Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken To Open At Peabody's Northshore Mall

PEABODY, MA — Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken is opening its first Massachusetts location at the Northshore Mall in Peabody on Wednesday.

The restaurant franchise chain of takeout and dine-in chicken sandwiches, meals and ice cream shakes — founded in 2018 — is designed to highlight O'Neal's home-cooked childhood favorites and provide "guests an inside look into the life and personality of Shaquille O'Neal."

O'Neal is a four-time NBA champion and Hall of Fame basketball player who concluded his career with the Boston Celtics.

"Ryan and I couldn't be more excited to build out an incredible team for Big Chicken's very first location in Massachusetts," said Paul Bains, co-owner of the Big Chicken in Peabody, who plans to develop a total of six locations across the state with his partner, Ryan Corcoran. "I was listening to a podcast about Shaquille when I first learned of Big Chicken and decided to reach out. Since then, the entire leadership team has been incredibly eager to welcome us to the system, which is exactly the same atmosphere that Ryan and I are looking to cultivate for the team at our Northshore Mall location."

The Peabody location is still hiring hourly and management positions. Interested candidates can apply here.

Big Chicken now lists Massachusetts in its location map of more than 40 restaurants nationwide.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)