply remove the burger buns and place the McDouble inside the McMuffin. And whenever
you have a hankering for this particular hack, just remind yourself that it's 10:35 somewhere.
Few breakfast meals perfectly toe the line of sweet and savory like chicken and waffles.
Something about rich maple syrup and fluffy bread just makes it the perfect match for salty
fried chicken. While McDonald's doesn't have an official chicken and waffles option, it is
possible to get a close approximation by modifying a regular order. It all starts with the McGriddle.
The maple-flavored griddle pancakes are sweet without being sticky, thanks to some cunning
engineering. Sausage is the meat of choice if you go off of the regular menu, but you can order
a Hot 'N Spicy McChicken Biscuit and swap the protein for a spicy chicken and waffles version.
It's possible to take this chicken and waffles approach to a bigger meal as well.
One former McDonald's employee claimed on Reddit that the best breakfast order
was a Big Breakfast With Hotcakes, which consists of hotcakes, sausage, a biscuit,
eggs, and hash browns. You can replace the sausage with chicken and the biscuit with
a McGriddle. The result is a meal that's reminiscent of classic chicken and waffles
that will keep you full for more hours than you'd probably like to admit.
"Clavis, what you want to do now?"
"Chicken and waffles!"
"Oh yeah! I do enjoy chicken and waffles after building a car from scratch."
There's a good chance that anyone who's a fan of French food or the foodie lifestyle in general is
familiar with crepes. They're essentially thin pancakes without raising agents that can be
sweet or savory. They can come with any number of fillings, including fruit, whipped cream,
spices, and cheese. If you can fit an ingredient into a thin pancake, there's
a chance that someone somewhere in the world is making a crepe with that exact ingredient.
The hackable McDonald's version of a crepe, known as a "McCrepe," is slightly different.
The most obvious difference is that McDonald's doesn't serve the thin pancakes necessary for a
fully authentic experience. But that hasn't stopped the McCrepe from becoming one of
the most popular secret menu items. To make one yourself, order a hotcake and a yogurt parfait.
Then put the parfait onto the hotcake and fold it just like you would with a crepe.
Once you've done that, you can then add granola, bacon,
syrup, ice cream, or pretty much any ingredient that's available at your local McDonald's.
On its website, McDonald's describes its hash browns as "perfectly crispy," while also noting
that they're, quote, "fluffy on the inside and crispy and toasty on the outside." Customers agree
that these are indeed some of the best fast food hash browns around. But they're not quite crispy
enough for some people. Luckily for them, there's a simple solution: order them well done. As Peter
Pham, for one, revealed in FoodBeast, extra crispy hash browns were some of his favorite things to
make for his break during his years as a teenage McDonald's employee. All he had to do to get them
to the appropriately cooked level was let the hash brown patties cook for a couple of extra minutes.
The result is a hash brown that's slightly darker in color but texturally much crispier
with a crunch that's very satisfying as you bite into it. As an added bonus, these modified hash
browns won't get super soggy if you're ordering to go. Be aware, though, that this hack will take
a little longer and may annoy some employees who are rushing to get everything out for a line of
impatient customers. So be thoughtful and try to attempt this hack only at the appropriate time,
that is, when it's not too busy and there's not too much pressure on the staff.
Getting your hash browns extra crispy isn't the only thing you should be doing
with potato products to make the most of your McDonald's breakfast.
The McMuffin, one of the most popular McDonald's breakfast items,
is made all the better with the addition of a hash brown inside the sandwich. There's even a
video on McDonald's YouTube channel that calls this modification the "Menu Remix Number 82."
The construction is surprisingly easy; in fact, it's even simpler than making a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich at home. First, order a McMuffin and a hash brown patty. Then take the top off
the McMuffin, place the hash brown inside, and then put the English muffin top back on.
That's all there is to it! The construction may be fairly simple, but the flavor is truly next level.
McDonald's doesn't make how-to videos for any old breakfast hack, after all.
And don't feel the need to limit yourself to just reworking McMuffins.
You can also throw hash browns on burgers or bagels as well. The sky's the limit!
Chicken cordon bleu is a heavy yet irresistible meal with plenty of meat wrapped around plenty
of cheese. It was first created in the 1940s in Switzerland using thinly pounded and fried veal.
Chicken has replaced veal in some recipes over time,
but whichever meat you go with, the dish remains a classic.
McDonald's version, the Chicken Cordon Bleu McMuffin, is decidedly not fine dining. But
it is a delicious meal in a pinch, and it has the added bonus of a McDonald's round egg.
You can procure one by simply ordering a chicken biscuit and an Egg McMuffin with Canadian bacon.
Then open the top of the Egg McMuffin, take out the chicken from the chicken biscuit,
and put it on top of the Canadian bacon. And voilà: now you've got a McDonald's chicken
cordon bleu! There may be a possibility that your local McDonald's cashiers already know
about this hack and can make one without you having to assemble it for yourself. But if not,
that's okay, because it doesn't exactly take a degree from Le Cordon Bleu to make one yourself.
If you really, really enjoy hash browns, there's even more that you can do with them
than making them extra crispy or adding them to breakfast sandwiches and burgers.
This hack is for the ultimate McDonald's hash brown lover who will rejoice at the prospect of
using hash brown patties themselves as the bun. If you want to try it, order the hash browns and get
them extra crispy. This will ensure that they're sturdy enough to carry the weight of a sandwich.
In 2016, some Canadian McDonald's locations were actually selling a hash brown burger and waffle
fries combo. Alas, it apparently wasn't enough of a hit to bring this offering south of the border,
but that shouldn't stop anyone from making their own version. All it really takes is adding two
hash browns to your order and doing some light assembly. Just be prepared to eat it quickly,
as hash browns lack the structural integrity of more traditional bun options,
so you may be racing against the clock of disintegration.
If you're the type of breakfast fan who lands squarely on the sweet side of the menu,
this hack is for you. The "McAffogato", as many fans call it, is an ice cream and espresso drink
that's the absolute sweetest way to get your caffeine fix at McDonald's. An affogato, which
is sometimes also known as a vanilla espresso shake, is an Italian dessert drink that includes
a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over it. That may sound a little
too fancy and European to be able to score at a classic American fast food joint like McDonald's,
but there really is a way to pull it off. The McAffogato takes just two orders to make on your
own. All you'll need to ask for are an espresso shot and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But do keep
in mind that when it comes to frozen dessert orders at McDonald's, you have to be prepared
for the possibility that the ice cream machine isn't working. At least you can always lean on
the very handy McBroken app if you want to know if your nearest location has a working machine.
You can play around with the strength of your drink depending on how you like it.
TikTok is full of McDonald's hacks, and you can easily find a TikToker demonstrating the
standard option of one shot of espresso per one small ice cream. Meanwhile, another TikToker opts
for a double espresso in a medium milkshake. Really, any size and ratio is fair game for
this particular hack. Just make sure you have a large enough cup so the mixture doesn't spill.
Now, get a good night's sleep, get up early, find those golden arches, and start hacking!
"12 hours from now, it's breakfast!"
"Breakfast!"
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