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McDonald's Famous Szechuan Sauce Gets Limited Revival

This cult-classic condiment for Rick and Morty fans will only be available on the app.

Laura Michelle Davis Editor
Laura is a professional nitpicker and good-humored troubleshooter with over 14 years of experience in print and digital publishing. Before becoming an editor with CNET, she worked as an English teacher, Spanish medical interpreter, copy editor and proofreader. She is a fearless but flexible defender of both grammar and weightlifting, and firmly believes that technology should serve the people. Her first computer was a Macintosh Plus.
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Laura Michelle Davis
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szechuan

The fast-food chain says the sauce will be available for "just a few days."

 McDonald's

As proof of the courtship between pop culture and fast food, McDonald's popular savory-sweet Szechuan dipping sauce is making its third US comeback. 

McDonald's said the sauce returns for a few days starting on March 31. Customers can buy up to five packets at a time with a Chicken McNuggets order, but the iconic sauce is exclusive to the fast-food chain's mobile app. 

After first debuting in 1998 as a promotion for the Disney movie Mulan, McDonald's retired the sauce. But it was given new life twenty years later following an episode of the animated science-fiction series Rick and Morty, where the main characters get nostalgic for the McNuggets condiment. The demand from Rick and Morty fans then single-handedly led to Szechuan sauce's brief rebirth in 2017, but limited supplies led to consumer protests. In response to the mayhem, the company brought it back in larger quantities the following year.

There's no firm date as to when this beloved sauce will disappear again. A McDonald's statement says it will be around "for just a few days" and "while supplies last," which was confirmed by a company representative. 

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Though the Szechuan condiment could make future appearances, there are no plans for it to become a permanent menu item, according to the company. 

Next week's sauce drop means fans who've been fired up for the spicy sauce won't have to turn to eBay to get a fix. Ordering the sauce from the mobile app allows for home delivery in selected locations, or pickup at McDonald's counters or drive-thrus.