The Discontinued 1970s McDonald's Snack We Desperately Want To Try

Say what you will about McDonald's, but you really have to commend the fast food chain for its willingness to take risks. Looking at it now, it's easy to see how the chain made its way from being a California burger stand to the now ubiquitous chain it is today. However, the path to burger dominance was laden with countless sandwich flops and side dish failures. Take, for example, the Hula Burger, a confounding combination of grilled pineapple and cheese between two burger buns, created in the 1960s to fill the meatless void of Lent for Catholic customers. Sounds bad, right? Well, customers agreed, and the sandwich was discontinued. But though the fruity burger didn't pan out, the now classic Filet-O-Fish filled the meatless void for the chain instead.

Of course, the tale of the pineapple and cheese debacle is well-trodden ground. But there is one McDonald's failure that you might not have heard of, but that we're really curious to try, and it directly led to the invention of one of the chain's most iconic menu items. Are you familiar with onion nuggets? Probably not, much to our disappointment. They are exactly what they sound like: bite-sized nuggets of fried onion. 

McDonald's first introduced onion nuggets sometime in the mid to late 1970s (the exact year differs quite a bit between reports). However, they were discontinued by the early 1980s due to low sales. As it turns out, most people prefer their fried onions in ring form. The dish wasn't a complete failure, however, as it directly inspired the equally crunchy but exponentially more successful McDonald's McNuggets, which remain one of the chain's most iconic menu items thanks to the chicken nuggets' unique taste and crispy batter.

While onion nuggets didn't quite hit the mark, the man who invented them is still McDonald's royalty. René Arend served as the executive chef at the fast food chain from 1976 to 2004. During his tenure, he helped create such McDonald's staples as the McRib, the tasty sandwich with a cult following and erratic limited release schedule that has kept fans of the chain anticipating their next bite for decades. However, one of his first projects as executive chef for McDonald's was less successful. Yes, he helped to create the ill-fated onion nuggets as an alternative sandwich accompaniment for the chain's iconic fries.

Unfortunately, the onion nuggets didn't quite hit the mark for hungry customers, and the product was discontinued after a few years. All was not lost, however, as the nuggets did prove to be ample inspiration for McDonald's McNuggets. Apparently, in 1979, one of the chain's chairmen, Fred Turner, suggested that Arend move his culinary focus toward poultry products. That simple suggestion was the impetus for Arend's creation of those crispy, crunchy chicken nuggets. In 1983, McDonald's McNuggets finally hit the market. And wouldn't you know it, they were a hit! Though the recipe for these dip-able delights has been tweaked over the years, they remain one of Arend's most sustained and enduring legacies at McDonald's.