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Nothing is ever permanent in the ruthless world of fast food. Favorites come and go, while head-scratching items remain on menus eternally. This is especially true for sauces, and while there are some we miss with every ounce of our heart, there are others we are happy to say goodbye to. Take a look at these fast food sauces that are no longer available.
Related: We Tried 24 Fast-Food Sauces and These Are the Best (and Worst)
Unlike the brief discontinuation of the King’s Zesty Sauce due to a horseradish shortage, there remains no clear answer as to where Chicken Fry sauce went. Burger King’s (poor) attempt at Chick-Fil-A Sauce was a major crowd favorite, so of course there are plenty of Reddit threads dedicated to the recipe.
Related: How to Make 24 Fast Food Sauces with Copycat Recipes
Talk about fandom. Originally released in conjunction with Disney to promote “Mulan,” the sauce took off in a major way (even in 2017, it was a prominent plotline in the animated show “Rick and Morty”), and today it’s hard to find somebody who doesn’t speak fondly of the ole’ Szechuan Sauce times. It’s made a few brief returns in the time since its discontinuation — including as recently as March of this year — so keep your eyes on the sauce world. It’s bound to show up again soon.
Related: Fast Food Dishes With Downright Obsessive Followings
In another surprising piece of synergy between fast food sauces and Hollywood, Lava Sauce first showed up on the scene to promote the 1995 gorilla movie masterpiece “Congo.” After a few variations of the Volcano Taco through the years, the oh-so-cheesy, oh-so-spicy Lava Sauce became a hit in its own right. It’s been dead in a ditch since 2015.
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Oh Mardi Gras Mustard, how we miss thee. By far the best mustard variant at the time, MGM was a true powerhouse. If you've ever had a stone-ground version full of whole mustard grains and horseradish, you already know exactly how good that Popeyes mustard was. Dipping the chain’s already-elite Cajun fries into that mustard was all you needed for a 5-star vacation.
The world pretty much lost its collective mind when Taco Bell discontinued Baja Sauce. Hundreds of copycat recipes populate the internet, in addition to lengthy Reddit threads, and even a few petitions to bring it back. Like a more tangy ranch dressing, Baja Sauce was the lynchpin of Taco Bell for so many people. The good news? Amazon sells it. The bad news? A lot of people in the comments section say it doesn’t taste the same.
It’s been a very long time since the world has seen Jack in the Box’s Mayo Onion Sauce, and while so many people swear how much they miss it, we can’t really see how it fits into the Jack in the Box menu. As with so many of these sauces, the internet has countless recipes to recreate it, but this one seems especially easy: mayo, mustard, and onion juice.
One of the most forgettable sauces we ever came across. KFC was right to let this one go. Much like McDonald's disastrous Sweet & Sour sauce, KFC's doesn't taste like much, though it edged McD's in that there is a slight fruity flavor and has a jellylike consistency — just nothing more. We’re glad this sauce will no longer be wasting anybody’s time.
A clear attempt to cash in on the success of the eternally popular Szechuan Sauce, Kung Pao sauce wasn’t met with quite the same acclaim. The common opinion seems to be that it would have been better to cook some fried rice or noodles with, not dip fried chicken into. Makes sense to us.
Through its brief run as a dipping option for McDonald’s nuggets, McDonald’s Chipotle BBQ gained a lot of fans. A slightly spicier, bolder, A1-ier version of the standard (read: mediocre) BBQ sauce makes sense for the menu. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to think a return could happen, considering McDonald’s is known for that kind of thing. Just ask the lines around the block each time the McRib returns.
Here’s the deal. Did KFC try to create an orange chicken-esque sauce? Yes. Did it do this knowing full well that if anybody wanted fast food orange chicken, they’d go to Panda Express? Unclear. Why is somebody at KFC if they’re craving orange chicken? We can’t say. Is this sauce a great loss for the fast food world? Absolutely not.
Introduced (and ditched) around the same time as Kung Pao sauce, Burger King’s Roasted Jalapeño BBQ sauce sounds like something we’d want to get heavily involved with. Unfortunately, the sales speak for themselves, and the sauce is long gone.
Described lovingly by Serious Eats as “like the chili sauce that you'd get at a really bad Thai restaurant,” this was a goopy mess that seems to have found very few fans. McDonald’s is lucky enough to have had one hit Asian-style sauce; it’s nonsense to think it could land that trick twice.
The pandemic brought a lot of changes to the restaurant world, even right down to the fast food sauce level. According to KFC, in the midst of the pandemic its iconic slogan didn’t “quite fit in the current environment,” and they were not trying to promote finger-licking. We’re just about to roll our eyes right out of our heads, because Finger Lickin’ Good sauce was very solid. It was similar to honey mustard, but as thick as a remoulade and with about a metric ton of pepper mixed in. A real treat.
You think Mickey D fans are serious about Szechuan Sauce? At the height of Michael Jordan’s relevance, the Bulls superstore signed a deal with McDonald’s for the “McJordan Special,” a burger that came topped with smoked bacon and a specially made barbecue sauce. This sauce was so popular that after its discontinuation, one person on eBay paid 10 grand for a jug. That’s dedication.
Wendy tends to be all over the map (great shakes, weird burgers, atrocious fries, good bacon), but is unified in one major way: Her sauces generally know how to work a room. So many sauces with the word "creamy" in the title are thick, globby, mayo-y, and gross, but this Creamy Sriracha was actually perfect. Not only was the consistency not gross, but it was legitimately spicy. It's rare when a fast food sauce claims to be spicy and actually is — well done, Wendy. We miss your Creamy Sriracha so.
Though it is technically available in “select markets,” this was a let-down from the start, and not one we’re sad to see gone. We wanted so badly for it to be good. A nice, sinus-clearing hot mustard like you'd get from a Chinese restaurant sounds wonderful. Unfortunately, that sauce was so dulled down that it pretty much tasted like normal mustard. We won’t be missing it.
Though Finger Lickin’ Good was a loss, KFC’s Creamy Buffalo? Not so much. The flavor itself wasn’t atrocious, but the consistency was so thick and congealed that it was hard not to gag the second you put it in your mouth. It almost felt like drinking a cup of Flubber. That radioactive color didn’t help much, either.
This one hurts. Back when it was alive, we crowned it as the single best sauce for fries in a sauce taste test. This was one of the best things Wendy had ever done. It was smoky, roasty, garlicky, and full of pure umami. It reminded us of a garlic chipotle aioli — just excellent. Nary a chicken nugget or fry exists that wouldn't benefit from being dipped into some S'Awesome Sauce. Rest in s’awesomeness.