Publix Fried Chicken Prices From 16 Pieces to 200

$20.99 buys a hot 16-piece box of Publix fried chicken at Publix’s Southgate Shopping Center store in Lakeland, Florida (#1270), with four each of breasts, wings, thighs and drumsticks.

It’s the smallest box you can order online, and it’s ready in about two hours. The 8-piece box and single pieces come from the deli’s hot case, and publix.com doesn’t price them.

Buying bigger saves little. The 200-piece box, which Publix says feeds about 80, works out to $1.20 a piece against $1.31 for the 16.

Fried chicken box prices from 16 to 200 pieces

Publix lists six sizes of hot mixed fried chicken to order ahead, and every box splits evenly between breasts, wings, thighs and drumsticks. These were the Lakeland store’s prices on October 30, 2026.

Prices vary by store. We worked out the per-piece column by dividing each price by its piece count.

Publix says the 16 serves about 8 and the 200 about 80. That’s two pieces a guest for a small group and two and a half for a big one, and the four sizes in between show no serving count at all.

The 16-piece box needs two hours’ notice and every bigger box needs 24, so the size you can get today matters more than a few cents a piece. Each page says to call your store if you need the chicken sooner. The 16-piece page is also marked “Pay in-store only,” so you reserve it online and pay at pickup.

For a same-day party, several 16-piece boxes beat one big box. Three of them give you 48 pieces for $62.97, ready that afternoon, while the 56-piece box costs $70.99 and can’t be picked up until the next day.

The 8 piece box and other hot case packs

The 8-piece box most shoppers have in mind isn’t on the order-ahead menu. It sits in the deli’s hot case, and its publix.com page has an “Add to list” button and no price, so the tag in your store’s case is the only place to check it.

Chowhound’s February 2026 roundup of customer reviews, which ranked Publix first among grocery chains for fried chicken, priced an eight-piece mixed box at about $11. Back in 2014, Atlanta magazine paid $7.79 for an eight-piece order during a taste test at two Atlanta stores.

Publix’s site lists these other deli packs for the Lakeland store, none of them with an online price:

• 8 pieces of drumsticks and thighs, four of each
• 20 pieces of legs and thighs, ten of each, in a 90-ounce box
• a 2-piece breast pack, or a single breast
• single wings, legs and thighs, plus two and three piece combos such as a breast and wing
• an 8-piece mixed box served fresh chilled, in a 32-ounce package

Every bone-in box you order online is mixed. If your table wants all dark meat or all breasts, the hot case is the only place to get it.

Chowhound, citing Reddit commenters, says the case is often restocked around 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Commenters who said they work at Publix suggested calling the deli first, so a fresh batch is ready when you walk in.

Calories in each piece of chicken

Publix lists 590 calories for a fried chicken breast, 350 for a thigh, 240 for a wing and 190 for a drumstick. One breast carries more calories than three drumsticks.

Added up, the mixed 8-piece box comes to 2,740 calories and the dark meat 8-piece to 2,160.

According to its label, the chicken carries up to 12% of a seasoning solution of water, salt and sodium phosphates, then a breading of wheat flour, salt, spices, onion powder and yeast extract, with paprika, turmeric and annatto for color. It’s fried in a corn and cottonseed oil blend.

Wheat is the only allergen the label names, with no egg or milk listed. The deli adds its standard advisory that it also handles eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts and sesame, so cross-contact is possible.

Publix says it breads its fried chicken twice by hand, and its 50-piece wing page adds that the chicken is fresh and never frozen.

Chicken tenders by the pound or in a meal

Fried chicken tenders cost $9.49 a pound at the Lakeland store, in orders of 1 to 4 pounds, ready in about an hour with a free sauce cup. They’re boneless breast meat in the same breading as the bone-in chicken.

For one or two people, the meals are easier to order:

• Tenders quick bites, $6.49, with two tenders, five potato wedges or five onion rings, a roll and a 2-ounce sauce
• 3-piece fried chicken tender meal, $9.99, with three tenders, two sides and a King’s Hawaiian roll
• Chicken tenders meal for four, $34.99, ready in about an hour

The 3-piece meal’s sides run from collard greens, green beans and coin carrots to Gouda mac and cheese, onion rings and tater kegs. Those meals sit on the same hot food menu as the subs and sides in our Publix deli menu and price list.

For a party, the hot Chicken Tender Box feeds 10, 18 or 28 people for $31.99, $53.99 or $75.99, with nine sauces from hot honey to spicy gold, and needs a day’s notice. The chilled tender platter costs exactly the same, which is why our look at hot boxes against chilled platters leans toward the box.

The same tenders go into eight subs at one price, and our chicken tender sub rundown compares them.

Hot wings by the 50

A 50-piece order of hot wings costs $39.99 and serves about 10, or 80 cents a wing. Publix makes it four ways, plain or hot and spicy, breaded or not, with 24 hours’ notice.

Calories depend on the breading, and Publix’s own pages don’t quite agree. The 50-piece page lists 180 calories for a breaded wing, while the wing meal for 24 lists 190 to 210 for breaded wings and 110 for non-breaded ones.

Smaller orders are a wings quick bites box with three wings for $6.49 and a 5-piece chicken wings meal for $9.49. If you came looking for spicy fried chicken, the hot and spicy wings and popcorn chicken are it. The Lakeland store lists no spicy bone-in chicken.

Meals for 24 next to buying the food yourself

Publix sells three fried chicken meals for 24. Each comes with three sides adding up to as much as 18 pounds, two packs of King’s Hawaiian rolls and two gallons of Publix Deli tea or lemonade, and each needs 48 hours’ notice.

• Fried chicken meal, $125.99, with 50 pieces of chicken
• Wing meal, $199, with three 50-piece wing orders
• Tender meal, $215.99, with 12 pounds of tenders

We priced the same food separately at the Lakeland store. That means the chicken from the order-ahead menu, 18 pounds of sides at $4.29 a pound (the price of the mac and cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes and potato salad) and two gallons of tea at $4.19 each. King’s Hawaiian rolls show no online price, so they’re left out.

Bought separately, two 24-piece boxes, the sides and the tea come to $147.58. That’s about $21.60 more than the fried chicken meal, with two fewer pieces of chicken and no rolls.

Twelve pounds of tenders with the same sides and tea come to $199.48, so the tender meal costs $16.51 more than buying separately, unless two 12-packs of rolls are worth that much to you. The wing meal lands in between, $6.57 under the separate price.

Picking the seasoned potato wedges, $6.99 a pound on their own, changes that. Eighteen pounds of wedges add $48.60 to each separate total and make all three meals cheaper than buying separately. Publix promises “up to” 18 pounds, though, so ask how much each side weighs when you order.

If you’re feeding 24, the fried chicken meal is the best buy on Publix’s chicken menu.

Ordering ahead and reheating at home

Publix’s fried chicken platters page lists everything you can order ahead, from the 16-piece box to the wing and tender platters, for pickup at the deli. Publix notes that every platter needs advance notice, even when the deli is open.

The bone-in boxes, tender boxes and 50-piece wings come hot. The tender, wing and popcorn chicken platters come fresh chilled, as their names say, so pick the box if the food is going straight to the table. If you’re cutting pickup close to closing time, check how late your Publix stays open.

Leftovers go in the fridge, and Publix’s labels give reheating directions that all end at an internal 165 degrees:

• Tenders: microwave one to three on high for 1 to 2 minutes, or bake covered with foil at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.
• The chilled 8-piece box: microwave loosely covered at 70% power for 10 to 12 minutes, turning the pieces, or bake covered at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Breaded wings from the 20-piece box: air fry at 350 degrees for 15 to 16 minutes, turning halfway, or bake covered at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.