Why McDonald's Will Never Sell Onion Rings, According To A Former Chef

Alli Neal
·3 min read
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A pile of onion rings
A pile of onion rings - Debbismirnoff/Getty Images

Former Mickey D's corporate chef Mike Haracz is back again, shedding light on all your biggest questions about the fast food chain via TikTok. And recently, he answered a commenter's question about sides: Why doesn't McDonald's serve onion rings?

First and foremost, he says, it's because of efficiency and scale. The company wants to sell one thing to everyone rather than many things because it's more efficient, and greater efficiency is more profitable. Moreover, Haracz shares that the markup on fries is "pretty bad," by which he means for consumers — it's great for McDonalds. The company's profit margin on french fries is wildly high, especially compared to other menu items. "McDonalds wants to sell you their french fries," he says, "because they make so much money on your french fries." The company just doesn't have a good argument (as far as the bottom line is concerned) to deviate from that and offer additional sides.

Haracz posits that McDonald's would have to upcharge a dollar or more for onion rings because of how inefficient they are compared to how kitchens and protocols are set up to make fries. He also speculates that the average consumer probably wouldn't pay that sort of upcharge for onion rings regularly. It could happen as a limited-time thing, he says, but it's doubtful — and almost unthinkable that onion rings (or even the nostalgic onion nuggets from decades past) would become a regular menu item.

Read more: The Ultimate American Fast Food Restaurants Ranked

A Hot Comment Section

McDonald's fries on table
McDonald's fries on table - Junce/Getty Images

A number of commenters have brought up another point under ex-McDonald's chef Mike Haracz's video about onion rings. The oil would take on the taste of onions. If onion rings are made in the same fryer as the fries, they will affect the taste of the oil, and the fries will always taste different. There's also no guarantee that the same fryer settings could be used between batches of fries and onion rings. This is one of the primary reasons you can't get fries and hash browns at the same time unless you luck out at the five-minute window that is the McDonald's brunch magic hour, 10:00 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.

The comment section also shows how much love there is for McDonald's fries. As two commenters write, "They're not going to bring something in to shoot their friend down! They're the best ever!" and "Their fries are the best on the planet. We love the fries." As for the markup issue, TikTokers had a solution for this, too — by using the McDonald's app, customers are getting fries for free or at $1 all the time. As one person points out, "Get the app. I haven't paid for fries in months. Free in the deals almost every day."

Read the original article on Daily Meal.