McDonald's Chicken Big Mac Took Over 2 Years To Make & It Wasn't As Easy As Changing The Patty

McDonald's Canada is launching their newest menu item next week, the Chicken Big Mac, which took quite a while to perfect.

The spin to the old classic is similar in concept but different in flavour because instead of the beef patty found in the traditional Big Mac, the new item has chicken!

The inspiration behind Chicken Big Mac came about after McDonald's saw consumer hacks on the internet on how to change up the traditional Big Mac — and they delivered.

Jeff Anderson, Senior Manager of Culinary Innovation at McDonald's Canada, told Narcity the first time he tried a version of the Chicken Big Mac was over two years ago.

Chef Anderson was born and raised in Nova Scotia and has lived in Ontario for over 15 years. Now, the chef works in Toronto and has been a part of the McDonald's family for nearly six years.

"Our guests love the Big Mac, so it wasn't just as easy as just putting a piece of chicken on the Big Mac," he said.

"We wanted to make sure that we had the right balance of flavours, textures and had those iconic Big Mac icons like that toasted sesame seed bun, the Big Mac sauce, processed cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce and those tiny pickles," the chef shared. "We needed to marry that with the chicken element of it that's still going to bring that familiarity of Big Mac but with that chicken spin on it."

So, in other words, when they were developing the Chicken Big Mac, McDonald's knew it wasn't just about "subbing in another patty." Instead, the developers had to find the "balance."

The McDonald's chef told Narcity that his favourite food menu at the moment is the McCrispy, but his "most favourite McDonald's menu item is a chicken nugget," with BBQ dipping sauce.

Overall, the Chicken Big Mac developer has been a fan of McDonald's since his youth and today, he has "a lot of pride in the food and the items that we make here at McDonald's" and is "very excited to have the Chicken Big Mac in Canada."

Make sure to head out to a McDonald's on March 7 to check out the newest menu item!

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.