Chicken wings

This may come across as a bit off.....but I've been wondering.........why are chicken wings per pound going for twice as much as any other part of the bird? I can buy a 5lb package of thighs for $5. Drumsticks for bout the same...maybe less depending. Breast meat generally is skinless, and around $2.98 per pound if not more. Best I've seen wings in a package deal is $9.98 for a 4.5lb package. What's up with buying more bone per pound? I'd just like to know your take on this. Are chicken wings really worth the price per pound, or is it more of a demand thing? Pound for pound, chicken wings are still cheaper than gold....but for how long? LOL!
I'm currently working for an outfit that makes marinades and sauces for chicken if that tells you anything.

I remember when chicken wings were about a buck a pound. That was when they first started becoming popular though, back in the eighties. Nowadays it is definitely demand thing, plus farms are having a hard time keeping up with that demand. That is why "boneless wings" started hitting the wing joints a year ago. Basically a tender or breast meat, but cooked like a wing. The prices and lack of availability of real wings caused this.
Let's hope this doesn't transcend to ammo.

It's tailgating season

I wish you could pull the wings off chickens and they'd grow new ones, just a lizard grows a new tail. That'll solve the problem.

A buck a pound? Those would be the days! I'm slowly starting to take school on the most unwanted part of the bird (other than the feet), as a most lucrative market driven by want and a somewhat insatiable urge for something that would be near worthless or was commonly discarded in the past as waste. It all makes sense to me now.....it's all in the taste and the sauce that makes the price acceptable? I've always thought my degree would lead me into designing a four winged chicken. Not quite sure if it was in my dreams, or what the USDA and FDA had to say about it. Relatively speaking, there seem to be more wings on the market than any other part of the chicken. If demand was a factor....how would we account for this anomaly? Are folks buying 'whole chickens' with the wings cut off? Think about it. The demand for wings and the supply can't exceed more than two wings per bird. Yet I see more wings on the grocery shelf than anything else at a higher price per pound. This is what perplexes me to no end. Paying for 50/50 bone/meat per pound.
How many have ever seen a four winged chicken? A six winged chicken? Plenty of proof that something smells like fish to me!

Yup, demand is up, price follows. When i was in college, on Sundays (football!), we used to go down to the local Kentucky Fried and buy for about 2-3 bucks a whole tub of wings. I don't know how many were in it but usually about 15-20 people were there for the games and the tub lasted awhile. Now days I think you get 6 for about 7 dollars+/-.

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Originally Posted by Ram Rod

Relatively speaking, there seem to be more wings on the market than any other part of the chicken. If demand was a factor....how would we account for this anomaly? Are folks buying 'whole chickens' with the wings cut off? Think about it.

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I think you'd find a proportionate number of breasts or breast derivatives (chicken strips, boneless wings) and maybe a third of the thighs/drumsticks making it to market. The rest is processed for chicken nuggets and strips in fast food places.

I'm starting to see a method to the madness.

Here's the thing... wings are a novelty, and in high demand. I hail from Buffalo originally, so, I can weigh in here... Wings are great for bar food, you can eat em with your hands and they are HOT, so, you drink more. More and more, across the country, bars have adopted the snack for this reason and as more and more people are exposed to them, the more they are desired.

Before the whole thing started, wings were only used for soup stock and were never eaten, but some drunk kids and an italian mother started a trend that now has the momentum of a locomotive.

So, you are paying for the novelty, and to compete for the stock that the resturaunts are trying to keep on-hand for patrons. Last year, there was actuall a wing shortage around the Super Bowl, and that drove up prices even more. If you want to stay away from paying for the wings, just get pizza instead... but wait, what is better with pizza than hot wings and Blue cheese? Just can't win :(

A wing shortage. Interesting. Do you think folks will ever steal wings, or be destined to kill over wings? Thanks to a few drunk kids and an Italian mother! I'm guessing they've got it made these days, and I figure they aint eating chicken wings any more.

I remember when butchers used to throw the wings & the feet away.

I can not comprehend this world you are all talking about where wings were thrown away, instead of being covered in spicy deliciousness.

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Originally Posted by QKShooter

I remember when butchers used to throw the wings & the feet away.

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Feet are sold overseas (china? I forget) where people really like them. I've heard the cook them in soup or something, and then fish them out of the bowl and gnaw on them just like we do legs.

Those of us who raise our own chickens use the feet in stock. Also dogs love them. I can't quite get myself to chow them down "straight up" like a drumstick though.

SOOO I guess they had to create a demand for the wings somewhere, and voila!! Apparently it worked! Not on me though. When I buy or process whole chickens, I give the wings to the dogs. Too much work for not enough meat, IMO.

I think we have the makings of a country western song here.

It seems this must be sort of like oxtails. We loved them as kids and I think they were dirt cheap. Now the gourmets got a hold of this as great tender stuff and wham goes the price.

I remember working in Buffalo back in the early 90's when the bars had 10 cent wings. Those were the days.