Fried Chicken in Chicago

23 restaurants in Chicago list fried chicken on their menus. The cheapest is Mama Luna's Restaurant & Pizzeria at $9.99, listed as Fried Chicken Dinner. The typical price across town is $13.50, and the dearest we found is $19.50 at Wow Pizza Chicago, so the two ends of the list are $9.51 apart, which is 95% more for the same dish. Of the 23 kitchens listed, 7 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 8 sit within a dollar of it and 8 charge more than a dollar over.

We track fried chicken in 7 other areas and compare them all on fried chicken across United States. The typical price there runs $12.99 at the median, so Chicago is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 3 of the 7. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.75 at Mexican Radio in Oklahoma City, OK, and the highest best price is $13.20 in Rockford, IL. The nearest area with it is Rockford, about 74 mi away, where the best price is $13.20.

Where is the cheapest fried chicken in Chicago? Mama Luna's Restaurant & Pizzeria, at $9.99 on 5109 W Fullerton Ave. The same dish reaches $19.50 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $9.51.

What should fried chicken cost here? About $13.50 is the typical price across the 23 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 7 are more than a dollar below that and 8 are more than a dollar above, so the typical price is a middle rather than a floor.

Is it cheaper nearby? The nearest area we track it in is Rockford, about 74 mi away, where the best price is $13.20. That is $3.21 more than the best price here.

Why do the prices differ so much? We compare what each menu calls the same dish, and menus are not identical: portion, cut, sides and the kind of room you are sitting in all ride on the price, and none of that shows up in a number. Part portions and half sizes are kept out of this comparison, and a chain charging the same at several addresses is counted once, so the spread above is between genuinely different kitchens rather than the same one repeated.