Why McDonald’s Doesn’t Make a Hash Brown Breakfast Sandwich

McDonald’s has tried some interesting flavor combinations and menu items over the years, from a teriyaki chicken sandwich to “McExtreme” pulled pork. But the fast food chain has never tried a hash brown breakfast sandwich, despite the efforts of a former chef.

Responding to a video of a McDonald’s customer making his own breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg and cheese between two hash browns, chef Mike Haracz explained on his TikTok account that he brought up the idea back when he was under the golden arches worked. but the bosses didn’t want to do it. A hash brown breakfast sandwich had too many calories and was too “operationally complex” to add to menus, he claimed he was told. “Too many people would order it and the kitchen would crash and burn,” he said in his TikTok video.

Additionally, a hash brown breakfast sandwich would probably be a structural nightmare. To maintain its structure, the hash browns would need to remain crispy and intact, which could be challenging when layered with the other ingredients and placed in a wrapper or box.

According to Mike Haracz’s video, McDonald’s bosses supposedly thought a hash brown breakfast sandwich would contain too many calories, but how many calories would that actually be? Although there is no official answer, a good estimate is somewhere in the range of 480 to 760 calories, assuming a sausage, egg, and cheese on an English muffin is 480 calories and each hash brown is 140 calories. Not that high when you compare it to the McDonald’s Big Breakfast with Hotcakes, which has 1,340 calories.

As for the argument that a hash brown breakfast sandwich would be too operationally complex and clog up the breakfast service, it’s hard to say whether that’s true. Former McDonald’s employees weighed in in the comments section of Haracz’s video, with one user noting that each location likely needed a separate fryer just for the hash browns. “It’s hard enough making hash browns during a big crowd,” another person wrote.

Whether these justifications from McDonald’s executives are legitimate or just corporate bureaucracy, we will never know. But rest assured, you can always build your own hash brown breakfast sandwich from McDonald’s menu items or make it yourself at home (complete with recreated McDonald’s breakfast sauce).