Chicken franchise costs

Chicken franchises come in three broad shapes. Fried chicken and tender chains build drive-thru restaurants much like burger chains. Wing brands range from small takeout shops to sports bars with a full bar and dining room. At the cheap end, fried chicken counters are added to a convenience store or grocery that already has the space and the customers, so the owner buys equipment and little else.

Long-established fried chicken brands now compete with younger hot-chicken and tender chains, and the gap between them shows up in the growth table below. Compare a brand’s format before its figures: a counter and a wing bar under the same heading are different businesses.

What a chicken franchise costs

Across the 113 brands on the chicken list, the typical cost to open runs from $407K at the low end of each brand’s estimate to $868K at the high end. The low end is a small location in a cheaper market with little build-out; the high end a large site in an expensive one. Of these brands, 19 start at $250K or less and 3 at $100K or less.

Where the money goes

Each franchisor itemizes its cost to open. Grouping the lines for the 80 chicken brands with a full breakdown shows what a typical budget pays for, as an average share of the high estimate, with the typical amount.

Fryers, hoods and fire suppression make chicken kitchens expensive to fit out, and a drive-thru lane adds site work. Most estimates leave out the land; a brand that requires a freestanding building on a busy road costs far more in practice than one that fits an end-cap in a strip center. Counters inside another business skip most of the building cost, which is why their totals are a fraction of the rest.

Cheapest and most expensive chicken franchises

The cheapest chicken brands with at least 20 US locations, by the low end of the cost to open. Use the full range on each brand’s page for budgeting, not the low end alone.

Fees and royalties

The typical chicken brand charges a franchise fee of $35K, a royalty of 5% of sales and 2% to a marketing fund. Another 6 brands charge a flat or tiered royalty instead of a single percentage. Royalties and marketing come off sales before rent, staff or loan payments, so on a $2.01M year they cost about $141K. The fees and royalties guide compares industries.

What chicken franchise locations sell

Of the chicken brands, 23 publish a comparable yearly sales figure per location. The typical one is $2.01M, above the $797K typical across all brands.

Chicken has some of the highest-selling restaurant brands, but the spread is wide: a drive-thru leader sells several times what a small wing shop does. Read sales against the cost to open, and ask what share of sales comes through delivery apps, which take a commission on every order.

Which chicken franchises are growing

Of the 57 chicken brands with three years of figures, 44 added US locations from 2023 to 2025 and 10 shrank. The typical brand with 20 or more locations changed by +9.4%, against +3.8% across all franchises.

The brands that lost the most locations were KFC (398), Chester's Chicken (163) and Hooters (102). The fastest-growing franchises ranking covers every industry.

Who runs a chicken franchise

Of the chicken brands whose agreements are clear, 81 let a trained manager run the business day to day and 31 require the owner to. Initial training typically runs 94 hours, against 71 across all brands. The typical brand loses 1.1% of its franchised locations a year to closures, terminations and non-renewals. On the SBA Franchise Directory are 38 of the 113 brands, so SBA-backed loans are available for them.

Best chicken franchises to own

These chicken brands pass all five tests on the best franchises to own ranking: they grew, lost no more owners than is typical, publish earnings figures, are on the SBA directory and had 100 or more US locations three years ago.

Before you buy a chicken franchise

Chicken is bought at market prices, and wings in particular can swing sharply from one year to the next. Ask how the brand set menu prices during past price spikes and whether it negotiates supply contracts for owners. Labor is the other big cost: fried chicken is cooked to order and needs a full crew at peak hours.

Some models differ from a normal franchise. Chick-fil-A keeps ownership of each restaurant and charges its operators a share of sales and of profit, as its page shows, so the low fee is not the whole story. Check each brand’s exits on its page and in the failure rates guide before you compare fees.