McDonald's is bringing back Szechuan sauce in select locations across the US

McDonald's product is pictured in a restaurant in Washington, July 23, 2010. Reuters/Molly Riley

McDonald's has announced on Sunday that it is bringing back the Szechuan McNugget sauce. Select stores across the United States will provide the sauce starting October 7.

Four jugs of Szechuan McNugget sauce were given away in July in response to demands from fans of the Adult Swim cartoon "Rick and Morty.” This month, McDonald's intends to roll out the sauce again for a wider audience.

Customers can get the sauce on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 2 pm US time. The sauce can be requested along with orders of the new Buttermilk Crispy Tenders.

The locations giving out Szechuan sauce can be searched on the company's Buttermilk Crispy Tenders website. McDonald’s reportedly said the rollout is "really, really limited." For instance, customers can get the sauce in only five McDonald's in all of New Hampshire.

"Rick and Morty” set off the sauce renaissance when its season premiere concluded with a plea from Rick for McDonald's to bring it back. The season 3 opener of the show featured the character ranting about how good the sauce was.

Fans of the show became interested, and more than 19,000 people signed a petition begging McDonald’s the same thing. The restaurant chain sent the show's co-creator Justin Roiland a bottle of the sauce shortly after the episode aired.

The Szechuan sauce was only available for a limited time in 1998 for the promotion of the Disney movie "Mulan." Some people who tried it before recalled it was more of a plum sauce that tasted somewhere between sweet and sour.

Meanwhile, Longbow Research said McDonald's will report sales above Wall Street expectations. "Given our latest positive checks and favorable short and long-term view of MCD's fundamentals, we are upgrading the shares this morning," the firm's analyst wrote.

"Beyond positive trends for the current quarter, we believe the shares of MCD deserve to trade above the company's own historical multiples in light of its ongoing turnaround story both in the U.S. and internationally,” analyst Alton Stump said in a note to clients, according to CNBC. He cited some conversations with McDonald's franchise restaurant owners in the US, which revealed Signature Crafted sandwiches and beverage promotions boost the sales results. Stump increased his third-quarter comparable sales growth estimate from 3.5 percent versus the Wall Street consensus of 3.4 percent to a range of 4 to 4.5 percent.