I tried 9 items off McDonald’s ‘secret menu,’ and it turns out the best item could also be the hardest to get (MCD)

Irene Jiang / Business Insider

• Business Insider recently tried nine items on McDonald’s legendary secret menu, which it turns out it mostly unofficial. 
• We found the Chicken McGriddle, a combination of a McChicken and a McGriddle, to be the best item on it.
• It’s also one of the hardest items to acquire because both breakfast and lunch items must be available at the same time.
• McDonald’s franchises will soon individually decide their breakfast menus and hours, meaning the availability of the Chicken McGriddle could differ from franchise to franchise.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort."

This rings true for the item most worth having on McDonald’s secret menu: the Chicken McGriddle. A combination of a McGriddle and a McChicken, the Chicken McGriddle packs a crunchy, salty, chicken center in between two pillowy and sticky-sweet McGriddle buns. 

Of all the items on the secret menu — which, as I recently found out, is more a collection of DIY fan recipes than an actual menu — this slapdash chicken-and-waffles proxy was by far my favorite. I would not say no to a Chicken McGriddle. I’d probably even let someone bribe me with one. Not that they’d have to: the combination costs a relatively affordable $5.29 plus tax in New York City.

Irene Jiang / Business Insider

The result is a sandwich that hits all the high notes of a show-stopping chicken-and-waffles duet — sweet and savory, fluffy and crunchy — but at a matinee price. 

Read more: Plant-based ‘meat’ is conquering fast food. Here’s where you can get meat substitutes like the Beyond Burger and the Impossible Taco.

Customers can also choose to include egg, cheese, or any other McGriddle component for an extra dose of DIY to their brunch. 

However, since McDonald’s plans to end its standardized all-day breakfast, the availability of breakfast items will soon vary from franchise to franchise. Like the Mc10:35 am — a secret-menu combination McGriddle and McDouble — the Chicken McGriddle will only be reliably available during the brief, brilliant overlap between breakfast and lunch that happens around 10:35 am.

But if your favorite franchise keeps the McGriddle on its all-day breakfast menu, that means you can have your brunch sandwich — and eat it too — for dinner. 

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See Also:

• Burger King and Wendy’s slam Jack in the Box after Kim Kardashian tweets a mysterious complaint about the burger chain
• I tried to order 9 things from McDonald’s ‘secret menu’ — but it was a much bigger challenge than I expected
• Chick-fil-A is testing spicy chicken strips as the chain looks to expand its spicy menu offerings

SEE ALSO: 16 McDonald’s menus items that you can no longer order, from infamous flops to beloved losses

Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Irene Jiang)