Winging it

Here's a little something for you to think about. Did you know there's no such thing as boneless chicken wings? When you stop to think about it for a minute, it makes sense, but few of us use that minute to actually consider the food. I know I typically use that minute deciding how hot I want the sauce/how many Tums I have left. They're really just chunks of chicken breast prepared like wings.

Here's something else to think about. Boneless wings are almost always more expensive. On the practical side, the same weight of each will yield more meat from the boneless variety. And on the imaginary side, the restaurant wants you to think they're labor intensive. As though there's a kitchen full of illegals carefully sliding bones out of chicken and tucking them carefully into little nuggets.

Last thing to consider. Just recently the price of chicken breast actually went below chicken wings. If this holds, it'll be in a restaurant's best interest to lower the price of boneless wings or, at the very least, make them the same price. Unfortunately, that puts us in the know in quite a quandry. Do you get the boneless wings for the convenience and higher yield and just pretend they're really wings? Or do you get the real thing complete with the messy hands, piles of bones and not all that much meat in the name of authenticity? Or do you not care so long as the beer's cheap? Yeah, probably that one.