CHICAGO — Harold’s Chicken Shack, a Chicago cuisine staple for eight decades, is known for its delectable fried chicken, often smothered in a trademark mild sauce.
Chicago’s most famous fried chicken establishment was the brainchild of Harold Pierce, an old-school entrepreneur from Midway, Alabama. Pierce moved to Chicago in the 1940s.
Like many Black Americans who came to Chicago from the South during the Great Migration, Pierce and his wife settled on the South Side, where they opened a restaurant on Oakwood Boulevard called “H & H,” which specialized in fried chicken feet with dumplings.
While H&H was moderately successful, Pierce was obsessed with the idea of using the recipe for his chicken feet for fried chicken.
Using that recipe, Pierce opened the very first Harold’s Chicken Shack at the intersection of 47th Street and Greenwood Avenue in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood in 1950.
That eatery was an immediate success, and other Harold’s …