Jan. 23, 2018

The newest fast-casual restaurant concept in Sioux Falls opens Thursday and the franchise owner envisions more Cowboy Chicken sites across town.

FRC Group has committed to opening 14 restaurants in four years in South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas, said Dave Ryburn, the Omaha-based ownership group’s district manager for the Cowboy Chicken portfolio. The location at 2700 W. 41st St. in the same building as Great Western Bank is the third.

“With that goal, we have to be pretty aggressive,” Ryburn said. “We would need about six months of data before we would make a decision” about additional locations in Sioux Falls. The east and west sides would be desirable, he said.

The restaurant, which started in Texas in 1981, features chickens that are rubbed with seasoning, marinated for 24 hours and cooked rotisserie-style over a wood fire for two hours.

Dave Ryburn

“That’s all we do,” Ryburn said. “The tenderness and juiciness is just from the natural chicken.” While the chicken dinners are sold as quarters and halves, the meat also is used for enchiladas, sandwiches, salads and chicken tortilla soup. A whole chicken with no sides sells for $9. A family pack that feeds four is $20. Kids eat for free on Monday nights.

About a dozen made-from-scratch sides include items such as twice-baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, fresh-cut french fries, baked macaroni and cheese, fried okra and corn fritters. The staff also bakes buns and cobblers made with in-season fruit.

The restaurant, which is still hiring staff, offers dine-in seating, to-go orders and delivery. Customers can order and pay online or with Cowboy Chicken’s mobile app. Delivery is offered within a seven-mile radius of the store for $3.

FRC Group knows the Sioux Falls market. It owns the two HuHot Mongolian Grill locations and brought PepperJax Grill here before selling it to another investor a couple of years ago. The HuHot at the Western Mall is the second-busiest one in the group’s portfolio, Ryburn said.

Cowboy Chicken will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

[supsystic-slider id=8 position=”center”]