McDonald's: How to make four popular menu items at home

It has been 80 years since McDonald's first opened

How to make McDonald's menu items at home (Getty)

On 15 May 1940, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald’s restaurant.

While the first location wouldn’t be recognisable as a McDonald’s today - it served barbecue that was slow-cooked and carhops took orders in the parking lot - it marked the beginning of what would become a global phenomenon.

In the 80 years since the San Bernardino, California, location opened its doors, McDonald’s has changed the fast-food industry - by altering the way people eat.

Today, McDonald’s has more than 36,000 restaurants operating in more than 100 countries.

However, with social distancing guidelines in place in much of the world, the good news is you don’t need to go without beloved McDonald’s hash browns - as making McDonald’s recipes at home isn’t difficult.

From breakfast menu items to iconic staples such as the Big Mac, these are McDonald’s recipes you can make at home.

Sausage and egg McMuffin

How to make the sausage and egg McMuffin (McDonald's)

In April, the fast-food chain unveiled the recipe for one of its best-selling menu items, the sausage and egg McMuffin.

According to McDonald’s, all you need is five ingredients to make the sandwich at home.

Ingredients

English muffin

75g of sausage meat

Eggs

American cheese slice

Potato

The first step is to toast your English muffin until it’s “golden brown”. Once you’ve completed that, you’ll turn to the sausage meat, which the fast-food chain says should be seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper and then shaped into a ball.

“Flatten into patty shapes and cook under a preheated grill for six to seven minutes on each side,” the restaurant says.

For the eggs, McDonald’s suggests brushing the inside of a metal ring with oil and placing it inside a frying pan - which will allow home-chefs to get the shape of the eggs.

The next step is to pour in enough water to cover the base of the pan and bring to a boil.

“Crack the eggs into the rings, cover the pan and cook for two to three minutes.”

After cooking the sausage and egg, you’ll get to the assembly step, which requires you to layer the patty and the egg on top of a slice of cheese on the English muffin.

Hash browns

How to make McDonald's hash browns (Getty)

As part of its sausage and egg McMuffin recipe, McDonald’s also shared the recipe for its hash browns.

Using the potato listed in the ingredients above, McDonald’s explains that you have to grate the potato into a bowl and mix in an egg before seasoning with salt and pepper.

After heating oil in a pan, add a spoonful of the mix, and flatten.

“Cook until golden brown on both sides.”

McDonald’s fries

Considered one of the most popular french fries of all fast-food restaurants, McDonald’s fries are thin, salty and hot.

To make the meal addition, the restaurant revealed in a 2015 video that they use non-GMO potatoes, including shepody, ranger russet, Umatilla russet and russet Burbank varieties.

After peeling the potatoes and cutting them into uniform thin slices, the fries are dipped into water to remove “excess natural sugars for colour reasons” and then bathed in an “ingredient bath” of dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate.

Fortunately, copy-cat recipes, including one on TikTok by chef Joshuah Nishi that has been viewed more than 7.4m times, show an easier, home-friendly way to make the fries.

Ingredients

Water

Sugar

3 russet potatoes

Oil

Salt

According to Nishi, the first step is to add sugar to a bowl of water. Then, you have to cut the potatoes into slices, and then slice them again so they are ¼ of an inch “just like McDonald’s”.

Once they are sliced, you place the slices into the sugar water and place them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, Nishi says you should fill a pan with oil, drain the fries, and then dry them on a kitchen towel.

When the fries are dry and the oil is hot enough, you place them into the pan and flash-fry them for 60 seconds, before placing them in a pan and putting them back into the fridge for 30 minutes.

For the next step, Nishi says you refry the slices for four to five minutes until they are “golden brown” before placing them in a big bowl and sprinkling them with salt.

Big Mac

While McDonald’s has not shared the recipe for its iconic burger, many home-chefs have attempted to make the sandwich at home to satisfying results.

According to chef and food writer Gizzi Erskine, it’s easy to make both the Big Mac sauce and the burger at home.

Ingredients

For sauce:

3tbsp finely chopped onion

200g mayo

30g ketchup

30g French mustard

1tsp sugar

2tbsp chopped pickles

2-3tbsp of dill pickle brine

1tsp or onion/garlic powder

1/2tsp smoked paprika

For burger:

2 80g beef patties (20 per cent fat)

2 buns

Chopped onion

Lettuce

Sliced pickles

Processed cheese slices

To make the sauce, you first need to pour boiling water over the diced onion and leave for five minutes, before pouring through a sieve and drying out the onion on kitchen paper.

“Put 2tbsp of the mixture in a mixing bowl with the mayo, ketchup, mustard, sugar, chopped pickles, dill pickle brine, onion/garlic powder and smoked paprika. Mix together and leave for at least 30 minutes,” Erskine explains.

For the burger, you have to season the patties with plenty of salt and pepper and pan fry in a searingly hot pan.

To build the burger, Erskine says to split the bun into three across-ways and toast it before spreading 1tbsp Big Mac burger sauce over the base of the bottom and middle slice and adding 1tsp of the chopped onion between the two bases.

Add a handful of lettuce and pickle slices, and a slice or two of processed cheese.

According to Erskine, the final step, after adding the final bun, is to “Pop back into the pan and cover with a lid and dash about tbsp of water under it to steam the cheese melted and heat the burger to hot!”

You can find the full recipe here.