This Popular McDonald's Breakfast Item Makes The Filet‑O‑Fish Even Better

Want to know why McDonald's hash browns are so delicious? Sure, crispy, fried spuds are always tasty, but like its fries, the chain cooks its hash browns in beef-flavored oil. This item is just as beloved for its texture as it is for its salty, savory taste: golden and crisp on the outside, fluffy and borderline creamy on the inside. As delicious as it is solo, diners have also been adding it to McDonald's sandwiches, like the Filet-O-Fish.

The chain's signature fish sandwich, composed of crispy Alaskan pollock, American cheese, and tangy tartar sauce on a steamed bun, has been charming seafood lovers since 1965. While it's balanced and satiating as-is, a hash brown can make it even tastier. It adds more crunch to the already-crisp fish, and the starchy center amplifies the cheese's tender, creamy reprieve. (You could add fries to the Filet-O-Fish instead, but it'll be messier, and the potato won't be as evenly distributed.)

This is hardly the first Filet-O-Fish hack out there — remember the Land, Air, and Sea sandwich, a towering union of beef, chicken, fish, and fixings? — and it's not even an out-of-the-blue pairing. It's sort of like portable fish and chips, a dish that has existed since at least the 1800s. Whether you spruce it up with malt vinegar or make it sweet with a smear of ketchup, the merit of this mashup only requires one bite to believe.

Unless you're lucky enough to live near a McDonald's store that serves all-day breakfast, you'll need to hit the drive-thru at just the right time to order off the breakfast and lunch menus simultaneously (or a few minutes apart). Most stores stop serving breakfast between 10:30 and 11 a.m., so in most cases, both the hash brown and Filet-O-Fish should be available in that time frame.

If you miss the optimal window, you can try to recreate the hack at home. For the potato portion, our copycat McDonald's hash browns recipe is the ambitious solution, but if you want to keep the prep work to a minimum, Aldi's hash browns are a close second, according to ex-McDonald's corporate chef Mike Haracz. He also explained that instead of baking, frying the frozen hash browns (ideally in beef-flavored oil) is essential.

As for the sandwich, we also have a copycat McDonald's Filet-O-Fish recipe. For a quicker route to dinner, though, consider Stouffer's Fish Filets or Whole Foods' 365 Breaded Fish Squares instead. In our ranking of frozen fish fillets that make the best McDonald's Filet-O-Fish copycat, these two came out on top for their on-par breading, size, and all-around value. Once you have the hash browns and fish figured out, the rest is as simple as bread, cheese, and tartar sauce.