McDonald's adding brand-new menu item: McCrispy Strips

McDonald’s has a new permanent menu item, McCrispy Strips, coming to its U.S. menu.

The fast-food giant revealed that participating restaurants across the country will have McCrispy Strips as a permanent offering by May 5. Some locations, however, are beginning to offer it to customers on Thursday.

A "savory, sweet and tangy" creamy chili sauce is launching alongside them, McDonald’s said. 

As the McCrispy Strips arrive, they will become McDonald’s first new permanent menu item in about four years, according to the company. They also mark the latest chicken offering that the chain has rolled out.

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"The demand for chicken strips has been remarkable to see across the industry, so we knew we had to deliver something so craveable that it was worth the wait," Alyssa Buetkofer, McDonald’s chief marketing and customer experience officer, said in a statement. "We took our time, listened to our fans, and created a product we knew they would crave."

The McCrispy Strips consist of "chicken strips made with juicy, 100% white meat, coated with crispy golden-brown breading and bursting with a bold, new black pepper flavor," the chain said. 

McDonald’s will sell them in counts of three or four. The former will be paired with one container of Creamy Chili Dip sauce, while the latter will offer two, according to McDonald’s. 

Their launch comes roughly two-and-a-half months after CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts and investors in February that McDonald’s was looking to introduce chicken strips to U.S. restaurants.

The company also has a comeback of its Snack Wraps in the pipeline for the U.S. "along with a few other markets" this year, Kempczinski said at the time. It has been about nine years since McDonald’s offered that item in its American restaurants. 

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He detailed other plans for McDonald’s chicken business, too, including increasing the availability of its McCrispy sandwich from its current 70-plus markets to "nearly all" by the end of 2025 and continuing to "pulse in" the Chicken Big Mac "as a limited time-only offering over time." 

"We’re excited about the significant opportunity we see within our chicken portfolio and see the potential to add another point of chicken market share by the end of 2026," Kempczinski said in February. 

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In its annual report, McDonald’s said its chicken moves are among its "planned innovations and new menu offerings" that "reflect the Company’s ability to meet evolving customer preferences." 

In 2024, the company generated $25.9 billion in revenues, and its annual net income was $8.2 billion.