Whatever Happened To McDonald's Grilled Chicken Sandwiches?
It's incredibly frustrating to crave one of your favorite fast food meals in the years after it was discontinued. The pain over items like Wendy's country fried steak from the 1990s is lingering, but it's arguably even more upsetting when the item was a recent discontinuation. This brings us to the McDonald's grilled chicken sandwich, which was put on an indefinite hiatus from nationwide menus after the chain greatly reduced its menu in 20202, and, unfortunately, hasn't been seen since.
The 2020 removal came after several different iterations of the sandwich — the first of which was the Grilled Chicken Deluxe in 1996 — and was due to weak sales, according to a TikTok made by Chef Mike Haracz, a former corporate chef for McDonald's. "It's really because y'all didn't buy enough," he explained, "A lot of times, there are menu items that need to meet a certain threshold to be profitable for McDonald's to keep them on the menu." He added that salads, which were also removed in 2020, met a similar fate for the same reason; in fact, 2020 marked a major shift for McDonald's when it comes to offering healthier options to customers.
@chefmikeharacz Replying to @Chazman Former #McDonalds corporate chef talks about their grilled chicken sandwich. #mcdonaldshacks #mcdonaldssecrets #mcdonaldsccsing #fastfoodstories #fastfoodlife #fastfood #foodtiktok #foodtok #McDonaldsTikTok #mcdonaldschallenge #fyp #chicken #chickens #chickensandwich #chickentok
Alternatives to the McDonald's Grilled Chicken Sandwich
Now, if you want to relive McDonald's glorious grilled chicken sandwich, there are still a couple of ways to do so. For starters, McDonald's locations worldwide still offer grilled chicken sandwich options. For Americans, the best bet is to head up to Canada to enjoy the bygone menu item, which is still a staple of McDonald's chicken section in that country. Otherwise, getting your hands on McDonald's grilled chicken is much harder, as none of the global grilled chicken sandwich options are currently available at McDonald's international location in Chicago.
Otherwise, Americans might want to satisfy their cravings at other fast food chains that still offer grilled chicken sandwiches. However, McDonald's isn't the only fast food restaurant that's done away with grilled chicken; remarkably few chains still offer the once-common sandwiches as of 2025. The most notable company with grilled chicken on its menu is Chick-fil-A, but other smaller entities, like Whataburger, Carl's Jr., and Hardee's, have also not yet discontinued this less prominent menu item.