Get Your Snack Wraps for a Fraction of the Price
McDonald’s Famous Snack Wrap Returns
You might’ve heard that McDonald’s is bringing back their famous Snack Wrap. For the uninitiated, the snack wrap is a piece of crispy chicken, lettuce, shredded cheese, and sauce wrapped in a tortilla—and they’re only $2.99. Snack wraps were phased out in 2016, but diehard fans never stopped begging for their return. Turns out, McDonald’s was listening.
Popeyes also recently launched a wrap-based snack on June 2. Popeyes Chicken Wraps are more expensive, priced at $3.99, but come in 3 flavors (one more than McD’s) and advertise a “biscuit-like tortilla” that is surely a draw for Popeyes fans.
It seems that wrap snacks have always been a draw for fast food customers. Dunkin sells a Wake-Up Wrap ($3.49) that is essentially the same idea, but with breakfast food instead of fried chicken. They continually release new flavors, such as the Chipotle Hashbrown Wake-Up Wrap on their Summer 2025 menu.
As exciting as all this news is, have you ever purchased one of these cheap, convenient snacks and wondered, “Could I make this at home for cheaper?” So have we.
Cost Breakdown
We’re going to outline the cost of buying vs making your own snack wrap. We’ll recreate the original McDonald’s recipe: a piece of fried chicken, shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, and ranch. The items we chose are fairly-priced, if not the cheapest option, and were all sourced from Mariano’s. We estimated the prices based on a total of 12 servings.
Perdue Frozen Breaded Chicken Tenders - $7.69These tenders come in a 24 count, with a serving size of 3 pieces. You likely will not be using 3 chicken tenders in one snack wrap, so we played with the numbers a little bit and estimated that you might use 2 tenders max for one snack wrap. This puts the chicken tenders at $0.64 per snack wrap.
Fresh Express Iceberg Shreds - $1.99
Simple Truth Organic Mexican Style Blend Shredded Cheese - $3.99
Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing - $3.29
For the lettuce, cheese, and sauce we chose fairly cheap options. Combined, the prices per wrap come out to just $0.77. And let’s be real—you’ll probably get more than 12 uses out of all these, so really it’s even cheaper.
Mission Super Soft Flour Tortillas (12ct) - $3.39
Our tortillas come out to just $0.28 per wrap. At the time of writing this, these particular tortillas were actually on sale at just $1.99, which we haven’t incorporated in the official price for fairness. But for anyone wondering, that would make the tortillas just $0.17 per wrap.
Total Cost at Home: $1.69 per wrap
Total Grocery Cost: $20.35 (excluding tax) for 5 items
So, making your own snack wraps is actually cheaper than purchasing one from McDonald’s, Popeyes, or—if you’re feeling breakfast—Dunkin. Our homemade snack wraps were about $1.30 cheaper than McDonald’s. That might sound like a little, but you know it means a lot in the long-run.
Snack Wrap Inspo
Feeling inspired to make your own snack wraps? Here are some ideas, courtesy of us.
1) Grilled Chicken
Want to opt for a healthier protein? Substitute grilled chicken in place of the fried tenders that McDonald’s and Popeyes use.
2) Switch Up the Greens
Instead of shredded lettuce, try something else: spinach, arugula, or microgreens for some added nutrients or a different flavor.
3) Get Sauced
There are probably a million sauces that will be good on a simple chicken snack wrap, so we won’t even bother to offer you recommendations on that front. But have you considered tossing your chicken? Instead of just spreading the dressing on, toss your chicken in it for a super-sauced wrap.
4) Meal Prep Heros
If you want to eat these bad boys all week and not worry about assembling one every time, try meal prepping them instead. You can either assemble them entirely and store them in the fridge, or portion out your ingredients in separate bags/containers to avoid any soggy, hot lettuce situations.
Happy Snacking!
We hope we inspired you to save yourself a little money this summer and make your very own, catered-to-you snack wraps. We’re certainly excited to give these a try. So happy snacking and remember: we DO have food at home.
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