McDonald's Coveted Chicken Snack Wraps Now Have a Release Date. Thanks, Popeye's

The chicken countdown is on! McDonald's has been teasing customers about the return of its Snack Wraps, a chicken-tortilla entree that's been missing from US locations of the Golden Arches since 2020. But on Tuesday, the chain reversed course on its previous hint and gave up the goods, revealing that the Snack Wraps will come to McDonald's on July 10 -- not the 14th of an upcoming month, as previously teased.

Yep, July 10. Not July 14, which was the release date suspected by many thanks to previous tweets from the fast food giant. Back on April 15, the chain tweeted "snack wraps 0x.14.2025," indicating the menu item would return on the 14th of a unnamed, upcoming month.

In a follow-up tweet, the account posted, "know i posted 0x.14.2025 a few weeks ago but i wanted to see if they could come back even sooner. so i asked the boss and he said OKAY LETS DO IT?!?!!"

A recent analysis by VegasInsider.com found that the Snack Wrap was by far the most searched for discontinued McDonald's menu item of 2025. Out of all fifty states and Washington D.C., forty-seven states searched for Snack Wrap more than any other discontinued McDonald's item. The only states searching for other discontinued items more than Snack Wraps were Delaware and Rhode Island, which searched for Chicken Selects, and Idaho, which searched for the Arch Deluxe.

Read more: Review: McDonald's Minecraft Meals Feature The Hottest Nugget Sauce Ever

A representative for McDonald's did not respond to a request for comment.

Popeyes pressure

Could a competitor's calendar have forced McDonald's to move up its timetable? Fast-food chain Popeyes posted on June 20 mocking the earlier McDonald's date tweet, and hyping chicken wraps of its own. Popeyes retweeted the mysterious McDonald's Snack Wraps date tweet, and wrote "chicken wraps 0x.02.2025."

Popeyes now has three varieties of chicken wraps, available as of Monday in its restaurants.

Snack Wrap fever

McDonald's Snack Wraps first came out in 2006, and were meant to be a chicken item that would appeal to drive-thru customers. There are different versions, but the basic one includes white-meat chicken strips known as McCrispy Strips wrapped in a flour tortilla with cheese and lettuce with either ranch, honey mustard or salsa. McCrispy Strips are a reworked version of a chicken item formerly known as Chicken Selects.

Zach Ciampa, who regularly covers new food releases under the social-media handle Snach With Zach, said there's been an intense fanbase out there for the wraps. 

"Regarding McDonald's Snack Wrap, it's by far the most requested item I've ever seen my audience ask or demand to come back," he told CNET. "Not just the most requested in recent memory, but the most requested of all time. And that's not limited to McDonald's." 

Ciampa said the only similar fast-food items that come close to the same level of interest are Dairy Queen's S'mores Blizzard and Taco Bell's Caramel Apple Empanada, both of which have made recent returns.

"I've been covering food releases for years, and in that time, I've seen countless comments to the tune of 'We don't want this. We want the Snack Wrap,' and, 'Can you tell us when the Snack Wrap is coming back?'" he said. "A couple years ago, the chances of its return were pretty bleak. However, things escalated pretty quickly in late 2023 when McDonald's did indeed announce that the Snack Wrap would return in a new form. Since then, details have slowly but surely trickled out, and the hype has steadily grown."

While Snack Wraps left McDonald's locations in the US back in 2020, they remained available at Canadian and UK restaurants. The current online McDonald's Canada menu includes several tortilla-wrapped items, including ones with crispy chicken, grilled chicken, buffalo chicken and chicken with a sweet chili sauce.

McDonald's is riding a viral wave. The fast-food chain's Minecraft Happy Meals and adult Minecraft Meals hit restaurants on April 1 and sold out quickly. Diners ordering a Happy Meal these days will find a Squishmallow theme meal instead.