McDonald’s Brings Back Szechuan Sauce With a Catch

McDonald’s announced an “unexpected Szechuan Sauce drop” bringing back the fan-favorite dipping sauce for a limited time. Beginning March 31, the savory and slightly sweet sauce will be available nationwide exclusively on the McDonald’s App “for just a few days,” and while supplies last, McDonald’s said Monday. The “iconic” Szechuan Sauce, which is served in limited-edition packaging with five different golden foil designs, will be available for free as a Chicken McNuggets dipping sauce option. Customers can also purchase up to five of the sauces a la carte exclusively on the app.  

Originally created as a tie-in with the 1998 Disney film Mulan, McDonald’s fan-favorite Szechuan Sauce has only returned three other times in the past 24 years. Described by McDonald’s as an “elusive favorite,” the app-exclusive Szechuan Sauce with limited-edition design comes in packaging spelling out “Szechuan.” 

McDonald’s brought back the sauce at select locations for one day only after being referenced in a Season 3 episode of the Adult Swim hit animated series Rick and Morty, “The Rickshank Rickdemption,” causing a nationwide frenzy. In 2017, McDonald’s revived Szechuan Sauce as part of a limited-time tie-in offering the sauce in specially-designed packaging and exclusive Rick and Morty posters. 

The limited-edition Rick and Morty sauce packets proved so popular they fetched hundreds of dollars in the online resale market on eBay. Szechuan Sauce also sparked viral videos captured from inside McDonald’s restaurants showing some sauce fans acting out over scarce supplies. 

“Nobody could have guessed that people were going to drive hundreds of miles to a location that some people were going to camp overnight,” Jano Cabrera, McDonald’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations, said the last time Szechuan Sauce returned. “No one, no one expected this reaction. So, we could have done more but even then, it simply would not have been enough.”

In 2018, after fan frenzy, McDonald’s announced the return of Szechuan Sauce for a limited time.

“Szechuan Sauce is coming back once again this winter,” McDonald’s said at the time. “And instead of being one-day-only and limited to select restaurants, we’re bringing back more — a lot more — so that any fan who’s willing to do whatever it takes for Szechuan Sauce will only have to ask for it at a nearby McDonald’s.”

McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce is available for a limited time exclusively in the McDonald’s app starting March 31.