The new Gold Sauce from McDonald’s is essentially a ripoff of Chick-fil-A sauce — except McDonald’s is being super weird about it.
It’s a thick, tangy sauce that has a little kick of heat and a pleasant wave of sweetness. It’s awesome. McDonald’s should keep it on the menu full-time.
Instead, McDonald’s is being all coy and exclusive about this. They’re promoting it as being a “South Carolina BBQ-inspired sauce.”
Who are they trying to fool? This isn’t saucy bottle service, like their imagery makes it seem. It’s not even the gold standard. It’s slightly above the bare minimum for a place that serves chicken tenders.
They’re making it sound like they’re making truffle-caviar sauce with gold leaf and a $100 bill blended into it. Chill out, McDonald’s, you’re making the same spicy-sweet aioli that every major chicken chain in the country has.
It’s like if Applebee’s added a Dubai chocolate sundae to its menu and called it some sort of exclusive “Green-and-gold royale” dessert. This is nothing to brag about. You showed up four hours late to the party. You’re not a trendsetter.
McDonald’s Gold Sauce | Review
The new Gold Sauce is being specially marketed as a condiment for the restaurant’s Snack Wraps, McCrispy Sandwich and Crispy Strips.
But it’s just a sauce packet. I’m sure if you order some McNuggets and ask for some, you’ll get some. There’s no velvet rope with a bouncer guarding a carefully stacked pile of Gold Sauce packets.
As for the actual sauce, it’s pretty clear that this is an aioli that has some sweet and tangy components mixed in. Looking at the ingredients, there’s a lot of crossover between this and Chick-fil-A sauce. Soybean oil, a form of sugar, water, vinegar, tomato paste, egg yolks, mustard seed.
The big difference is that McDonald’s Gold Sauce includes honey and goes with normal sugar. Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A sauce uses corn syrup and has some hickory smoke flavor.
What does it taste like?
As mentioned previously, it tastes pretty similar to Chick-fil-A sauce. It’s slightly sweeter and vinegar-forward. It’s honestly pretty close to a honey mustard.
While the texture is largely similar, it felt a little thicker, a little closer to mayonnaise than BBQ sauce.
There are some more flavor components in there somewhere, but McDonald’s started to get secretive. At a point on the ingredients, it lists “turmeric, paprika and ‘spices.’”
Why do turmeric and paprika get shoutouts? Why is McDonald’s trying to fool us like there’s something special deeper down that “spices” list?
We all know you’re not putting something wild like garam masala or saffron in there. We all know it’s going to include some combination of garlic powder, onion powder and celery salt like every other special sauce on the planet.
So is it any good?
Complaints about the marketing aside, this tastes delicious. The sweetness, spice and tang are legitimately wonderful and create a dipping sauce that makes you want to go back over and over again.
The final word
Why does McDonald’s always get really stinky when it comes to sauces?
Listen, I know there are oil drums full of special sauce for the Big Macs in there. Why can’t I just get a packet to dip some McNuggets in?
Remember the Szechuan Sauce from “Rick & Morty?” People on the internet freaked out because McDonald’s didn’t make enough of it.
Don’t get me started on the McRib. The sauce is weird. But the way it’s slathered onto those pork pucks, I know they can make plenty of it.
Stop being weird about sauces, McDonald’s. Keep the Gold Sauce on the menu and just call it “McDipping Sauce” or something.
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“I ate it so you don’t have to” is a regular food column about off-beat eats, both good and bad. I picked the name years ago and now we’re sort of stuck with it.
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