On July 29th, National Chicken Wing Day encourages a frenzy of dipping and sauce tasting. With so many choices, be sure to pace yourself!
- The day celebrates the little appetizer that could. Also known as buffalo wings, hot wings or just wings, we eat about 290 per year.
- After a number of years of different establishments selling their version of Buffalo Wings, the city of Buffalo, NY in 1977 proclaimed July 29th to be National Chicken Wing Day. Establishments like the Anchor Bar, Wings n’ Things and Duff’s all became famous for their wings.
- Buffalo wings were invented in 1964 by mistake. The most widely believed story about the creation of Buffalo wings is that Teressa Bellissmo invented them at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY when she received chicken wings instead of the chicken necks she had ordered.
- Another version: the concept of cooking wings in peppery hot sauce was born in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, when co-owner Teressa Bellissimo cooked leftover wings in hot sauce as a late-night snack for her son and his friends. The guys liked them so much that the Bellissimos put them on the menu the next day. Served with celery slices and bleu cheese sauce, “Buffalo Wings” were an instant hit.
- In the 2015 Wing Bowl, Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti ate 444 wings while Molly Schuyler came in a close second with 440 wings.
- In 2018 Molly Schuyler, won the Wing Bowl having consumed 501 wings in 30 minutes.
- The Pacific Region consumes the least wings in the country. The South consumes the most wings in the country.
- Variety is the spice of life, but it doesn’t always have to be spicy. You could go to Buffalo Wings & Rings more than 150 days in a row before you had to repeat a sauce combo.
- Americans eat about 1.35 billion wings on Super Bowl Sunday alone. That many wings could circle the Grand Canyon 120 times.
- That is enough wings to put 625 wings on every seat in all 32 NFL stadiums.
- 1.35 billion wings are enough to circle the Earth three times.
- Studies have shown that the average American will consume nearly 18,000 wings in a lifetime.
- Frank’s Red Hot was supposedly the original sauce used in the first batch of Buffalo Wings.
- Ranch is once again the #1 side or sauce typically eaten with wings and its popularity has been growing steadily, up from 51% in 2014 and 56% in 2015. Only one-third (33%) like to eat their wings with blue cheese dressing.
- The full rankings are: #1 Ranch (59%), #2 (tie) Buffalo/Hot Sauce (48%), #2 (tie) BBQ Sauce (48%), #4 Honey Mustard (35%), #5 Blue Cheese (33%), #6 Teriyaki Sauce (23%), #7 Sriracha (15%) and Nothing/“I eat them naked” (8%).
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