# Boneless "Wings" are not wings **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 30, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347 "2021-06-30T17:54:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/1 "2021-06-30T17:54:01Z")
They are chicken nuggets, FFS. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/2 "2021-06-30T18:01:57Z")
Pssst… want to know another secret? Hamburgers aren’t made of ham! ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/3 "2021-06-30T18:05:49Z")
I prefer boneless wings 😛 I also prefer boneless ribs. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/4 "2021-06-30T18:31:09Z")
\< Adding **Kron** to _The List_ \> ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/5 "2021-06-30T19:02:27Z")
tip o the hat to Gary Larson and the classic cartoon “boneless chicken ranch” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/6 "2021-06-30T19:05:37Z")
Oh, Gary… you’re such a card. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/7 "2021-06-30T19:09:28Z")
The prime (and most delicious) ingredient in hot wings is chicken skin. A McNugget covered in hot sauce is an entirely different thing. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/8 "2021-06-30T19:11:22Z")
…is what I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/9 "2021-06-30T19:12:11Z")
Wingstop, a chain of buffalo chicken wing restaurants, has been promoting chicken thighs because the price of chicken wings has risen so much. Googling, raw chicken wings are going for $3-4 per pound, up from $1.50 per pound. (I was in college from 1984-88, and at the time, prepared Buffalo chicken wings cost $0.10-0.20 each. I remember once ordering a hundred wings with two other people, paying ten bucks including delivery, and eating them late at night, say around 11pm.) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/10 "2021-06-30T19:13:55Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Wingstop, a chain of buffalo chicken wing restaurants, has been promoting chicken thighs because the price of chicken wings has risen so much That’s a lot closer to hot wings than “boneless wings”. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/11 "2021-06-30T19:20:19Z")
Wow. I just checked Wingstop’s website. Ten “classic” (meaning bone-in) chicken wings cost $12.19 at the store closest to me. So about ten times what we paid for wings in college. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/12 "2021-06-30T19:22:27Z")
Non-American here so I don’t think I’ve ever seen a boneless chicken wing. I admit Mrs. 74westy does most of the grocery shopping so I might be blissfully unaware. I’m still trying to get my head around raw chicken breast with painted on grill marks. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/13 "2021-06-30T19:51:37Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Wow. I just checked Wingstop’s website. Ten “classic” (meaning bone-in) chicken wings cost $12.19 at the store closest to me. So about ten times what we paid for wings in college. well, yeah **Dewey\_Finn** , but when you were in college chicken wings had to compete with dodo wings.Once the dodo became extinct they jacked up the price of the chicken wings. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/14 "2021-06-30T19:56:34Z")
Seriously though; part of the early attraction to chicken wings was that they were low-cost, but their popularity has changed that, and they’re now kind of pricey. Same thing for beef brisket; it was barbecued in Texas, and prepared in various ways in Jewish households _because_ it was cheap. But it’s not so cheap anymore as a result of those delicious ways of cooking it. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/15 "2021-06-30T19:57:30Z")
Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck sold wings at 10 cents each and draft beer for 25 cents at the Ohio State University in 1980. Gawd I am old! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/16 "2021-06-30T20:09:26Z")
Maybe this belongs in the “Entirely benign stuff that pisses you off anyway” thread, but several years ago I had a coworker who was a bit of a Drama Queen and also tended to be something of a special snowflake when it came to food. She claimed (perhaps rightly) that she had a gluten allergy and also claimed (perhaps also rightly) that she couldn’t even eat food that was deep fried in the same vat where something breaded was fried. So one day a bunch of us go to this local sports bar for lunch, and they have both bone-in and boneless wings on the menu. Drama Queen orders some boneless wings, but then launches into her “I can’t have gluten and you have to cook these special just for me” thing with the waitress, and they go back and forth for a while and wind up agreeing that what they will do is cut up some grilled chicken breasts into boneless-wing-sized chunks and cover them in sauce and call it good. And she wants fries but don’t put any of that “weird” seasoning (basically, Lawry’s seasoned salt) on them. And then she caps the whole exchange off with “But I don’t want to be any trouble…” Obviously, many years later this _still_ pisses me off and this thread has just dredged up the whole unpleasant ordeal again. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/17 "2021-06-30T20:21:54Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > They are chicken nuggets, FFS. Jimmy O. Yang, is that you? > [@Jimmy O. Yang](#): > > Boneless wings are no wings at all— **they are little white meat lies** … > > …They are bite-sized insults to my palette and intelligence! If people can get away by calling breast meat as boneless wings, what’s to stop someone from selling rat meat as USDA prime rib-eye? What’s next? “Lifeless Caviar”— a fistful of pine nuts packaged in a tin can? Would you like that?! Boneless wings, I’ve had enough of your crap. > **[Boneless Wings Are a Lie!!!!](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/boneless-wings-are-a-lie)** > > ‘Silicon Valley’ comedian Jimmy O. Yang goes on a tirade against these “little white meat lies.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/18 "2021-06-30T20:22:16Z")
I prefer boneless “wings”. The point of wings, as noted, is that they were cheap. When they cost the same bone in or boneless, why spend so much energy picking that small bit of mest off those tiny bones. Spicy nuggets are fine. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/19 "2021-06-30T20:26:50Z")
Yeah, it is funny- wings used to be the cheapest part, _by far._ But they have been my favorite for fried chicken that has a good batter/crust. So back when I was a security gd, there was a place I used to order the 4 wing special for lunch, and they always gave my 6 or even 8. I thought it was due to the uniform, but then I overhead one worker saying to another “Poor guy, I guess he can’t afford anything else”. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347/20 "2021-06-30T20:33:12Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Pssst… want to know another secret? > > Hamburgers aren’t made of ham! And hot dogs aren’t (usually) made of dogs And Girl Scout Cookies aren’t made of . . . Oh, wait a minute. ETA: > [@bump](#): > > Seriously though; part of the early attraction to chicken wings was that they were low-cost, but their popularity has changed that, and they’re now kind of pricey. And this is why we can’t ~~have~~ afford good things. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boneless-wings-are-not-wings/945347.md?page=2)