Honestly, despite what the title says, you don’t need to know any of this—particularly if you’re vegetarian or have made the decision to treat your body with respect. Given that I don’t fall into either of those two categories, coupled with a proximity to Buffalo and a recent piece on beer, this article was bound to make the cut. Here are 11 things you should know about Buffalo wings (also known as chicken wings, hot wings, and…wings).
1
Food historians attribute the rise of the chicken wing as a “delicacy” to the intersection of southern barbecue with meat processing plants in cities like Chicago, Kansas City, and St. Louis. This union owed itself to the 20th-century Great Migration, with African Americans who had made the trip northward for work applying their culinary traditions to the chicken wings that would have otherwise been discarded.
2
One version of how the city of Buffalo became synonymous with the wing involves John Young, an African American transplant from Alabama who in 1961 began to serve uncut chicken wings at his Buffalo restaurant. His recipe involved breading the wings, deep frying them, and smothering them in a tomato-based Mambo sauce.
3
The other Buffalo wing origin story takes us to 1964, when the Bellissimo family began serving the wings we know today at the Anchor Bar. What exactly happened seems up for debate, but the family gets credit for what is now a classic recipe: unbreaded, cut wings—yielding drumettes and wingettes—that are deep fried and coated in a vinegar-based cayenne pepper hot sauce mixed with melted butter (also known as Buffalo sauce). The mouth-watering treats are served with celery sticks, carrot sticks, and blue cheese (or ranch) dressing.
4
On July 29, 1977, the city of Buffalo declared Chicken Wing Day, highlighting the second origin story and cementing the Anchor Bar as a central location in Buffalo wing lore.
5
In the 1980s, chains such as Buffalo Wild Wings and Hooters helped bring the artery-clogging snacks to the rest of the US, suddenly making breakfast at Denny’s seem kind of healthy.
6
In the 1990s, four consecutive Super Bowl appearances by the Buffalo Bills solidified the Buffalo wing as a staple in Super Bowl Sunday spreads. In fact, Americans are now estimated to consume around 1.42 billion wings during the big game!
7
Of course, there’s no reason to limit yourself to the classic recipe. Wings can be breaded before frying (in the spirit of John Young), baked, grilled, or broiled. And they can also be made with a massive amount of different flavors, most of which are a let down compared to Buffalo sauce.
8
Buffalo sauce remains so much of a favorite that it is applied to all sorts of things—boneless chicken, shrimp, mac and cheese, cauliflower, and whatever else your heart desires.
9
Depending on the exact sauce used, a drumette or a wingette can have around 80 – 110 calories, with around two thirds of those calories coming from fat.
10
Given the above, Buffalo wings not consumed with beer can actually be part of a low carbohydrate diet. The wings themselves have close to zero carbs, though breading and certain sauces can push that figure upward.
11
Every September, the National Buffalo Wing Festival is held in Orchard Park, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. Drawing around 80,000 attendees, the event culminates in a wing eating contest. Apparently, the record was set in 2019 by some dude who ate 281 wings in 12 minutes?!
As a bonus item, I’ll end with a critical piece of advice—never, ever settle for suboptimal Buffalo wings. Why? Because your body deserves only the best.
2 Responses
This was my favorite until I became a vegetarian. Cauliflower doesn’t do it for you!
Hahaha. Yes, the cauliflower substitution is reasonable but not quite the same.