How Boneless Wings Became America's Sweetheart During The 2007 Recession

From 2007 to 2009, the US saw what many consider the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The recession brought with it a lot of pain and heartache, and had an impact on just about everything, from employment and housing to the humble chicken wing. 

During this time, wing-centric restaurants and bars saw a major increase in the price of chicken wings, an item that, up until that point, had been considered a relatively inexpensive chicken part. Per the New York Times, this was when restaurant owners turned to none other than the boneless, skinless chicken breast to fill the void. In September of 2009, the wholesale price for chicken wings in the Northeast was reportedly $1.48 a pound. Meanwhile, the price of boneless, skinless chicken breasts was $1.21 per pound.

As a result of this price increase, restaurant and bar owners started to pull their standard chicken wings from the menu. The "boneless wing," in this case, was the chicken breast cut into little chunks, breaded, fried, and sauced to look and feel like a chicken wing. While wing enthusiasts scoffed at the thought of referring to what is essentially a chicken nugget parading around as a wing, that nugget saw success. They attracted customers who wanted the wing experience without the messiness of a regular chicken wing, and because of the lower cost of the breast meat, it ended up offsetting the higher wing prices.

While boneless wings have continued to thrive since this time in chicken history, it has run into some serious legal turmoil in recent years. In 2016, a lawsuit was brought against Wings on Brookwood in Ohio by a man who said the restaurant failed to mention that its boneless wings may contain bones. Per the BBC, the case was decided in July 2024, with the court ruling 4-3 in favor of the restaurant, noting that the term "boneless wing" refers to the "cooking style," and shouldn't be taken literally. While the ruling did have a lot of dissent, the majority of the judges agreed that being cautious of the potential for bones in a boneless wing is good common sense.

In 2023, a class action lawsuit was filed against Buffalo Wild Wings, a popular wing restaurant with over 1,300 locations nationwide. The man who filed the lawsuit in federal court thought the wings he ordered were made from deboned chicken wings, i.e., all chicken wing meat (via NPR). However, Buffalo Wild Wings' boneless wings are not, in fact, made from deboned chicken wings; they are of the skinless chicken breast meat variety. He felt as if the restaurant was misrepresenting the item, claiming that the chain "willfully, falsely, and knowingly misrepresented" its wings. The restaurant chain responded to the lawsuit on Twitter, saying "It's true. Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo."