BBQ Chicken in Chicago

24 restaurants in Chicago list BBQ chicken on their menus. The cheapest is Little Clown Pizza at $7.69, listed as BBQ Chicken Dinner. The typical price across town is $15.53, and the dearest we found is $26.99 at Jet's Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $19.30 apart, which is 251% more for the same dish. Of the 24 kitchens listed, 9 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 6 sit within a dollar of it and 9 charge more than a dollar over.

We track BBQ chicken in 8 other areas and compare them all on BBQ chicken across United States. The typical price there runs $17.00 at the median, so Chicago is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 7 of the 8. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $6.50 at Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano in Naperville, IL, and the highest best price is $17.50 in Grand Rapids, MI. The nearest area with it is Naperville, about 24 mi away, where the best price is $6.50.

Where is the cheapest BBQ chicken in Chicago? Little Clown Pizza, at $7.69 on 2801 N Central Park Ave. The same dish reaches $26.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $19.30.

What should BBQ chicken cost here? About $15.53 is the typical price across the 24 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 9 are more than a dollar below that and 9 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 Naperville, about 24 mi away, where the best price is $6.50. That is $1.19 less than the best here, though whether that is worth the journey is your call.

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.