What's the deal with chicken wings?

[AstroManLuca]

To me they're just a little bonus you get when you have chicken. Oh look, there's a wing, I can pry a tiny little amount of meat off of it.

Yet there are entire restaurants who have made wings their entire focus. It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't hate wings but there's so little meat on them and they're a pain to eat.

I suppose places like BWW exist for people who like a very large sauce-to-meat ratio with their chicken?

Then again, they still make more sense to me than chicken feet (popular in Asia), which have no meat on them at all.

 

[Rakehellion]

I know! Back in the day, wings were considered scraps, now they cost more per pound than leg or thigh meat.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Maximizes awesome sauce to decent enough meat ratio.

 

[dank69]

Maximizes awesome sauce to decent enough meat ratio.

This. It isn't rocket science.

 

[Red Storm]

I think it has something to do with the old cartoons showing our favorite childhood characters chomping down on a nice juicy leg of meat.

Scooby Doo always made me hungry.

 

[Snock514]

S'all about da breast meat

 

[LTC8K6]

To me they're just a little bonus you get when you have chicken. Oh look, there's a wing, I can pry a tiny little amount of meat off of it.

Yet there are entire restaurants who have made wings their entire focus. It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't hate wings but there's so little meat on them and they're a pain to eat.

I suppose places like BWW exist for people who like a very large sauce-to-meat ratio with their chicken?

Then again, they still make more sense to me than chicken feet (popular in Asia), which have no meat on them at all.

I don't think I've ever had a chicken wing with only a tiny amount of meat on it. Especially the drumstick part.

All of the wings I have eaten have had a decent amount of meat.

Recently began trying the mighty wings at McD's, and they have a lot of meat on them.

 

[SamQuint]

I keep thinking it would take 20 wings to equal the same amount of meat in a chicken breast and it would cost maybe 5 times as much. Not a fan.

 

[JM Aggie08]

I keep thinking it would take 20 wings to equal the same amount of meat in a chicken breast and it would cost maybe 5 times as much. Not a fan.

That's not really the point of eating wings.

 

[who?]

Wings were great for bars and restaurants when they were cheap but they've become so popular that demand has driven the prices up and caused shortages. The chicken companies are too smart to increase production just for wings. They like to limit the supply of chicken just to keep prices up like the airlines do with seats.

 

[smackababy]

Chicken wings are becoming the new fajitas. They were traditionally the trash meat nobody wanted and then they got popular, so now they are expensive.

Don't get me wrong, I love buffalo wings, but they are expensive for no reason other than they are popular. Putting a sauce consisting of hot + vinegar doesn't increase the value of the meat 10 fold, no matter how many times better the taste is.

 

[rh71]

yeah 50c each as regular price is a bit overboard

 

[Rakehellion]

Wings were great for bars and restaurants when they were cheap but they've become so popular that demand has driven the prices up and caused shortages. The chicken companies are too smart to increase production just for wings. They like to limit the supply of chicken just to keep prices up like the airlines do with seats.

This. It's just high-priced soul food.

 

[yuchai]

It's really a completely different product compared to breast meat. You've got a higher skin to meat ratio, and also it's meat that is close to bones (which tends to enhance the moisture and flavor of the meat). Obviously, the texture of the meat is also very different.

Yes, supply & demand played a role in why they're more expensive, but the prerequisite is that it's a different product altogether, as otherwise no one would be buying them at the higher price.

 

[ProchargeMe]

They're a great snack food for football fans. Haven't you noticed all the wing joints are sports bars with big TVs and hot waitresses? As for why they're so expensive, people will pay for them! That's why everything is so expensive. It's all marketing!

 

[W.C. Nimoy]

I can't even explain the appeal, & all valid criticism above, but I love them.

The only problem is getting them right, especially for how expensive they are. & I'm not talking about the flavor, even pizza hut can manage a good sauce ( their "burning hot"), i mean cooking them right. Before I moved, I had 3 dedicated wing restaurants (not including restaurants like hooters, bennagins etc. who also serve them) on my street, wingstop, buffalo wild wings, & one other pretty well respected one all within a few blocks of one another, & even these places would occasionally overcook them. All three had great "original hot" sauces, but it became too much of a gamble paying so much money even on discount .50 nights, too expensive to roll the dice getting tough overcooked chicken. It was not often, but when it happened I could tell every time, as soon as I closed the door, from the smell when they'd be overcooked.

Anyway, I like them really hot, but not so hot you can't taste anything but the heat, when the pepper completely dominates any other smoky/sweet/sour/spicy component in the sauce's flavor, or leaving chemical burn scars on your face & hands.

Used to be big on the blue cheese, if it's good stuff with real chunks of blue cheese, & the celery, but for some reason I don't seem to have time for that any more. all I need with them lately is a cold beer.

My number one rule is no breading & no nuggets. Bone-in is obvious, otherwise they're just chicken nuggets. IDK why the breading detracts so much for me though- seems like it should be good, soak up more sauce, but I generally hate breaded wings.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Used to think the same thing, until a friend introduced me to this place called "Wing ITZ" in Portsmouth NH. Its expensive as hell, but damn the wings are good. Their boneless wings are butchered in house and are unlike any other boneless wing I've ever had (which are more like chicken nuggets.)

 

[dabuddha]

This recipe here is my go to wings recipe. I know they're not your traditional hot wings but holy shit on a stick they're so freaking good. I make them at every party and they go so fast. My wife rarely eats meat but she devours these

link

 

[W.C. Nimoy]

Used to think the same thing, until a friend introduced me to this place called "Wing ITZ" in Portsmouth NH. Its expensive as hell, but damn the wings are good. Their boneless wings are butchered in house and are unlike any other boneless wing I've ever had (which are more like chicken nuggets.)

Just seems like keeping the bone in, with most any meat really, imparts some kind of flavor you never get without. But I'll consider your experience & keep an open mind in the future.

 

[Markbnj]

Maximizes awesome sauce to decent enough meat ratio.

/thread right here. The whole point is there is just enough meat to compliment the crispy skin, which in turn is just the right shape to hold a lot of sauce and blue cheese or whatever you dip it into.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

definitely prefer wings or drumsticks over thighs or breasts personally.

I feel the same way about crabs and shrimp. Lot of work for very little meat.

 

[n7]

Wings. Beer. Game.

It just works well.

Good cheap wings are imperative though...regularly an order (pound or 10ish) wings are like $10+, so you gotta go when they are on special (usually a certain day of the week for $0.35-0.60

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I know! Back in the day, wings were considered scraps, now they cost more per pound than leg or thigh meat.

More than double. Hell, I typically see wings for the same price or even more than boneless skinless chicken breast. I can easily find breast for a normal sale price of around $1.99 a pound, sometimes $1.69 or so. Wings are almost never under $2.29 unless you buy them in bulk. Thighs and legs are under a $1 on sale, occasionally .79 cents or less.

I often do buffalo thighs instead of wings. More meat, better meat, way cheaper. The meat-to-sauce ratio is a little off compared to wings, but if you make the sauce spicier to compensate it works out just about the same.

 

[smackababy]

More than double. Hell, I typically see wings for the same price or even more than boneless skinless chicken breast. I can easily find breast for a normal sale price of around $1.99 a pound, sometimes $1.69 or so. Wings are almost never under $2.29 unless you buy them in bulk. Thighs and legs are under a $1 on sale, occasionally .79 cents or less.

I often do buffalo thighs instead of wings. More meat, better meat, way cheaper. The meat-to-sauce ratio is a little off compared to wings, but if you make the sauce spicier to compensate it works out just about the same.

Locally, I can get buy one get one free packs of boneless, skinless chicken breast nearly every day. It is great for trying to eat healthy, but terrible when you compare it's prices to wings.

I don't make my own wings anymore (plus, I no longer have a deep fryer so it isn't the same anyway). I just make the sauce and put it on some grilled breast meat.

 

[W.C. Nimoy]

Yeah I think getting just the ratio in each bite can actually be matched with any meat, if not the exact same distribution, in how skin holds sauce.

It's the combination of that, ratio of sauce to meat, skin to meat, and more than anything the tenderness, melt in your mouth texture of meat that you're pulling off those little bones that kills me.

Damn why did I keep coming back in this thread?! I had a very late and very overindulgant kolache/klobasnek breakfast, yet could already go for a lunch of a dozen or two wings!