*The McRib is back at McDonald’s for a limited time, but only in select markets.
The barbecue pork sandwich returned Oct. 27 in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and Dallas, Fox 5 Las Vegas reports. The comeback comes four years after McDonald’s billed its 2022 run as a “farewell tour.” Fans know the drill by now. The sandwich has disappeared and returned for decades, and its origin story is just as unusual.
The McRib exists because of chicken. In 1979, McDonald’s Chairman Fred Turner suggested executive chef René Arend switch from testing onion nuggets to chicken, according to the company. Arend’s recipe became Chicken McNuggets, which underwent market testing before launching nationally in 1983.
During that rollout, demand outpaced the chicken supply as franchises rushed to sell the nuggets, Tasting Table reports. Arend responded with a pork option inspired by South Carolina pulled pork sandwiches. However, the Washington Post suggests the sandwich may have existed before the shortage.
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McDonald’s says the McRib was created in 1980 and reached restaurants in 1981. The sandwich performed well in regional tests and turned McDonald’s into a major player in pork, according to the Post. National sales disappointed in 1982, however, and the chain pulled it in 1985.
The McRib returned in 1989 and has cycled on and off menus ever since. McDonald’s introduced a smaller McRib Jr. in 2003. In 2008, a superfan launched the McRib Locator website to track sightings. By 2021, the sandwich had become the subject of McDonald’s USA’s first NFT.
The company has cited customer demand to explain the repeated comebacks. Many fans believe the limited availability is part of the strategy, since a sandwich that keeps disappearing keeps people talking.
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