Fast Food Inflation? Make Your Big Mac At Home Instead

Fast food inflation got you down? Let's make a Big Mac Value Meal better and cheaper. Hey everybody, it's Tammy. And do you remember when lunch used to cost $5? Now it costs closer to $10, sometimes as much as $15. Of course, I'm talking about the lunch that you would get in a drive-thru, such as the McDonald's Big Mac Value Meal. Number one on the menu, number one in my heart, but I haven't had one in a while. Because anytime I see the going price for a McDonald's Value Meal these days, the inner cheapskate in me comes out because here's the secret. You can make a McDonald's Value meal at home, burger, fries, and even a drink for much less than you would pay for at the drive-thru. And actually it comes together pretty easily, which is exactly what I'm going to do in this video. And to keep me honest, I'm going to add dollar amounts to all the ingredients listed. Also, because the McDonald's Value meal is in three parts, burger, fries, and a drink, I'm going to add chapters that you can easily bounce to below. Let's start with McDonald's fries. Do you know why McDonald's fries are so tasty? Because they're covered in this. It's a proprietary mix of salt and MSG that the Golden Arches seasons almost all their food with. And so do I. Here's how you make it. In the seasoning shaker goes two parts iodized salt and one part MSG. If you don't have any Asian grocery stores near you where you can buy this stuff in the cute little bear jar, you can buy Accent. This stuff is just about every grocery store and you can find it in the spice section. Now I call this stuff Salt Deluxe because it's like salt but 10 times better. I use it to season rice, meat, potatoes of course, and all vegetables. It totally makes them go down easier. Back to the fries. You can easily just buy frozen french fries and after you cook them just toss them with the Salt Deluxe. That works. But I'm gonna make a bunch of frozen french fries using the Ethan Kleplowski method. Peel some russet potatoes. These are the best for french fries. And then run them through your potato press on its smallest blade. You can try and free ball it too, but it's much quicker to just use one of these bad boys. Place your potatoes in water after you cut them so they don't turn brown. Get a nice big pot of water over high heat. Once it's boiling, add a couple tablespoons of white vinegar. I always eyeball it. And a good pinch of salt. Add your potatoes about a handful at a time. Don't crowd the pot or they won't cook right. Boil these for eight and a half minutes. Then remove them from the pot and allow them to cool. Repeat with the rest of of your potatoes. Once you've allowed them to cool, we're going to pre-fry these bad boys, which I do outside. Get your oil up to 365 degrees, and once again, a handful at a time, cook your potatoes, this time for 90 seconds. Let them drain. At this point, they're ready to be frozen. Slide them into a Ziploc bag and park them in the freezer, where they can stay until you want french fries. Then, anytime you want french fries, just dunk them into some 365 degree oil and fry them until golden about 90 seconds. Drain, shake on the salty lux, and they're ready to eat. The cool thing about frozen fries is that they air fry really nicely too. All right, now that you know how to make delicious McDonald's french fries, let's move on to the burger. As anyone who's ever seen the ancient commercial, a Big Mac is two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. You know, some days I forget how to do long division, but I never forget the order of a Big Mac. First the buns. I like using something small and slightly sweet. These brioche buns are perfect but they don't have the sesame seeds on them. That's an easy fix. But you will need an egg white with a little bit of water. Beat this together and then brush the top of your burger buns. Then sprinkle on some sesame seeds. Bake these in a 350 degree oven for about four minutes and done. Sesame seed buns. Easy peasy. Now the pickles. Standard dill pickles here. I'm going to slice this bad boy in half and one half will be sliced into thin chips. The other half is getting minced for our special sauce. Okay so people swear that special sauce contains a million ingredients and I've seen so many copycat recipes that have you emptying half your spice drawer and a bunch of weird additions. But honestly my favorite McDonald's special sauce recipe is ketchup, mayo, and diced pickles. You can add a little sugar if you like your sweeter But honestly, I like keeping things simple. Usually makes for a better burger. I always make a little extra so I can dip my fries into it. Lettuce. Iceberg. Don't go using romaine or heartier lettuces. It won't come out the same. Iceberg lettuce is the burger lettuce in my humble opinion. I shave off the side and then I run my knife through it to make fine shreds. Cool, crisp, done. Onions. There are a million ways to mince an onion, but here's how I do it. Slice your onion in half across the equator. lay flat and slice in half again. Now slice off arcs. Then pile a few of these arcs and run your knife through them. Now I like to follow along the arc but honestly any way you slice into these you're going to get nice little onion bits for your burger. Which brings us to the patties. Pretty crucial actually but like every other part of this recipe the best approach is to keep things simple. Here's how I cook them. First I like a nice fatty 80% ground beef. You can go leaner I guess but I find 90% ground beef kind of bland. Anyway I'm going to measure out 2.5 ounce patties. You can definitely eyeball it though but I like consistency. Roll them into perfectly round balls. Then get a griddle as hot as you can get it. I don't start cooking until I see smoke. Then drop your patty on the griddle and flatten it out with a press. Let it cook mostly on one side. Once it is mostly cooked, hit it with some salt deluxe and then flip. Look at how nice and charred that is. Cook for another minute and then evacuate. Now I cook a bunch of these at a time because the beauty of McDonald's hamburgers is that they're are assembled at the last minute from a bunch of pre-fabricated ingredients like this. First, toast three buns lightly. I think I overdid it on that one. On the bottom bun goes some sauce, some shredded lettuce, a light sprinkling of onions, and a slice of American cheese. Top that with a cooked patty, the middle bun, more sauce, lettuce, onions, sliced pickles, the second patty, and the top bun. Okay, so now here's the stupid but also kind of brilliant hack that makes your hamburger taste like you just got it out of the drive-thru. Okay, take a napkin, moisten it, and wring it out. Now wrap your burger up in this napkin and nuke it for 20 seconds. Then just unwrap it, and you're ready to serve. Now, while you can certainly just crack open a soda, I'm going to show you how to make a McDonald's Sprite. It's going to be super carbonated, super refreshing, and if you have the right tools, you can make it at home. In a pot, go sugar, water, and a little corn syrup. Bring it to a boil. then remove it from the pot into a clean storage container. I like a mason jar. To make a McDonald's Sprite, place six tablespoons of simple syrup in a measuring cup and enough water to make two cups. Then add half a teaspoon of citric acid. Pour this into your favorite carbonator. I'm using this nitrous canister. Charge it with some CO2, shake shake, and place it in the fridge for at least half an hour. Then dispense it over ice. Alright, what's the damage? What a savings and trust me this burger is way better than anything you'd get in the drive-thru and of course it's totally yummy thanks for watching make sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon if you enjoy the recipe if you like this check out my simple but effective Pizza Hut pan pizza hack