TikToker wows millions turning nation’s favourite crisps including McCoy’s and Monster Munch into gourmet sandwiches

A Yorkshire TikToker is wowing millions by taking the nation’s favourite crisps, including flame-grilled steak McCoy’s, pickled onion Monster Munch and Frazzles, and turning them into gourmet sandwiches.

Nell Carter, 28, from Ilkley, Yorkshire, said she used to view her passion for sandwiches as a “side hustle”, reviewing supermarket Christmas meal deals on Snapchat while at university.

After creating her own recipes and food blogs during lockdown, Nell started focusing solely on sandwiches, and in June last year, she left her full-time marketing job to pursue her own sandwich catering business based around London, named Nell’s Kitchen.

Nell also showcases her creations on TikTok and more recently she has launched a series of cooking challenges to delight her near 50,000 followers.

Her first task sought to elevate supermarket meal deal sandwiches by re-creating them with refined ingredients, while her latest and ongoing challenge, which started at the end of January, aims to champion the nation’s favourite and most nostalgic crisps to “re-imagine something you have known for years”.

Pairing pickled onion Monster Munch with crab to create a delectable bun, crusting a Wotsit-shaped loaf with crushed cheesy puffs and enriching dough with bacon bits and crumbled Frazzles, Nell has captivated her followers, earning millions of views.

“I’ve always picked challenges that I think are going to be relatable to my audience, which is majority UK,” Nell told PA Real Life.

“Crisps are something we all enjoy, something we’re all a part of.

“I’m just showing people you can re-imagine something you have known for years in a new way to find a little bit of excitement out of something very commonplace.”

Nell used to view her passion for sandwiches as a “side hustle”.

“It all started back in university where I started doing reviews of supermarket meal deal Christmas sandwiches on Snapchat,” she said.

“It then turned into an annual feature and during lockdown, I started creating my own recipes and food blogs.

“In 2022, I started making my own sandwiches and it’s grown from there.”

In June last year, Nell left her full-time marketing job to pursue her own sandwich catering business based around London, Nell’s Kitchen, hosting pop-ups around the city and supplying catering for offices.

She started her TikTok account in 2022 to showcase her creations and has recently launched cooking challenges to delight her near 50,000 followers.

Her first, which took place in August 2024, aimed to elevate a series of supermarket meal deal sandwiches, such as egg mayonnaise and prawn cocktail, by re-creating them with more refined ingredients.

Her latest, which she launched at the end of January, seeks to make the nation’s favourite crisps the champion of the sandwich after feeling as though they are often viewed as an “afterthought”.

So far, she has dabbled with Scampi Fries, Mini Cheddars, Discos, Frazzles and more.

“The hardest thing to achieve with a pre-made sandwich is the crunch,” Nell explained.

“Why not try and make the crisp the hero product?”

Calling on her followers to suggest their favourite crisps, Nell first used a random number generator to determine which sandwiches she would be making – but as the series has gained traction, she said certain packets have been “overwhelmingly requested”.

One TikTok video focuses on the Wotsit – Nell first blends the cheesy crisps to make a Wotsit-crusted homemade roll in the shape of a huge, orange puff.

From there, she fried a chicken cutlet in a Wotsit crumb and topped it with melted cheese, rocket and more Wotsits for the final product.

“I had to make this sandwich twice because having a Wotsit in a sandwich, it just disintegrated immediately,” she said.

Nell has also created a sandwich centred around pickled onion Monster Munch, which involved crab meat, and which Nell said was the “most wacky” and “divisive” sandwich in the series so far.

“I had seen another creator a few years ago serving oysters with Monster Munch as the sweetness of the seafood cuts through the strong pickled onion flavour,” she explained.

In her video, Nell mixed crab meat with mayonnaise, capers and Tabasco – a sauce which she also used to coat her celeriac slaw to add to the filling.

She placed four Monster Munch crisps into a soft, white bun, which she then topped with her slaw, the crab meat, chives, rocket and a Monster Munch dusting.

Nell has enjoyed the engagement the series has inspired, with her most popular video, featuring flame-grilled steak McCoy’s, earning two million views and 120,000 likes.

Here, Nell baked the crushed crisp into her dough and created a Philly cheese steak filling with more crisps stacked on top.

One comment read “£10 sandwich that”, while another said: “Sensational, no notes.”

Another popular video from the series was her Frazzles sandwich which gained 1.5 million views.

This involved Nell creating a dough enriched with bacon bits and crumbled Frazzles, which she then layered with bacon, Frazzles, cheese, pickles and red onion, alongside a sweetcorn butter.

“They’re very nostalgic, most people from the UK will recognise a Frazzle so I wanted to honour the crispy bacon flavour,” Nell said.

One TikTok user wrote: “Honestly that looks like my idea of heaven,” while another commented: “You, my dear, are a genius.”

As the series continues, Nell estimates the sandwiches will become all the more strange and “divisive” amongst her followers as she experiments with different crisps, ingredients and flavours.

“Some people are volunteering their own weird combinations – I’ve had cheese and onion crisps with Dairy Milk, with banana,” Nell said.

“Someone said I need to try prawn cocktail crisps with Nutella.

“It’s fairly limitless, there’s crisps coming out my ears at the moment so it would be nice to keep the series going.”