Sure, muriatic acid will probably strip chrome, but what is it doing to the metal? Making it brittle? I think Phosphoric acid will take the chrome off and be much more friendly to the underlying metal. I am not sure about this, but I have dipped a rusty chrome plated part in phosphoric acid/water solution and watched the solution turn green as it dissolved the chrome.
I stay away from muriatic acid on metal. Just a thought.
Muriatic (hydrochloric) acid will NOT embrittle the metal. AS long as you neutralize with a lot of water afterwards it will be just fine. You can use something else if you want, but as long as you rinse it off very well with water it will be neutralized. Hydrochloric acid is used for "pickling" of steel after manufacture, which is a process to remove the mill scale.
