Ontario’s newest go-to fried chicken restaurant might also be its most unique, and its founder has been dreaming it up for the past eight years.

Fried chicken — particularly that of the addictively spicy variety — has been having a moment across the GTA for, well, years, which made two facts abundantly clear to Sal Hussain, owner of Mississauga’s Mad Bird Hot Chicken and Mad Ox BBQ .

Firstly, he had to take a stab at creating a hot chicken venture of his own. Secondly, it had to be unlike anything else you could already get in the city.

That was back in 2018. Mad Bird, the eventual spawn of these two ideas, wouldn’t open in Mississauga until June 2025, but, upon landing, it was clear that the concept was worth the wait.

While Nashville’s take on hot chicken tends to get all the glo

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