McDonald's menu is bringing back the original Fried Apple Pie beginning June 23, and the fried version will return to drive-thrus nationwide for a limited time. The item had been off the menu for over three decades after McDonald's switched to a baked crust in 1992.
Ray Kroc's 1960s pie
Ray Kroc introduced the Fried Apple Pie in the 1960s, when the hand pie started as a family recipe tied to Litton Cochran and Jo Cochran. McDonald's now says the return is part of America celebrating its 250th anniversary, which gives the company a ready-made reason to revive a product that had become a local legend and later a nationwide favorite.
The pie will be an all-day menu item, filled with 100% American-grown apples. That makes the rollout straightforward for customers: if a store has it in stock, it can sell it any time of day.
1992 changed the crust
Until 1992, McDonald's sold the Fried Apple Pie as a fried item, then changed it to a baked crust. That shift is the key reason the June 23 return matters to people who remember the original version, because the company is not simply relaunching apple pie — it is restoring the recipe that disappeared when the crust changed 35 years ago.
The limited-time run adds the practical catch. The original recipe will be available only while supplies last, so the window is narrow even though the item is headed back to drive-thrus nationwide. For customers who want the fried version instead of the baked one, the answer is simple: get it early, while locations still have it.
Drive-thrus nationwide
"McDonald's is officially bringing back its original Fried Apple Pie." "Beginning June 23, the original recipe Fried Apple Pie will be back at drive-thrus nationwide." Those two lines leave the company with a clean retail play: a familiar item, a fixed start date, and a supply cap that should push demand into the first days of the release.
Jo Cochran's months spent perfecting the hand pie helped turn a family recipe into the product McDonald's is now reviving. For anyone planning to try the original again, June 23 is the day to watch, because the pie is coming back in the original form and leaving once stores run through what they have.
