Shaquille O'Neal’s Big Chicken Texas expansion collapses to just 1 store

Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken fried chicken chain blew up in Texas in 2024 with plans for 56 locations. On 21 Jul 2026, only one restaurant is still open in the Lone Star State.

What happened to Shaq’s Texas push?

Big Chicken opened its first Texas franchise in Fort Worth in 2024, part of a plan to blanket the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with 56 restaurants. Today, just one location remains open-inside the Moody Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The Fort Worth outpost shut down, its phone line is dead, and the DFW Instagram page is gone. Several other Texas Big Chicken sites also closed this year, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Why did Big Chicken fail in Texas?

The fried chicken market in Dallas-Fort Worth is packed. Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-A, Golden Chick and Dave’s Hot Chicken keep expanding, and Big Chicken’s pitch-O’Neal’s star power-wasn’t enough to break through. “People come the first time because they want to check out Shaquille’s restaurant,” CEO Josh Halpern told The Dallas Morning News a few years ago, “and they come back because we were built by two really great chefs.”

O’Neal himself has deep ties to the region. He attended high school in San Antonio and has spent decades bouncing in and out of Dallas-Fort Worth. A year ago, he vowed, “You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of me.” Yet Big Chicken’s Texas expansion stalled despite the NBA legend’s presence.

Where does Big Chicken stand now?

Big Chicken still operates over 30 U.S. restaurants, plus locations in Canada, England, Honduras and on Carnival Cruise ships. Many U.S. sites sit inside sports and entertainment venues: New York Islanders’ UBS Arena, Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, Emory University’s food hall and a Las Vegas-area resort casino. The lone surviving Texas store is the Moody Center eatery on UT Austin’s campus.

Halpern hasn’t explained why the Texas rollout collapsed or what’s next for Big Chicken in the state. The Dallas Morning News reached out for comment but hasn’t received a response.

What comes next for Shaq’s brand?

O’Neal remains a fixture in Texas outside the kitchen. This summer, he cruised Lake Ray Hubbard in Rockwall County aboard a custom 1964 Chevy Impala converted into a boat-billed as “the world’s first 1964 Impala boat.” The viral spectacle underscored O’Neal’s knack for blending sports fame with pop-culture stunts, even as Big Chicken’s Texas dream fizzled.

For now, Texans craving Big Chicken’s signature supersize sandwich-The Ultimate, loaded with mac and cheese and fried onions-must head to Austin’s Moody Center. The rest of the state’s Big Chicken footprint is closed for good.