Japanese chicken wings back in the day (when buying chicken parts as apposed to whole fryers), we’re more than likely way cheaper than the other pieces of the chicken. You also get a lot of them in a package. You can separate the wing by running your knife between the two joints yielding three pieces. The tip you just throw away. The middle piece has a minimal amount of meat. The end piece (drummette) has a few bites of chicken.
As a Meat Cutter, I have several theories/ opinions. Because of the above-stated facts, you had a cheaper cut of meat getting more pieces but less meat. Putting your sauce of choice on them became a way of enhancing their flavor, making them more appealing. Now, if you price chicken wings, they’re more expensive (traditionally) than the other parts, so I don’t see the price vs. the amount of meat you get when factoring the extra work. Personally, if I liked an absolute chicken wing sauce, I would 1. Just put it on the other pieces. 2 if I wanted something chicken wing-like, I would cut boneless breasts, Or thigh into strips and apply the same sauce.
Japanese Chicken Wings: Some More Of The Chicken Wings
There was a time in the past (early 80’s) when chicken wings sold for 19 cents a pound and got considered to be a pretty useless part of the chicken. Then a lady in a bar in Buffalo, New York, had some hungry kids, and having little around to feed them, threw some wings in a fryer and then sauced them up with some Frank’s hot sauce and gave them some celery on the side. The kids loved them, the bar started serving them, and they quickly became a bar food hit. Word spread, as it always does, and the “Buffalo” wings became a thing as bar food. Then wings spread into fast-casual. The demand and thus, the price for wings took off. Massive quantities get consumed during Super Bowl time.
Each chicken has two wings. For eight Buffalo wing portions, two chickens get required. When you grow a chicken, you get a lot of other parts that have to gets sold. The demand for breast meat fundamentally drives the number of chickens produced each year. Wings, as well as the other parts, are still a by-product of breast demand, so the supply of wings does not get based on actual wing demand. Need versus supply of wings is balanced out by price. The price rises until demand equal supply.
Something More To Learn
To make it simple, it’s supply and demand. As Steve mentioned, they used to cost 19 cents a pound. And while not useless, they, along with chicken next, got mainly used for making chicken broths and soups. For soups, the necks often gets disposed of after cooking. But the meat from the wings was removed from the bones after and added back to the stock
Since most consumers did not need them and the demand was low, the cost was l very low to ensure sales.
But as Steve correctly pointed out, once that lady in Buffalo ‘invented’ the Buffalo Wings and they became a hot item. The demand for the wings parts of the chicken was in high demand by the public. And the price rose accordingly.
Oh, and because of this, another ‘cause and effect’ is the cost of chicken necks went up also in cost because those who did use them for soup. And stocks stopped using wings as much and started using more necks.
