Joey Chestnut, famous for his hot-dog-chomping prowess, on Wednesday set the benchmark for eating chicken fingers.
The man nicknamed “Joey Jaws” scarfed down 44 Raising Cane’s marinated, hand-battered chicken fingers in five minutes to capture the restaurant’s first competitive-eating crown.
The setting was the Las Vegas Strip, where Raising Cane’s has opened a flagship two-story restaurant, and the event was livestreamed.
Chestnut, who on July 4 won his 15th title at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island by gobbling 63 dogs (with buns), said before this contest that chicken can be more challenging than franks.
“Fried food is a little bit harder because you can’t water it down,” the former San Jose and Vallejo resident told Fox News Digital. “But I have a technique down for chicken fingers. I’ve been training.”
He added: “The chicken is delicious. So that makes it easier.”
No word on whether he supplemented with the peppery Cane sauce.
Raising Cane’s, which operates nearly 700 restaurants, has just recently entered the Bay Area market. The first location opened earlier this month at 8430 Edgewater Drive in Oakland and serves daily from 9 a.m. until the wee hours (2 a.m. most nights, until 3:30 a.m. weekends). Two more locations — in Berkeley and Hayward — are planned for this year.
Source: www.mercurynews.com