- The McRib was first introduced in 1981.

It quickly amassed a cult-like following,

and it's been in and out of McDonald's ever since.

Every time it's released, people go crazy for it.

I had a McRib one time, years ago, and I loved it,

but I've been craving that sweet tangy flavor ever since.

but unfortunately, McDonald's only brings it out

when they feel like it.

What if you could ask the McRib anytime, anywhere?

I'm Nick DiGiovanni,

and today, I'm gonna be recreating the McRib.

(upbeat music)

The McRib is super simple.

It's just ground pork in the shape of a rib

on a hoagie roll with a couple of pickles

and a couple of pieces of onion.

The last time I had a McRib was many years ago,

and I haven't seen McDonald's carrying it since,

but I remember how delicious it was.

It had that amazing aspect of ribs,

coupled with that kind of sweet, tangy, delicious sauce

that they make to go along with it.

Today, I'm gonna press some pork into the shape of rib

to try to replicate that rib-like look of a McRib sandwich,

and then I'm gonna go on

to make that sweet, tangy, barbecuey, honey-like sauce.

Finally, I've got my friend Dylan,

a former McDonald's employee,

coming by to determine if my version looks,

and most importantly, tastes like the classic McRib.

All right. So I'll start by taking my ground pork here.

I just have to season my pork up

to try to give that McRib flavor.

I know that it starts off with some simple ground pork,

a little bit of garlic powder,

followed by a teeny bit of onion powder,

a little bit of salt, and then a touch of pepper.

And I think that's all the seasoning I need

to kind of get that McRib taste,

because most of that flavor

is gonna come from from the sauce

that I paint over the top of it.

And I'll quickly mix this up

just to really get that flavor inside and all over the meat.

It actually smells really good,

but this bowl is so hot from the dishwasher

that it's like cooking the meat already.

That's fine.

So now I'll take my sheet tray,

and I'm gonna press it into that McRib shape

that we're looking for.

So I just do something that looks relatively like a rib.

McDonald's actually does a really good job with that.

I'm basically just gonna press them down on this tray.

I'm gonna try to get in that general size and shape

of this bulkie roll,

so we're gonna make it a little bit longer.

I think I need a little bit more meat on that.

To me, it's a very strange concept,

trying to shape this ground meat back into the original form

before you actually ground it, but I also kind of like it.

This is about the same size now as my bulkie roll.

It's just pretty much perfect,

and I know the meat's gonna shrink a little bit after,

so I can make it maybe even a little bit longer.

I'm just gonna go ahead and take my finger

and just make these big sort of rib-like shapes

that McDonald's has.

One.

Two.

I wish I had the machine that does this.

That would be really helpful.

So I'm just gonna toss these in the oven

at 425 for a couple of minutes,

and then come back and put my glaze on it.

For the sauce,

I'm just gonna mix together a bunch of different ingredients

that I think will sort of perfectly replicate McRib sauce.

I'm actually gonna go ahead...

and this will be a good little trick here for some acid...

and I'll use a little bit of my dill pickle juice.

And then we'll go with a little bit of molasses.

For those who don't know, molasses is burnt sugar,

so basically, I'm gonna get a little bit

of that caramelized, or extra caramelized,

sugar flavor in there.

And then sort of similar to molasses,

I'll get a little bit of barbecue sauce.

That is gonna be where most of that McRib sauce comes from.

I'll also want to kind of still balance it out

with a little bit of salt in there

and maybe just a touch of pepper,

'cause there's already some pepper in that barbecue,

so not too much.

I'll go a little bit of garlic powder in there as well.

And then just sort of balance all of that sort of sour,

I want a little bit of sweet,

so I'm gonna add just a tiny bit of sugar,

just a sort of splash of that.

And when I put that on the McRib and bake it,

it'll hopefully caramelize

and give an even better flavor to this whole thing.

And then just to give a little bit more acid,

'cause it's that tangy, sweet sauce we're going for,

I'm gonna go ahead and cut a lemon,

and then I'll squeeze that right over my hand here

and get a little bit of that juice in there.

Keep in mind,

I want the sauce to kind of be able to paint really easily

over the top of the McRib

and not fall off when I bake it,

so I want to go for a consistency that's not too watery.

I'll go ahead and just mix that up

and see what I come up with here.

And it looks really good, and it's smells even better.

Give that just a little quick taste,

'cause you should always taste and season when you can.

That's really, really good.

So this is awesome.

It's crackling and popping.

It smells incredible.

And these actually look a little bit like ribs,

and if I even paint off the bubbles

that are forming on here,

this one looks exactly like the McRib.

This one is a little on the chubbier side.

So now I'm gonna just paint this sauce

right over the top of our McRibs.

Now is when I want to get even more flavor on those,

and I'll put it back in the oven to bake them,

just to sort of caramelize it and really solidify,

kind of suck in that flavor into the McRib itself.

So now I'm gonna quickly toast my bread,

and that's just pretty easy.

I'm just gonna cut these hoagie rolls

almost all the way through,

and then I'll be able to bend them open just enough

that I can lay it flat

and just get a little bit of that golden-brown toasting

that McDonald's has for their McRibs.

Let me go ahead and just put my bulkie roll

right down on there.

So my hoagie roll is nice and toasted

right in the middle there, and that's exactly what I want.

So, my ribs look perfect.

Again, there's still one that, to me,

looks exactly right on the mark,

which I'm super excited about.

Now I'm just about ready to assemble my sandwich.

All I have to do is a little bit of knife work here.

Since I want these sort of thin cuts

that they have on the real McRib,

I'm just gonna go right down the line

and cut just these nice little strips of onion.

That'll come out to be like this.

I got these perfect little furls of onion

that I'm gonna work with here.

And last but not least, I have my dill pickle.

Really thin slices right down the side of this,

like super flimsy, thin cuts.

I like thin cuts of pickles on different things

because I just don't like that much

of a really acidic pickly bite,

and we already have enough acid in our sauce.

So to put this all together,

I'll put my sandwich down on the table here,

and I want to take my McRib that actually looks nice,

and I'll lay that right down

on the bottom of the hoagie roll.

It fits super well.

I think I want a little bit more sauce,

because I think they just really load it up with sauce.

So I'll put a light, tiny sort of glaze.

This is our third coating of seasoning.

And then last but not least,

just a couple onions and pickles.

So I don't want to overload us with onion.

Followed by just another light coating of our pickles.

And I think that's it.

I think we've nailed the McRib.

I think they do a slightly better job,

making those little rib bits jut out on the edges

to have where the bones would be,

but I'm actually really happy with what I've done here.

I've also done a really pretty job layering out my pickles.

To me, this looks extremely appetizing.

It smells even better.

Yeah, this is the McRib I remember.

(upbeat music)

- Wow, that's incredible.

The bun is perfectly toasted, the sauce incredible,

the pickles are perfect, but Nick,

I think you should have put a little more sauce

'cause it would have been a tad better.

I'm gonna take this with me.

- I'm definitely pumped that the McDonald's expert, Dylan,

loved my sandwich.

Granted, I think there's a couple little things I could do

next time to make this even more like the McDonald's McRib.

Mainly, I think that has to do with the quantity of sauce.

I'd also love to shape it a little bit better

and kinda have those ribs jutting out a tiny bit more,

and if I do that, I think I've nailed the McRib.

(upbeat music)