13 McDonald's Hacks That Will Change The Way You Eat At The Fast Food Chain

With as popular as the McDonald's menu is, ordering at the franchise is pretty straightforward for most. After all, the astounding number of burgers that McDonald's sells in a day is nearly 6.48 million, per Investing. Even if you visit infrequently, you probably have a go-to order, so you probably don't think too hard about what to choose from the menu. We're interrupting this default setting to bring you some great hacks that may shift the way you order and eat at the golden arches.

Some hacks we've come across adjust our ordering process, others change how we dress our food, and still more change how we actually eat our burgers. Please note that while these hacks are easy enough to request in person, ordering them over McDonald's app can be a little more challenging. You'll find it is very limiting in its customization options. Instead, we recommend going inside the restaurant to order so you can take the extra time to ensure the order is right when you place it and is correct when it comes out.

A McDonald's Filet-O-Fish is a relatively simple sandwich. It comes on a steamed bun with a square fish filet, half a slice of cheese, and tartar sauce. Around the world, there are other Filet-O-Fish variations that include fresh ingredients and condiments. In the United States, though, you'll utilize secret menu ideas to bring something different to the simple sandwich. One of the easiest changes you can make to the Filet-O-Fish is by swapping out the tartar sauce for Big Mac sauce. It will make your McDonald's Filet-O-Fish droolworthy.

Tartar sauce and Big Mac sauce share several ingredients, including soybean oil, pickled type components, egg yolks, distilled vinegar, spices, and salt. While the tartar sauce focuses on the tangy, Big Mac sauce brings the sweetness. Both sauces have onion flavor, but tartar sauce has a crunchy element with actual onions. Alternatively, Big Mac sauce has onion powder. The difference helps contribute to texture, so Big Mac sauce is smoother. As a result, it spreads easier across the sandwich. Even still, when making this change to your Filet-O-Fish, be sure you ask for two pumps of the Big Mac sauce to equate to the amount you'd get with tartar. The sauce pumps for tartar allow more sauce through with each pump than the Big Mac, so you'll probably want more than the regular amount.

We will freely admit that the double quarter pounder with cheese is one of our favorite burgers at McDonald's. However, this burger always tastes like it's missing a fresh element. It's really just burger patties, cheese, pickles, onions, and condiments on a poppy seed bun. If you feel the same way, allow us to introduce you to the deluxe versions of your favorite burgers.

Although you won't necessarily find it listed on the app in all markets, when you go in person to order at a McDonald's, you can ask for a quarter pounder with cheese deluxe or a double quarter pounder with cheese deluxe. The "deluxe" aspect adds shredded lettuce, Roma tomatoes, and mayonnaise to the basics that the burger already includes. These additional ingredients get a McDonald's burger closer to feeling like a backyard burger with fresher ingredients. Please be sure to grab additional napkins, though, because in our experience, the deluxe versions are much messier. This isn't the type of burger you'll eat on the go.

At McDonald's, your sandwiches can come with several different kinds of buns: a quarter pounder bun, Big Mac bun, potato roll, or a regular bun. Most of the time, your sandwich will arrive with the particular bun it goes with and you don't need to specify a specific bun, but you can if you want, and now that you know about steamed buns, you'll want to.

The regular bun is steamed for the Filet-O-Fish sandwich. While no other offerings come on a steamed bun, that shouldn't keep you from asking for a steamed bun for your own burger or chicken sandwich. The steaming of the bun makes it plump and super soft. That's part of the reason that people love Filet-O-Fish sandwiches so much, so adding this feature to any other sandwich or burger would certainly make it even better. However, we should warn you that sandwiches with too many ingredients may very well fall apart under a steamed bun, so it's best to go for smaller sandwiches when using the hack. Big Macs don't belong on steamed buns.

Apple pie à la mode is one of the most tasty dessert pairings out there, and it's awfully hard to turn down. You won't find this treat on a McDonald's menu, but you can create your own version by pairing together two McDonald's menu items. There's a small amount of assembly required here, but we think it's worth the time.

For an apple and ice cream treat, order a baked apple pie and a cup of vanilla ice cream. While the pie is still warm, break it into smaller pieces and place it on top of the ice cream. Alternatively, when you order your cup of ice cream, you could request an extra empty cup on the side. That way, you can cut your pie in half to fit in the bottom of the cup and scoop the soft serve right on top. This is a good way to break up the portion size if you want it to be enjoyed by more than one person.

We find that this is a hack best used when dining in at McDonald's. This way, you can order your apple pie à la mode and have it be fresh rather than melty. Simply finish roughly half your meal, visit the checkout to order your pie and ice cream, and then return once more to your table to finish your meal. By the time you finish those last few nuggets, your pie and ice cream will probably be ready to go. Of course, if the location is extra busy, it might take a little longer.

Unless you need to save your receipts, there's a good chance you don't spend much time perusing your receipt from McDonald's. We recommend taking an extra few moments to check out the top of your McDonald's receipt because you very well might find a coupon.

We've noticed this is often a buy one get one deal, though the offering could certainly change. It'll require that you go online, complete a survey about your visit, and then you'll get a verification code. The verification code will go on the top of your receipt, and then you'll need that receipt with a written code to enjoy whatever discounted item is owed to you. This hack is still something we regularly forget to do, so if you find yourself tossing a receipt into the trash can, you won't face any judgment here. It's so easy to do. You'll also want to act fast because this opportunity expires within 30 days, according to the receipts we've received in the past.

With high production fast food restaurants, a common complaint we have is that the food just doesn't feel fresh enough. If that tends to be an issue for you, simply request a customization to one of your items. This way, your food will need to be prepared fresh to your specifications rather than being pulled from premade items.

There's a few different ways to go about a simple change. One of the easiest ways is to order your burger without ketchup. This way, your burger is made fresh, sans ketchup. Then, when the burger arrives, simply add a packet of ketchup to the burger. One of the huge benefits of adding ketchup later is that you can distribute the ketchup everywhere you want it to. We've noticed that McDonald's workers don't always put ketchup in the most ideal spots, or it even feels like too small of an amount. With this hack, you have full control to ketchup the way you want on a fresh burger.

If you're worried about stale fries, you can order your french fries without salt. By doing this, a new batch will be made, and seasoning will not be added. This way, you can count on extra fresh fries from a new, separately made, batch. The only downfall here is that you will probably need to wait a few extra minutes for the fries to cook. We recommend giving yourself plenty of time and avoiding this hack if the line is exceptionally long.

If eating your fries without salt sounds far too bland for you, grab a salt packet and shake it over your fries. You'll want to do this pretty quickly after receiving the fries to give the salt plenty of time to adhere to the fries while they're still extra hot. To be sure that salt coats every fry rather than just the ones at the top of your paper container, it might be best to lay them out and then salt them rather than just salting the container and hoping for the best.

If you're one of the many who have an ice maker built into your refrigerator, there's a good chance that you have a finite amount of ice available to you at any given moment. While in day-to-day life this isn't a problem, if you're hosting a larger gathering, it will become an issue very quickly. That's why bagged ice is just so handy. Running to a gas station to pick up a bag has often been one of our pre-gathering rituals, but it turns out McDonald's has you covered here. If you're picking up lunch before a big gathering, it'll give you the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

As you stop by McDonald's to pick up that quick lunch, order a bag of ice. It won't be crushed like that texture perfect Sonic ice, but it'll do the trick for your guests. The best part is that the ice is reasonably priced. We've seen it anywhere from just under $1 to $1.50.

We are absolute suckers for affogatos. The combination of espresso and gelato is the perfect mix of creamy, sweet, and coffee. We love it as an after dinner treat but have also been known to make an affogato bright and early in the morning. You won't find affogatos on the McDonald's menu, but you can make an affogato-like treat from McDonald's offerings (but this one doesn't have espresso). Of course, it won't be exactly the same as some of the fancier affogatos you've had, but it's perfect in a pinch.

Like any good hack, you won't be able to order a McDonald's affogato by name. Instead, you'll need to assemble it yourself. Order an iced black coffee and a vanilla ice cream cone. When you get your hands on your iced coffee, take some big gulps out of it to make a little room for your ice cream. Then, remove the lid, and slowly dunk the top of the vanilla ice cream inside, and begin swirling to distribute it. You can swirl as long as you'd like to mix the ice cream and the coffee, and you'll notice it turning a lovely light brown color. Eventually, you'll find a point you're happy with, and you can scrape the rest of the ice cream out of the cone and onto the top of the coffee. Put that lid back on and sip your sweet creation.

Our favorite hacks are ones that make food taste better and save money, like altering a McDouble. The next time you get a hankering for a Big Mac, instead, turn a McDouble into a cheaper Big Mac with a few simple tweaks. Begin with a McDouble and ask for it without the ketchup and mustard, and to add Big Mac sauce and shredded lettuce. These changes will get the burger to be very reminiscent of a Big Mac, but it'll be a little less in price. Plus, it won't have that odd bun in the middle that, if we're being honest, has never been our favorite.

Some hacks are super easy to get over the app, but this is one you'll need to do in person because you can't add Big Mac sauce to a McDouble from the app. You can, however, see the difference in price, and when we plugged base versions of each sandwich into the app from our local McDonald's: A Big Mac cost $6.19, while a McDouble cost $3.29. It's only a few dollars difference, but a penny saved (or rather, a dollar) is a penny earned. Buy yourself a fancy coffee with the savings.

While an affogato at McDonald's requires a small amount of assembly, if you're in for a little bit more of an involved process, consider checking out a surf and turf treat from McDonald's. It's another one you won't find on the main menu, but it has all the trimmings of a cheeseburger and a Filet-O-Fish together.

To achieve this hack, you'll order these two separate sandwiches and then combine them together: a regular cheeseburger and a Filet-O-Fish. Take off the top bun of your cheeseburger and place on top of the burger patty and its topping the fish patty and any of its dressings. You'll want to see if you can peel the cheese from whatever it's sticking to for your burger and fish stack, too. This combination will make for a large sandwich, but you could always order a bigger burger to make it an larger surf and turf. A double or triple cheeseburger would work well here, too.

Nothing quite makes breakfast better than potatoes. If you are always feeling like you want more hash browns in your life, you could always replace the bread of your breakfast sandwich with McDonald's hash brown patties. Simply order a sausage McMuffin, but without muffins, and two hash browns on the side. In all likelihood, you'll need to assemble it yourself by placing the sausage patty with its toppings between two hash brown patties.

Eating one of these hash brown patty sandwiches can be messy, so be sure to grab extra napkins to help pick up your dropped pieces of hash brown and dab at grease. If the hash browns are especially hot when you first get them, be sure to let them sit for a few moments so as not to burn your fingers. This extra sitting time will allow the hash browns time to come together and develop a little bit more structure so they are more sturdy as bread replacements.

One of our absolute favorite hacks of them all came straight from McDonald's Canada on TikTok. This hack has been in front of us the whole time, but we just never realized it. It will forever change the way you eat your McDonald's meal when you're limited on space.

To make a one-handed meal situation, simply string the center part of your burger or chicken nuggets box over the straw of your drink then dump the french fries on the other side of the container. This way, all you have to hold is your cup and snack right out of the food on top. It securely holds all of your food and your drink in one place. We love this hack for having a quick meal in the car. There's nothing better than using only one cup holder during your meal and having everything secured. Passenger seat buffets are a thing of the past with this hack.