What’s Going On With Harold’s Chicken? Your Questions (Mostly) Answered

CHICAGO — On Aug. 4, Harold’s Chicken Corp. — undoubtedly the most popular fried chicken franchise in the city — released a statement claiming that several locations using its name were not affiliated with the company. 

“We are asking that you do not support these locations because we cannot ensure that the quality will be the same, since they are not authorized. We would hate for your supporters to spend their hard-earned money and not receive the authentic Harold’s Chicken experience our family has worked so hard to protect,” the statement read. 

The statement mentioned nine locations, including one in Zion, Illinois. Yet, on Instagram, the owners of the yet-to-open Zion location disputed Harold’s claim, insisting it is “an ‘authorized’ retailer.”

“The claims made on recent social media posts are inaccurate and were not issued by Harold’s Chicken Shack, Inc. or any authorized corporate representative,” the post from the Zion location said.

If you’re perplexed, it’s understandable: Nearly everything about Harold’s Chicken Shack is confusing.

Don’t take this as slander against Chicago’s most famous fried chicken chain, which has locations across Illinois and in seven other states, according to its website. Harold’s is beloved because it has been serving Chicagoans for 76 years. Fresh from the fryer and doused in mild sauce — that intriguingly tangy and sweet condiment — Harold’s fried chicken deserves to be included with other Chicago food essentials like deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs and the Italian beef.

But, as you’ll see, few local businesses raise more unanswered questions than this one. 

The latest confusion springs from the untimely death of Harold’s CEO Kristen Pierce-Sherrod, who passed away in January at the age of 55. She was the daughter of the founder, Harold Pierce, and had been running the company since 2000.

So who is now in charge? According to a Chicago Tribune article, two sides claim ownership. Pierce-Sherrod’s five children assert that she passed the company to them through a will. But Pierce-Sherrod’s widower, Vincent Sherrod, said the will is fake and has hired former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to represent him, the Tribune reported. Family members didn’t respond to requests for comment.

While we wait for the courts to sort this one out, here’s a primer on one of Chicago’s most delicious and bewildering restaurants.

Who Was Harold?

Harold Pierce was born in Alabama in 1917 and moved to Chicago in the early 1940s, where he spent a few years working as a chauffeur. 

He eventually opened a restaurant called H&H with his first wife, Hilda Hernandez, which served Southern dishes like chicken feet and dumplings. 

In 1950, he decided to focus exclusively on fried chicken.

When And Where Did The First Harold’s Chicken Shack Open? 

Pierce opened the first Harold’s Chicken in 1950 at 1235 E. 47th St. in Kenwood.

Many publications claim the first location was a block west, at the corner of 47th and Greenwood, but the shop didn’t move there until 1962, according to newspaper articles at the time. 

According to a Chicago Defender story from July 21, 1962, Pierce was forced to move the original location to 1106 E. 47th St., at the corner of Greenwood, because of “re-development.” Another Defender article from May 8, 1965 was a bit more blunt, saying that “when land clearance came along, the store was erased in favor of Urban Renewal.”

By 1962, Pierce was already “known to his customers as the ‘Chicken King,’” according to the Defender. By 1971, he had 15 stores. By his death in 1988, there were 40. 

How Did The Issue Of Authorized Vs. Unauthorized Harold’s Chicken Shacks Arise?  

Despite his success, Pierce never had meticulous record-keeping practices. In a 2006 interview with the Chicago Reader, Pierce-Sherrod explained that her dad didn’t like writing things down, instead keeping all the accounts in his head. He also didn’t trust banks, and for years stashed his money at the Shoreland Hotel in a cedar closet.

Harold Pierce offered a very loose trademark agreement with family and friends to run the other locations, where they could use the name if they paid him a royalty for each bird, which also had to be purchased from a poultry shop owned by Eugene Rosen, according to the Reader. As long as the stores paid their money, Pierce didn’t bother them, which explains why over the years locations started to diverge in style, as recipes and cooking methods began to drift apart. 

Pierce-Sherrod first spotted unaffiliated locations in 2006, according to the Tribune. In an April 17, 2014 Sun-Times article by Mary Mitchell, Pierce-Sherrod again complained that there were a half-dozen “bogus” Harold’s locations on the South Side. 

Finally, last year she decided to hire Lightfoot to help deal with the issue. This also opened the door for Lightfoot’s involvement with Vincent Sherrod.

What Do The Numbers On Harold’s Locations Mean?

Many, though not all, of Harold’s locations have a number attached to them. But as numerous publications have examined, they don’t seem to follow a recognizable pattern. 

While they may have started off sequentially, that numbering system has completely disappeared. For example, Harold’s #71 is located at 2134 S. Michigan Ave., yet there aren’t 70 other currently open locations. 

The store numbers don’t seem to correspond with dates, either. Harold’s #36 at 1361 N. Milwaukee Ave. opened in 2006, while Harold’s #34 at 6051 S. Racine Ave. in Englewood opened last month — the latter cited in Harold’s statement as one of the nine unauthorized locations. 

Numbers also repeat. You’ll find Harold’s #52 at both 7200 S. Western Ave. in Marquette Park and in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. 

And you don’t have to cross state lines to find stores with the same number. There’s a Harold’s #14 at 9938 S. Torrence Ave. in Jeffrey Manor and one by the same number at 1258 E. 53rd St. in Hyde Park.

What Is Mild Sauce? 

For many Harold’s fans, no meal is complete with a generous drenching of mild sauce. Tangy, sweet and complex, it hovers somewhere between ketchup, barbecue sauce and vinegary hot sauce. 

To be clear, mild sauce has some very passionate admirers. Comedian Hannibal Buress even referred to the condiment as “the most overlooked condiment in the history of this entire galaxy.” And when ABC7 accidentally tweeted that Harold’s is known for putting “hot sauce on the bird after frying,” legions of mild sauce fans scolded the TV station for the slip.  

But what is mild sauce and where did it come from? It might have been invented by Harold’s biggest rival, Uncle Remus.

Charmaine Rickette, the CEO of Uncle Remus, told Block Club Chicago in 2020 that her father, Gus Rickette Sr., invented the sauce in the 1960s. At the time, he offered both ketchup and hot sauce to his customers. But when he noticed them mixing the two together, he decided to create his own version, and spent a lot of time tinkering with the ingredients.

“The shift came when my dad began to explore other avenues of taste and worked with a supplier downtown,” Charmaine Rickette said.

Over the years, numerous people have tried replicating the sauce. Some have even packaged their own versions — including Harold’s. 

Chicago Tribune reporter Bill Daley tried to track down a definitive recipe for the paper in 2017. He got a tip that Bonne Chere Original brand barbecue sauce tasted similar to most versions of mild sauce. He found it at L&P Foods, a grocery store in Park Manor on the city’s South Side. While the Bonne Chere label didn’t mention mild sauce, Daley noted that at checkout, the sauce “rings up as ‘Mild Sauce Original.’”

Are Harold’s And Uncle Remus Rivals? 

Harold’s Chicken Shack’s only real competition for the fried-chicken heart of Chicago is Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken, a pillar on the West Side since the late 1960s.

Unlike Harold’s, which would require a college history degree to properly sort through, Uncle Remus’ history is relatively tidy. Founder Gus Rickette Sr. was born in Mississippi in 1926 and moved to Chicago in the 1940s. After several odd jobs, he opened his first restaurant, G&G Chicken, in 1962.

Six years later, in 1968, he opened the first Uncle Remus on West Madison Street, according to a press release and Rickette’s family. (Various other sources over the years, including the Uncle Remus website, have reported 1969 as the opening year.)

Uncle Remus has opened other locations, including some on the South Side. But it’s always had a smaller footprint than Harold’s. Currently, Uncle Remus has only three locations, along with a food truck, Big Saucy. 

Rickette has since passed the Uncle Remus CEO torch to his daughter Charmaine Rickette, but he is remarkably still active. He celebrated his 100th birthday with a party last week, which drew dozens of neighbors and even Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

For years, Chicagoans have debated whether Uncle Remus or Harold’s is better. Several people online have attempted to settle that debate. The mayor, an Austin resident, couldn’t help but weigh in too.

“You don’t have to ask me what the best chicken in Chicago is,” Johnson said. “The West Side is the best side.”

Which Harold’s Is The Best? 

Along with confusion around the numbers and whether or not stores are officially Harold’s, people also have long debated which Harold’s location is best. 

Several food writers have tried to settle the debate by eating epic amounts of fried chicken, but there’s been no consensus. When the Reader’s Mike Sula visited 35 Harold’s outlets in 2006, he ultimately realized that “there was no clear winner.” 

Chicago Magazine’s former dining critic Jeff Ruby tried again in 2019, eating at 20 locations. But “to avoid getting suckered by a pretender,” he only included places that Harold’s official website claimed were legit.

His number one spot, Harold’s #88 at 124 E. 35th St. in Bronzeville, is still in business today. 

Ruby’s rankings inspired such an enormous amount of feedback online, Chicago Magazine printed an alternative list by comedian and YouTube personality, Larry Legend (real name Larry Trotter). 

Legend’s top 10 included six spots Ruby hadn’t included because, he said, “Iʼm a true South Sider, and we donʼt care about what’s an ‘official Haroldʼs’ and whatʼs not.” 

Legend’s top pick, Harold’s #95 at 2237 W. 95th St. in Beverly, is no longer open.