The Case For McDonald's Big Breakfast

Few rituals are more sacred than lazily grabbing a McDonald's breakfast on a Sunday morning when you just can't be bothered to do anything, but you're still hungry anyway. Many delicious options abound on the McDonald's breakfast menu, but for many who are only interested in driving through and finishing their food in the car, sandwiches, burritos, and hashbrowns are the most appealing options. So where does that leave the Big Breakfast? While it ranks highly amongst fans of McDonald's breakfast items, it does fall behind in the convenience factor because it requires a knife, fork, and table to enjoy it properly.

However, there is a compelling case to be made for why the Big Breakfast is the best thing you can order at McDonald's in the morning. It can be argued that the Big Breakfast provides the best bang for your buck compared to everything else. Admittedly, those buying from McDonald's are saving money in general anyway, thanks to how expensive everything else is, but knowing that you're saving even more with a restaurant menu hack is like the cherry on top of the Shamrock Shake.

Let's analyze the math of the Big Breakfast — specifically the Big Breakfast with Hotcakes. This meal comes with three pancakes, a sausage patty, scrambled eggs, a biscuit, and a hashbrown, all for around $6.31 (average U.S. price according to mc-menu.com). Considering that the Big Breakfast includes a deconstructed Sausage Biscuit with Egg that costs $4.21 and Hotcakes that cost $3.68 on their own, that's already $1.58 of extra value you're getting by ordering the Big Breakfast, which doesn't even factor in the hashbrown.

If you want to take the Big Breakfast hack even further, McDonald's allows free substitutions for some of the items in the meal. For example, if you're not a big fan of biscuits and scrambled eggs, you can request an English Muffin and the round egg that comes in McMuffins instead. You do lose a bit of value technically because the round egg is just one while the scrambled is more, but you definitely gain in deliciousness because of how perfect Sausage McMuffins are. Heck, you could even say the Big Breakfast contains a deconstructed McGriddle because you easily make a sandwich using the pancakes as bread. Long story short: become the master of McDonald's menu and buy more Big Breakfasts.