McDonald's quietly confirms return of fan favorite sandwich - but it will only be around for four weeks

A McDonald's sandwich with a cult following is coming back.

The McRib - seasoned boneless pork dipped in tangy BBQ sauce and topped with chopped onions and pickles -  is returning to America from November 27. 

It's return will be McDonald's latest weapon, along with its $5 value meal deal and the Chicken Big Mac finally coming to the US, in the battle to win customers back in 2024.

The McRib, which has been dropped and then added back to US menus dozens of times over the years, polarizes fast food fans. Some love it, but others hate it. 

But McDonald's knows the McRib brings customers into restaurants and drive-thrus - useful at a time it is trying to boost sales, which fell in the summer for the first time in years.

President Joe Erlinger had hinted the McRib was coming back earlier in the summer. 

And source at McDonald's told DailyMail.com on Friday that the McRib will be back for four weeks at the end of November.  

McDonald's is also bringing the McRib back to restaurants in the UK, but a month earlier on October 16. 

McRib - which has been described as the 'fast food sandwich that went viral before viral was a thing' - debuted nationally in the UCooS in 1982.

It was discontinued in 1985 after low sales, but then returned in 1989 and was broadly available in the US and other countries until 2005. 

After that, it was then periodically reintroduced until disappearing again in 2012 for eight years. It didn't return until December 2020, when it came back for a limited time. 

At the time, it was a bid to lure back customers after the pandemic left its dining rooms sparsely populated or closed. 

The McRib is an elusive prize for fans, who scour the internet for reports of its surfacing at limited locations for a short amount of time. 

In the past, the McRib has been credited with bringing in customers and boosting sales for the chain.

For example, a 'farewell tour' for the cult favorite in November 2022 helped boost sales by double digits. 

Bosses said that would be the last time the McRib was sold. But it did come back again in November 2023 too. 

'Bringing the McRib back for a limited time will  spur some interest and foot traffic for McDonald's at a time when performance is flagging,' retail expert Neil Saunders, managing director of Global Data, told DailyMail.com recently. 

But he explained McDonald's only sells it for limited times - rather than having it as a permanent fixture on the menu -since 'the uplift is usually only temporary.

It's not impossible to get a McRib any time you want it, but you need to travel. Germany has had on the menu year round for a while. It was returned to Canada in January this year. 

McDonald's has been working hard to entice customers back with lower prices and new products.  

In June, McDonald's launched a $5 value meal deal,  including either a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink. Recently, it extended it until December. 

Then in August, the chain announced a totally new, bigger burger called The Big Arch is coming to the US later this year. It is already in Canada.

It will be the fast-food giant's first new permanent, worldwide product since Chicken McNuggets in 1983.

Earlier this week, the chain finally set the date for the Chicken Big Mac to come to the US. It will go on sale from October 10 after being sold in Europe on and off for years. 

McDonald's has also emerged that fan favorite bagels are returning to breakfast menus after four years.  

Bagels were first introduced to McDonald's in late 2019 but were cut soon when bosses simplified the menu in spring 2020 during the pandemic.