Today’s Spotlight is on Chicken Wings.

Chicken wings were invented in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. The bar’s co-owner, Teressa Bellissimo, cooked leftover wings in hot sauce as a late-night snack for her son and his friends. The story goes that Bellissimo mistakenly ordered a case of chicken wings when she meant to order chicken necks, which her husband used to make the Anchor Inn’s famous spaghetti sauce. Bellissimo covered the wings in her own special sauce and served them with a side of blue cheese and celery.

Deep-fried chicken wings have long been a staple of Southern cooking. Buffalo wings are named for Buffalo, New York, where they were invented. They are often called simply chicken wings, hot wings, or just wings.

Chicken wings are getting bigger because of efforts to raise fatter, more profitable birds. Larger chickens mean bigger wings, which means more meat per wing. This can be problematic for sellers, who are serving more meat with the same number of wings. Some restaurants have started serving wings by size instead of by number to keep the price down.

There are several reasons why chickens are able to grow larger than they were 50 years ago, including genetic selection, improved nutrition, and better environmental control. Another factor is that consumers started preferring boneless-skinless breast meat in the 1980s, making wings an inexpensive byproduct for chicken producers.

 

Here are some reasons why chicken wings became popular:

• Cooking the whole bird was trendy in the 1960s and 1970s.
• In the 1980s, consumers started preferring boneless-skinless breast meat, making wings an inexpensive byproduct for chicken producers.
• The culinary innovation may have happened when the restaurant received an incorrect shipment of wings instead of chicken backs and necks for Teressa’s famous spaghetti sauce.
• Wings became a cheap meat for bars to sell while patrons watched sports, especially the Super Bowl
• Buffalo wings gained popularity as a bar food and appetizer across the United States and Canada in the 1970s and 1980s
• The city of Buffalo issued an official proclamation celebrating Anchor Bar co-owner Frank Bellissimo and declared July 29, 1977, to be Chicken Wing Day
• The increased demand for chicken wings has come with a serious change in price.

 

The average American eats 290 chicken wings a year, or 24 wings per month. This means that the average person will eat 17,653 chicken wings in their adult lifetime. The average American can eat 12 chicken wings in one sitting.

According to the NPD Group, the Northeastern U.S. eats 12% more wings on average than other U.S. regions, while the South eats 13% more.

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for wing enthusiasts, with experts estimating that 1.45 billion chicken wings are consumed during Super Bowl weekend.

1.45 billion chicken wings? To visualize how many wings that is…

If 1.45 billion wings were laid end to end, they would stretch from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga. almost 80 times. 1.45 billion wings is enough to circle the Earth almost three times. Weighing in at about 166.25 million pounds, 1.45 billion wings weigh 338 times more than the combined weight of all 32 NFL teams. Eating two wings per minute, it would take an NFL player 1,265 years, 80 days, 7 hours and 12 minutes to eat 1.33 billion chicken wings. And for 1.45 billion wings, even longer.

 

Here are some countries that consume a lot of chicken wings:

• Israel: Ranked highest in poultry meat consumption per capita in 2020 with 68.9 kg, followed by Trinidad and Tobago and the United States
• United States: Consumes the greatest amount of chicken.
• Malaysia: Recorded the highest levels of poultry per capita consumption in 2019 with 63 kg per person.
• Brazil: Recorded the highest levels of poultry per capita consumption in 2019 with 57 kg per person
• Australia: Consumes roughly 205 pounds of chicken per person, per year.
• South: Consumes more chicken wings than any other area of the country
• Patrick Bertoletti: Ate 444 wings in just 26 minutes at the 2015 Wing Bowl
• Chad, Burundi, and Ethiopia: Consumed 0.480 kg, 0.560 kg, and 0.590 kg of poultry meat, respectively.

 

Here are some states that eat a lot of chicken wings:

• Maryland: Topped the chicken wing list in 2021, with 6% of Instacart customers having chicken wings in their carts the week before Super Bowl LV
• Washington: Wing fanatics in Washington state like their wings with buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing
• South Carolina: Residents eat an average of 182 chicken wings each year.
• Georgia: Residents eat an average of 124 chicken wings each year.
• North Carolina: Residents eat an average of 116 chicken wings each year.

The East Coast and the South appear to have a bigger appetite for wings than the West and Midwest. Americans consume 28 billion wings each year.

 

Here is a chicken wing recipe for you to try:

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. chicken wings pre-cut or whole wings
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder NOT baking soda
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• ⅛ tsp. salt and pepper
• buffalo sauce roughly 1 cup

 

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Thaw 3 lbs. of chicken wings. If chicken wings are whole, they will need to be cut into wingettes and drumettes. Lay the wingettes and drumettes out on a flat surface and dry them with a paper towel.
2. Combine 1 Tbsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. onion powder, 1 tsp. smoked paprika, and ⅛ tsp. salt and pepper in a small bowl. Stir to combine completely.
3. 1 Tbsp. baking powder,1 tsp. garlic powder,1 tsp. onion powder,1 tsp. smoked paprika, ⅛ tsp. salt and pepper.
4. Once the chicken wings have been patted dry, place them in a large bowl. Sprinkle half of the baking powder mixture over the wings and toss to coat. Repeat with the second half of the mixture.
5. Line the bottom portion of a wire baking rack with foil. Fit the top portion of the wire baking rack firmly in the bottom portion. Place the chicken wings on the wire baking rack, making sure not to over-crowd the wings on the rack. Bake for 45 minutes, then remove from the oven.
6. Place the chicken wings in a large bowl. Toss with desired amount of buffalo sauce to coat completely. Repeat with more sauce if desired.
7. Optional: Return the coated chicken wings to the pan and place in the oven for an additional 2-3 minutes. This will crisp them up more and is optimal if you like the wings less saucy. Enjoy!

 

National Chicken Wing Day is celebrated annually on July 29. It’s been a thing since 1977 when it was first proclaimed by Stan Makowski, then the mayor of Buffalo, New York. Chicken wings themselves didn’t become a thing until the early 1960s.

National Chicken Wing Day encourages a frenzy of dipping and sauce tasting. You can make them sweet, spicy, or any way you want. Some like them served with blue cheese, plum sauce, or celery sticks.

We’d love to hear about your favorite chicken wings. Let us know in the comments where you get them.