McDonald's Might Actually Bring Back The Snack Wrap

McDonald's is aiming high—and straight toward the hearts of millennials. Nation's Restaurant News reports that the company has set a goal of operating 50,000 locations by 2027, or about 10,000 more than it has today. If McDonald's hits that deadline, it will amount to the fastest growth in the fast food chain's entire 68-year history.

Let's put this into perspective: Subway has almost 37,000 locations worldwide, Starbucks has more than 38,000, and Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, is the largest restaurant company in the world, with a total footprint of 55,000 restaurants in over 155 countries and territories. So McDonald's plan is ambitious, to say the least. And to achieve it, the brand might just bring back the one thing millennials have been requesting for nearly a decade.

Recently, McDonald's has been reassessing the quality of its burgers, making more than 50 changes to their production to improve the overall dining experience. These changes include new buns, tweaks to the cooking process, and a more generous application of Big Mac sauce. But in today's press release, McDonald's has revealed that chicken, not just beef, will be getting a glow-up, in order to "[gain] share in the rapidly growing chicken category."

"Today, the size of the Company's chicken business is on par with beef," the announcement notes, "as the Company continues to aggressively expand through billion-dollar equities including McNuggets, McChicken, McCrispy and McSpicy. This includes plans to offer McCrispy in nearly all markets around the world by the end of 2025 and to expand McCrispy into wraps and tenders."

Expand McCrispy into wraps and tenders. Wraps! Tenders! This is all making it sound as though the return of the McDonald's Snack Wrap is a distinct possibility.

For those who haven't spent the past seven years or so pining for the return of the Snack Wrap, a quick primer: It was a McDonald's menu item available in the United States from 2006-2016, featuring a chicken tender, lettuce, and cheese wrapped in a tortilla for a cheap and easy on-the-go bite. Other countries continue to keep it on the menu or bring it back occasionally, but here, all we've gotten are some TikTok rumors about its return.

Even as McDonald's has played coy with us, Burger King has cashed in on chicken wraps to tasty results, and KFC is rolling its chicken up in a tortilla, too.

Given the vagueness of McDonald's latest announcement, there's always the chance that the chain might ditch the resurrection of its old Snack Wraps in favor of a completely different product. But given the wraps' consistent fan base and the company's recent appeal to our nostalgia, now would be the perfect time for this throwback to make a comeback.

Yes, 2025 is still a ways away, and we don't know what 2024 might bring in the meantime. But if McDonald's is all-in on chicken, we might actually find ourselves munching on Snack Wraps in the next few years. We just have to hang tight for a little longer.