South Floridians can now get a taste of Flavortown at Guy Fieri’s chicken tender restaurant chain located inside Aventura Mall’s fancy food court. Chicken Guy featured a whole lot of chicken!
Melissa Marrero asked Guy Fieri why he chose Florida to launch his first Chicken Guy location, which is in Disney Springs.
“This is one of my favorite places in the country. I started coming here about 12 or 13 years ago. I come for the South Beach Food and Wine Festival and I always brag about it saying ‘oh I love Florida, I love coming here. When we talked about branching out where we were going to keep Chicken Guy I said ‘ Let's keep it essentially located in Florida right now so we can keep an eye on it and keep our hands on it’. This was the perfect fit," said Fieri.
Chicken Guy is a collaboration between Fieri and Planet Hollywood owner Robert Earl. The chicken is all natural, never frozen, and hand pounded to maximize crunch.
“So what I want you to see is when we break this chicken tender, it's not a ton of batter, its a ton of chicken. Just the right amount of crunchy,” said Fieri.
The chicken is paired with a wide selection of 22 delicious sauces. Marrero and Fieri tried the Buttermilk Ranch.
"Because we make the sauces, it's not pasteurized and it's not overcooked... you can taste the fresh herbs," added Fieri.
After opening dozens of restaurants and filming countless hours of food tv, the Food Network star explains what he enjoys most about filming “Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives”.
“12 years ago when we started Triple D there wasn’t as much social media. What I was, was a portal, I was just shining the light on these great little spunky mom and pops joints around the country and we don't always see them because you go down the main thorough of the city. For me as an ambassador, as you are an ambassador, to sharing with people the great food that's around this country, around this world... it's awesome," said Fieri.