How One Restaurant is Spicing Up a Popular Fast Food Classic

In this episode of The Main Course, Barbara Castiglia speaks with Big Chicken’s CEO Josh Halpern to learn about the disruption this franchise is posed to cause franchises focused on chicken.

Big Chicken opened the doors of its first brick and mortar venue in Las Vegas, NV in 2018. Since then, they’ve opened several locations throughout the US including locations in stadium arenas. They have also found a home with Carnival Cruise Lines.

Today, the restaurant is focused on growing intelligently while bringing awareness to their brand. When asked what’s on the menu, Josh Halpern comically commented “as you can imagine, chicken, otherwise it’d be weird right?”

However, in all seriousness, Halpern continued to discuss what makes Big Chicken unique. “We really try to put effort on the chicken itself, right? So, we have chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, chicken sliders… We try to incorporate every possible flavor profile from more savory to spicy because one of Shaquille’s key values is authenticity.”

In fact, Shaquille has a deep connection to chicken as it was a common dinner when he was a child. There’s even a Mac N’ Cheese side with a Cheez-it crust that is modeled after what he remembers his mom made when he was a kid.

Continue listening to Castiglia and Halpern discussing the future vision of the Big Chicken franchise, how they are coping with staffing and supply chain shortages, incorporating local flavor profiles into menu design, how they utilized time during the pandemic to set the stage to effectively expand their franchise operations, and much more.

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