In Big Chicken Dinner Harkness depicts two views of the kitchen and eating area aboard the submarine USS Cod. The USS Cod is a famous US submarine that made it through WWII and is now a museum. The spatial elements of Big Chicken Dinner are directly inspired by the real interior of the USS Cod. The title of the work Big Chicken Dinner is naval code for Bad Conduct Discharge: in Harkness’ chaotic vision, the crew of the USS Cod are engaged in a form of bacchic revelry.

In the top left frame, The Captain, distinguished by their long black coat, rebuffs a subordinate’s advances while another member of the crew seems to be urinating in a pot. Other members of the crew languish among empty beer bottles and detritus. In the bottom frame, Harkness depicts the same scene but a short time later. Here, Harkness explains that it is clear that the freshly-hicky-titted Captain has succumbed to the subordinate’s advancements and is now full of messy love feelings while the subordinate who is stuck in her embrace now regrets her conquest. Elsewhere in the scene, onions are stored in the WC and a diner pounds a drumstick foul with flies up another diner's bum.