Here's Why You Can't Customize A McDonald's Breakfast Burrito
Most McDonald's menu items can be altered slightly to fit the customer's preferred tastes. It's not too much to ask for your cheeseburger to be served without the slivered onions, and you can always politely request an extra helping of sauce on your Big Mac. Even most of the breakfast menu items have some wiggle room when it comes to modifications. You can request a Sausage McMuffin sans egg or add extra cheese without employees batting an eye. However, there is one breakfast menu item that comes as-is: The sausage breakfast burritos.
Unfortunately for those who make frequent modifications to their food, this McDonald's menu item is not made fresh to order. The sausage burritos that McDonald's offers during breakfast hours contain a pre-made egg mixture that contains all the extra ingredients already mixed in, making it pretty much impossible for employees to make serious modifications to your order. If there is an element of the burrito, such as the green chiles or sausage pieces, that you don't want to eat, you'll likely have to pick them out by hand yourself. Most locations also pre-wrap their burritos during prep hours, so customers won't have much luck asking employees to add additional ingredients to their burritos, either.
The breakfast burritos at McDonald's come pre-made
Of the four egg types available at McDonald's, the breakfast burritos utilize a pre-made mix that arrives frozen and mixed together with sausage pieces, green chiles, and onions. Former McDonald's corporate chef Mike Haracz confirms this in a TikTok video, where he responded to a concerned customer wondering why they cannot request sausage patties instead of the small pieces of sausage that come in the burrito mix. If you were hoping to order a veggie version of the breakfast burrito or make the common "no onions" request, employees will sadly remind you that the contents of the burrito are premade.
@chefmikeharacz Replying to @jjmcgarr Former #McDonalds corporate chef talks about their breakfast burrito. #McdonaldsLife #McDonaldsTikTok #mcdonaldssecrets #McDonaldsSecret #mcdonaldshack #mcdonaldshacks #food #tiktokfood #foodfestontiktok #fastfood #FastFoodSecrets #FastFoodTikTok #fastfoodhacks #foodtiktok #fastfoodlife
One TikToker shared a video of how exactly the McDonald's sausage burritos are crafted, showing the thawed, pre-made mix with a slice of cheese being rolled into the tortilla. Because employees roll the burritos by hand, they could technically add ingredients to your order. However, Chef Mike did address this concern, claiming that most of these burritos are pre-rolled early in the morning and reheated in the microwave when ordered, so the likelihood that you are getting a freshly rolled burrito that employees can modify is extremely slim.
Some McDonald's employees might accommodate your burrito-related requests
You might still be able to get your breakfast burrito slightly modified if you ask nicely. While employees can't make changes to the type of meat or eggs because of the pre-made mix, they can technically add or remove certain things like cheese before they wrap up the tortilla. This privilege is at the discretion of the McDonald's employee, and specific instructions on guest modification may vary depending on location. In one Reddit thread, one user brought up the conundrum of modifications concerning the pre-made burrito mix, claiming that certain cashiers know they can technically make batches of the breakfast burritos without cheese if customers ask for it.
Some of the comments confirm that there are certain loopholes. One user wrote, "[When] someone asks for one with no cheese... usually whoever preps the burritos has a good chunk of leftover mix so we can hypothetically make them with the modifications." Another Reddit user responded that customers will often ask for jalapeños or hash browns to be added to the burrito, so they simply unwrap it and toss it in. However, this practice might be frowned upon by McDonald's food handling protocols, especially if the burritos have already been assembled and reheated upon ordering as TikToker Chef Mike Haracz reported, so most employees could be reluctant to accommodate these kinds of requests. If you want to ensure it is made exactly to your liking, consider making a McDonald's breakfast burrito copycat recipe at home.