This Canadian Store-Bought Sauce Tastes Just Like McDonald's Tangy Barbecue, According To The Internet

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Have you ever tried to replicate a fast food favorite at home and failed miserably? It's remarkable how difficult it is to reproduce the exact taste of something as simple as French fries or a hamburger from your favorite restaurant. Then again, that's what keeps these restaurants in business. If you could just make it yourself, you wouldn't need to go to McDonald's or Burger King. Nevertheless, people are always trying to replicate techniques or flavors, and sometimes they even stumble upon a nearly identical product out in the wild. That's what seems to have happened with McDonald's famous barbecue sauce. According to some online discussions, all you need to do to get the same taste at home is grab a bottle of Kraft Chicken 'n Rib sauce.

McDonald's offers a good selection of dipping sauces for McNuggets, and they do swap in fun new flavors from time to time, like Szechuan, a North Carolina Gold sauce, and even a Minecraft-inspired Nether Flame sauce. But BBQ sauce has been a staple for years, and fans consider Kraft's Canadian Chicken 'n Rib sauce a near-perfect match. Some say it's not exactly right, but close. Others are convinced it's "identical."

The recipe for its Tangy BBQ Sauce is a secret, although McDonald's says it includes tomato paste, vinegar, spices, and hickory smoke. Tomato paste, vinegar, and spices are also found in the Kraft sauce, but that's true of many BBQ sauces.

While many people are convinced Kraft is the closest thing to McDonald's, it is not easy for everyone to get if you want to try it at home. The catch here is that Kraft's Chicken 'n Rib sauce is a Canadian product. You won't find it on shelves in America, and you can't even track it down on Amazon. But that doesn't mean you're completely out of luck. Walmart sells it, imported from Canada, on its website. If you're a dedicated fan of McDonald's BBQ sauce, or you just want to see if the internet got this one right, you can order a bottle and try for yourself.

It's been suggested that McCormick makes the sauce for McDonald's. Others have said they thought Kraft made sauces for the chain, but that's never been confirmed. Golden State Foods, a company based in California, developed a number of signature sauces for McDonald's back in the 1970s, including the tartar sauce for the Filet-O-Fish and the iconic Big Mac sauce.

Golden State Foods became the exclusive supplier for McDonald's and, in the 1980s, also developed their McNuggets sauces. When McNuggets were introduced in 1983, they came with four signature sauces and BBQ was among them. So the real recipe was developed by Golden State Foods and has likely never been fully made public. That said, if you're near Canada or want to place a Walmart order, you can try Kraft's Chicken 'n Rib sauce for yourself and see how it stacks up.