How McDonald's Took Its Egg McMuffin From Good To Great

McDonald's breakfast has been around for about 50 years, but in 2015, the company made a decision that took its Egg McMuffin sandwich from good to great: It began toasting its English muffins in real butter instead of liquid margarine. While the other components of the Egg McMuffin menu item have remained the same for decades — a slice of lean Canadian bacon, a single egg, and a piece of cheese on a toasted English muffin –  this tiny recipe adjustment made a substantial change to the overall flavor of the sandwich. That's because liquid margarine tastes less rich, greasier, and less complex than real butter. In addition to toasting its muffins in butter, McDonald's also began toasting bagels and biscuits with real butter, and when grilling breakfast items as well. 

The decision put more than just a smile on its customers' faces — it also drove up McDonald's profits. Just months after the ingredient swap was announced, McDonald's reported a double-digit increase in Egg McMuffin sales.

So why did McDonald's make the swap from toasting its Egg McMuffins with margarine to using real butter? It was part of the company's restructuring plan to focus on the quality of the food — specifically on boosting the perception of its quality. This decision didn't happen in a vacuum; McDonald's hadn't been performing well financially at the time.

Steve Easterbrook became the company's new CEO in 2015 and introduced several changes that year to help position McDonald's as more appealing and less unhealthy, to improve its bottom line. These changes included introducing a policy that the company would not include chicken that had been raised on human antibiotics in its menu offerings, toasting sandwich buns longer, increasing the size of the Quarter Pounder hamburger patty, and developing a new menu item: artisan chicken sandwiches.

McDonald's was able to turn around its financial performance, which has continued to ebb and flow, most recently reporting declining sales in quarter one of 2025. And while McD's is stepping up its burger game in 2025, with upgrades to its burger options, the real buttery flavor of the Egg McMuffin still remains. The artisan chicken sandwiches, on the other hand, were phased out in 2019. Add it to the growing list of failed McDonald's items.