While cold-stunned iguanas are falling out of trees in Florida, some people are using the opportunity to cook up eclectic dishes.
Bucks Coal Fired, a pizza joint in North Palm Beach, whipped up an iguana pizza this week and posted it on Instagram. Franky, the manager, called it the “Everglades Pizza.”
Ryan Izquierdo, a local content creator, walked into the shop carrying dead iguanas in his arms and told Franky to make him an “iguana pizza now.”
Franky’s response? “(Expletive) no.”
Spoiler: He made it anyway.
Green iguanas living in Southwest Florida appear to be “frozen” as Miami temperatures plunged to freezing.
How to make an iguana pizza
To make the iguana pizza, Franky first rolled out the pizza dough. Then he drizzled some olive oil on top, followed by cheese, chunked bacon, venison meat and topped it off with iguana meat.
“This is the first iguana pizza in the history of mankind,” Franky said as he turned to put it in the oven. Once the pizza was done baking, he finished it off with some ranch.
Izquierdo took a bite of the pie and said it tasted “like frog leg.”
“It’s a little bit sweet. Can’t really describe it,” he added.
Vicente Dibripo, the shop’s manager, told USA TODAY they’re hoping to add the pizza to the menu in the near future.
Another Florida content creator had a similar idea. But instead of making pizza, he made tacos.
Gray Davis said the lizard has a nickname: “chicken of the trees.” He found his iguana stunned on the ground and with it, over 20 eggs.
“By removing this one iguana, we actually saved the environment from over 20 iguanas come spring, he said in his TikTok video that has racked up over 3 million views. He added he decided to cook the tacos to avoid wasting the meat.
How to make iguana tacos
To make the tacos, Davis boiled a pot of water with onion, garlic, bay leaf and salt. After it came to a low simmer, he added the iguana meat and boiled it on a low heat for 30 minutes. After that, he added the iguana eggs and let them soft-boil.
Then, he put the iguana eggs, avocado, garlic cloves, lime juice, and olive oil into a blender to make a sauce.
The iguana meat was later fried in a pan. Once the tacos were assembled, he topped them with pickled red onions, jalapeno and cilantro.
“That right there is a Florida man taco,” Davis said. “If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.”
Recent freezing temperatures in Florida have caused iguanas to go into a state of torpor, where they temporarily lose muscle control and appear “frozen.” This can cause them to fall out of trees.
On Jan. 30, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued an executive order outlining special regulations designed to temporarily allow people to remove live, cold-stunned green iguanas from the wild without a permit and bring them directly to five designated agency offices to be humanely killed.
In some instances, they might be transferred to permittees for live animal sales.
The animals can recover from their cold-stunned state. Members of the public are advised to wear protective gear when catching iguanas.
It’s legal to eat the animals, but at your own risk.
Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter. Reach her at mdelrey@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iguana meat on pizza and tacos after Florida cold snap stuns lizards