Shaquille O’Neal’s fast-casual chicken chain is making its way to State College.

O’Neal’s franchise restaurant, Big Chicken, is expanding into Pennsylvania and plans to begin its development in the Keystone State in State College. Big Chicken currently operates one Pennsylvania location in the Comcast Center in Philadelphia.

Entrepreneurs Harsimrat, Shubreet, Samarjit, and Pukhraj Sidhu will lead Big Chicken’s development into State College, though no location or opening timeline has been released yet.

“We are super excited to bring more BIG flavor, BIG food and BIG fun to the people of Pennsylvania,” Harsimrat Sidhu said. “We fell in love with the Big Chicken flavor profile and the variety of menu items they offer. Big Chicken really felt like a family to us.”

Big Chicken’s first location opened in 2018 in Las Vegas, and its menu offers a slew of chicken sandwiches inspired by O’Neal’s “home-cooked childhood favorites,” along with French fries, macaroni and cheese, milkshakes, ice cream sandwiches, and cookies.

“We currently have one upcoming location slated for the state of Pennsylvania, so we are BIG time excited to support the Sidhu’s in their plans for expansion across the state,” Big Chicken CEO Josh Halpern said. “Here we GROW, State College.”

We’ll update this post with more information as it becomes available.

About the Author

Keeley Lamm

Keeley was Onward State’s managing editor and social media manager in another life. She was also the host of Onward State’s podcast, Podward State. Hopefully she's sitting on a porch somewhere, and you can reach her at keeleylamm@gmail.com.

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