{"id":379853,"date":"2026-07-20T18:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/379853\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:01:10","slug":"shaqs-chicken-chain-closes-tx-stores-one-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/379853\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaq\u2019s chicken chain closes TX stores, one in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s Big Chicken<\/a> in north Fort Worth has permanently closed its doors after nearly two years.<\/p>\n

Big Chicken<\/a> is a restaurant franchise chain from the NBA legend that opened a north Fort Worth store in late 2024. The store at 9749 North Freeway has been closed for months now, but a lease posting<\/a> confirmed to curious customers that the doors have closed for good.<\/p>\n

The chain also had Texas locations in Lubbock, Richmond and Houston that all also closed earlier this year. The last Big Chicken restaurant in Texas is in Austin, and it is still open.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, Big Chicken has not responded to Star-Telegram inquiries about the reason for closure.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Facebook users speculate that chicken is a hard market, as there is a wealth of fried chicken places to choose from. Within Alliance alone, there is Dave\u2019s Hot Chicken, Pollo Campero, Babe\u2019s Chicken and Chick-fil-A.<\/p>\n

The Big Chicken chain sells<\/a> chicken sandwiches, tenders and shakes. Sandwiches have decadent toppings like onion rings or mac and cheese. The \u201cShaq Snacks\u201d are chicken tender sandwiches made with Texas garlic toast. Classic southern sides like crinkle cut fries, onion rings, cheese curds and coleslaw are also available.<\/p>\n

Multiple Facebook comments noted that the menu did not compete with competitors and the chicken \u201cwasn\u2019t that good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next tenant for the North Freeway space is still in the works. Phoenix Pho Vietnamese<\/a> drive-thru just opened in the same block at 9771 North Freeway.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe \u201cThe Ultimate\u201d (top) and \u201cBBQ Chicken Alert\u201d (bottom) sandwiches from Big Chicken. Big Chicken
\n Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Ella Gonzales<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Ella Gonzales is a service journalism reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She is part of a team of local journalists who answer reader questions and write about life in North Texas. Ella mainly writes about local restaurants and where to find good deals around town.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s Big Chicken in north Fort Worth has permanently closed its doors after nearly two years. Big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-379853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}