Finger-lickin’ good: Why so many fried-chicken restaurants are flocking to South Florida
South Florida is officially caught up in a chicken fight, with at least seven fried-bird eateries opening over the past year in Broward and Palm Beach counties, each hoping to court diners with its seasoned wings and tenders.
You think you’d fried and gone to heaven.
Before this recent boom, the number of chicken shacks here could be counted on one wing: Fran’s Chicken Haven in Boca Raton, Uptown Keese’s Greek Kouzina (ex-Keese’s Simply Delicious) in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Betty’s Soul Food in Fort Lauderdale, with a smattering of KFC, Popeyes and PDQ locations in between.
Not so anymore. So why is chicken sizzling in the local limelight?
Some restaurateurs think it was born in the trenches of the Popeyes chicken sandwich wars, that pre-pandemic moment when fast-casual rivals tried seizing on the chain’s chicken-sandwich mania with their own crispy handhelds. Fast-casual chain owners point to using the downtime of COVID-19 lockdowns to experiment with new chicken concepts. Other owners suggest the current South Florida frenzy — however it started — is fueled by fried chicken-preneurs serving Korean and Nashville hot variants, plus the growth of Huey Magoo’s, Raising Cane’s and Shaquille O’Neal’s imminent Big Chicken franchise.
All fried-chicken eatery owners agree on one thing: South Florida — compared with oversaturated California and New York — is ripe for even more chicken joints.
“We say there’s a void in South Florida for good quality chicken,” says Jon Wantz, the Raising Cane’s area leader of restaurants for South Florida. The Baton Rouge, La., chain debuted two locations in May, in Boynton Beach and Royal Palm Beach, and two more are planned this summer, in Pompano Beach and Cutler Bay. “The number of fried-chicken restaurants here is still nowhere near other major markets.”
Globally, the allure of fried chicken is only growing bigger. Technavio, a market research firm, estimates the takeout fried-chicken market growing by $1.92 billion from 2021 to 2026. And it’s expected to continue growing globally by 5.5 percent every year until 2030, when its market share would hit $9.85 billion, according to another firm, Market Research Future.
This exploding market stands in sharp contrast to the rise of all-vegan and build-your-own-bowl chains, and plant-based Beyond and Impossible products. Remember way back in 1991 when Kentucky Fried Chicken said it changed its name to KFC, shying away from the word “fried,” in part to avoid upsetting health-conscious patrons?
These days, it seems, customers aren’t letting a little crispy skin ruffle their feathers. Neither are restaurateurs.
“It’s a comfort food, yes, but ‘fried’ doesn’t mean unhealthy if you do it in a healthy way,” says restaurateur Mohamed Elkady, who opened Mad Chicken in Hollywood in April. “If you change your oil each time, there’s less transferred fats. There’s more innovation now to make it healthier, hormone-free, antibiotic-free.”
Even high-end chefs are capitalizing on the delicious possibilities of the bird. Chef Lindsay Autry offers sweet tea-brined fried chicken as her signature dish at Honeybelle, her year-old restaurant inside the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens. And earlier this month, chef Michelle Bernstein (Café La Trova, host of “Check, Please! South Florida”) opened Michy’s Chicken Shack & Cafe inside the new, three-story food hall Julia & Henry’s in downtown Miami.
Whether it’s boneless or bone-in, brined or double-battered, bathed in buttermilk or slathered in sauce, owners consider their recipes to be sacrosanct, cloaking them in mystery the same way Colonel Sanders guarded his 11 herbs and spices.
All co-owner Resal Ahmed needed to justify opening his Nashville hot chicken shack, Cluckin Hot Chicks in Dania Beach, was a decent location and a delicious origin story. According to local Nashville legend: In the 1930s, a man named Thornton Prince was such a lothario with the ladies that one of his spurned lovers sabotaged his fried chicken one morning by dousing it in hot pepper. Thornton not only loved the spicy bird, he eventually opened up a chicken shack, which decades later became Nashville’s famed Prince’s Hot Chicken.
“A woman got mad at her man and made the spiciest chicken sandwich there ever was, and he loved it,” Ahmed says with a laugh. “Who cares if it’s true? It’s a great story.”
Lee Brian Schrager, who programs the South Beach Wine and Food Festival and co-authored 2014’s “Fried & True: More than 50 Recipes for America’s Best Fried Chicken and Sides,” says fried chicken isn’t making a comeback.
“I just think it’s finally arrived,” Schrager says. “It’s the simplest of recipes: crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and it can be tweaked by the oil or the seasoning or the batter.”
Here are seven new chicken joints that have just arrived — or will soon arrive — in South Florida.
Choong Man Chicken
4900 S. University Drive, Suite 100, Davie; 954-999-0235; CMChickenFL.com
In the middle of the pandemic, Nova Southeastern University graduate Daven Sawh felt so burned out in his pharmacy career that he quit and started making Korean fried chicken. He opened the first South Florida location of this Virginia-based franchise in early 2022, running Choong Man with wife Cuc Le, an optometrist. Sawh first marinates his chicken for 24 hours before the skin is trimmed off, after which the bird is double-battered and double-fried for extra crispiness. “All of our batter mix, our breading mix, our sauces, all come from South Korea,” he explains. “The technique to get it really nice and crispy is to really press the flour into the chicken.” Offered as tenders, drumsticks, wings and half- and whole-chicken styles, the most popular flavors are the savory soy-garlic glaze, spicy gochujang pepper and snow onion chicken (so named because it’s topped with a snowpile of sauce and slivered onions). There is also tikkudak, in which Korean fried chicken is fried then baked in a charcoal-grill tikku oven for extra crunch.
Cluckin Hot Chicks
645 S. Federal Highway, Dania Beach; 754-777-7901; CluckinHotChicks.com
Replacing an old Checkers fast-food restaurant is this fast-casual drive-thru specializing in Nashville hot chicken doused in 10 different sauces, from honey-cinnamon “Sweet Heat” to “What the Cluck.” (Yes, the menu is pun-heavy.) Co-owner Resal Ahmed says he and business partners Ahshan Latif and David Shaw thought “Dania fit our criteria” because of its proximity to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. While Cluckin also offers wings, tenders, quarters, waffles and tacos, the most important item is the hot chicken sandwich (200 sold per day, Resal says). The recipe begins with 24-hour brined chicken, which is battered and seasoned with a proprietary blend of herbs and spices. A fresh 6-ounce breast is then fried for seven to eight minutes and served on toasted brioche. “We think our service and our sauces are the most important part,” Ahmed adds. “People can’t get enough of our tenders.”
Jackson’s Chicken Shack
6169 Jog Road, Lake Worth Beach; 561-370-3862; JacksonsChickenShack.net
Opening in early April in a Jog Road plaza, owner Stephen Difiore’s joint leans into fresh chicken cutlets that are cut, pounded, breaded and fried daily and served in a basket or as a sandwich (seeded Italian roll, bun or wrap). Customers can build their own sandwich, choosing between six cheeses, eight toppings and dressings such as tangy barbecue and pesto mayo. There are also signature sandwiches, including Jackson’s Favorite (breaded chicken, cheddar, coleslaw, red onion, tangy barbecue sauce) and the Cluckin (breaded chicken, Muenster cheese, bacon, lettuce, Thousand Island dressing), as well as salads and smash burgers.
Cluck Face
1179 S. Federal Highway, Boca Raton; 561-465-4545; CluckFace.com
This Nashville hot chicken-themed spot owned by Shaban Malik and Sabri Arslankara offers tenders in four spice levels, from “mild” to “cluck it!” The restaurant serves chopped chicken, chicken tacos and sliders topped with coleslaw, pickles and in-house “comeback sauce.” There are also nacho-cheese fries, coleslaw, mac ‘n’ cheese and french fries a la carte, plus sodas, orange juice and Red Bull slushies.
Krispy Chicken
1660 Market St., Weston; WestonTownCenter.net
This new Korean fried-chicken restaurant doesn’t have a menu or website available yet, but it’s expected to debut later this summer inside the Weston Town Center. The storefront, located in the open-air plaza where Bonaventure Boulevard meets Three Villages Road, will showcase a variety of huraideu-chikin (fried chicken wings without seasoning) and yangnyeom-chikin (chicken with a sweet-and-spicy sauce glaze).
Raising Cane’s
4835 E. Bay Drive, Boynton Beach, and 100 N. State Road 7, Royal Palm Beach; RaisingCanes.com
This fast-expanding national chicken chain from Baton Rouge, La., specializes in one thing: hand-battered tenders in several combo specials, from its three-finger deal to the Caniac Combo (six tenders with crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw and Texas toast). Jon Wantz, the chain’s area leader of restaurants for South Florida, says their 24-hour marinated chicken is fresh, floured and breaded minutes before deep-frying. “As soon as you dip it into our Cane’s sauce, that’s the bang, that’s our X-factor,” says Wantz, who opened South Florida’s first locations last month in Boynton Beach and Royal Palm Beach, with two scheduled to debut in Pompano Beach and Cutler Bay this summer. He attributes Cane’s success to a simplistic business model and resistance to trends. “We don’t have a bunch of combos,” he says. “Everyone has a Nashville hot sandwich on their menu, but it’s kind of played out. When people jump from trend to trend, they have a hard time keeping a steady clientele.”
Mad Chicken
1100 N. Federal Highway, Hollywood; MadChickenUSA.com
With its goofy, cross-eyed chicken logo beckoning on North Federal Highway, this Wisconsin chain comes from partners Mohamed Elkady, Ramez Aly and Waleed Kamal Mohamady. After opening his first location in 2017 inside a mall food court in Appleton, Wis., Elkady says he realized his fast-casual shack “opened in the wrong market,” and moved into brick-and-mortars just before the pandemic. Sales exploded by the end of 2020, the Cairo-born restaurateur says, helping them expand to a dozen Midwest locations. “It was so crazy seeing the population in South Florida double in the past 10 years that we had to open here,” says Elkady, who graduated from Fort Lauderdale’s Keiser University. Mad Chicken serve medium-sized fresh tenderloins breaded and deep-fried with one of two sauces, plain Mad Sauce or spicy serrano Mad Fire. “We use just eight ingredients,” he says, declining to name them. “It’s everyday stuff you can find in anyone’s pantry.” The restaurant also offers salads, wraps, sandwiches, wings, waffle-cut fries and “Mad Bowls,” a bed of mac and cheese topped with crispy or grilled tenders. A second location in Pompano Beach is expected to debut in August.
