Florida man stuns social media by turning state’s frozen iguana population into tacos: ‘Chicken of the tree’

Stay across the road, chickens. In parts of South Florida, it’s the iguanas getting scooped up for dinner.

Locals say the invasive green lizards, dubbed “Chicken of the Trees,” are increasingly making the leap from backyard branches to taco shells as communities look for creative ways to deal with the scaly population boom.

Fueling the trend is content creator Gray Davis, who has gone viral on TikTok for videos showing how he turned a cold-stunned green iguana into homemade tacos he cheekily dubbed “a Florida Man taco.”

The clip, which has racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, shows Davis collecting an iguana that had fallen from a tree during a recent cold snap and preparing it much like traditional taco meat.

The recipe garnered mixed reactions in the comments, with many viewers thinking Davis was joking about iguana meat.

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“Iguana went to sleep and woke up dead,” one person wrote with a crying face emoji, while another quipped, “Everybody is hating but this is the definition of ethical meat eating.”

An unusual cold snap in South Florida left many green iguanas “cold-stunned,” a condition in which lower temperatures temporarily immobilize the reptiles and cause them to fall from trees. Green iguanas are a non-native species blamed for damaging vegetation and infrastructure, and wildlife officials have allowed residents to humanely remove cold-stunned iguanas without a permit as part of efforts to curb the population.

“A lot of people will go out and collect them to help control the number and the population,” Davis explains in his TikTok while picking up a frozen reptile. “But they do have the nickname ‘Chicken of the Trees’ because they’re absolutely delicious.”

Davis goes on to clean and cook the meat, showing off the more than 20 eggs inside the iguana, which he used as part of the taco preparation alongside pickled red onions, jalapeños and cilantro.

“By removing this one iguana, we’ve actually saved the environment from over 20 iguanas come spring,” he says, referring to the eggs.

Davis added that he tries to leave zero waste in the process, preserving the iguana skin and using any leftovers as bait for crab traps.

“Bon appetit,” Davis says, biting into one of the tacos. “Mmm, mmm, mmm — now that right there is a Florida Man taco. If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em."

Meanwhile, Bucks Coal Fired Pizza in North Palm Beach has also gone viral for its “Everglades Pizza.”

The brainchild of Ryan Izquierdo, another content creator and South Floridian, the pie consists of iguana, venison, alligator, bacon, white pizza with cheese and finished with ranch.

“They’re absolutely delicious,” Izquierdo said about the reptiles in a video posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page. “I’ve been eating these for years. The meat tastes just like chicken. You would never know you’re eating iguana.”

While videos of iguana meat rack up views on social media, many viewers have begun questioning whether it’s legal to sell iguana meat. The answer to that question would be no.

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Although Florida law permits people to humanely kill and eat invasive iguanas, restaurants are held to much stricter food-safety standards. These regulations require restaurants to serve food only from approved, regulated, and inspected suppliers. Because wild-caught iguanas are not sourced through these approved channels, restaurants are prohibited from cooking or selling them to customers.

Therefore, Izquierdo confirmed to CBS 12 News last week that the iguana pizzas are strictly for demonstration and content creation.

“Right now, it is absolutely not for sale,” Izquierdo told the outlet. “So don’t even waste your time calling.”