Buffalo wing

• 1. Introduction

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  The Buffalo wing is named for Buffalo, New York, where it was invented, and it has no connection to the animal. Its story starts with a part of the chicken that almost nobody wanted. Around the time of the dish's supposed invention in 1964, chicken wings were inexpensive and undesirable. Cooks normally threw them away or set them aside for stock or soup. Somewhere in Buffalo, someone decided to fry them and serve them to customers. Who was it? The answer depends on whom you ask, and at least three accounts compete for the credit. How did a discarded cut become a menu staple that pizza chains and burger giants wanted to sell? And what exactly goes into the sauce, the side dishes, and the strange contests that grew up around it?

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• 2. The Anchor Bar Story

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  In 1964, according to one claim, Teressa Bellissimo fried the first Buffalo wings at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. She owned the bar with her husband, Frank. Several versions of how it happened have circulated, many of them told by the Bellissimo family and others.

  In one telling, the couple's son Dominic was tending the bar when several of his friends turned up late at night without warning. Teressa wanted a fast, easy snack to put in front of them. She came up with the idea of deep frying chicken wings and tossing them in cayenne hot sauce.

  In 1980, Dominic gave the New Yorker reporter Calvin Trillin a different motive. The quote reads: "It was Friday night in the bar and since people were buying a lot of drinks he wanted to do something nice for them at midnight when the mostly Catholic patrons would be able to eat meat again." Dominic also said that the idea of chicken wings came from his mother.

  Frank told another version, built around a delivery error. The bar had expected backs and necks for its spaghetti sauce, but wings arrived instead. Frank says he asked Teressa to do something with this unexpected supply, and the Buffalo wing was the result.

  A local newspaper article about the Anchor Bar in 1969 does not mention Buffalo wings at all. That same year, a local competitor called Duff's began selling them.

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• 3. John Young's Wings

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  John Young moved to Buffalo from Stockton, Alabama in 1948, at the age of 13. Another claim credits him with popularizing chicken wings in the city. In 1961, he began serving wings at his own Buffalo restaurant. They were left uncut, breaded, deep fried, and served in his own special tomato-based Mumbo sauce.

  Before opening, Young had talked with a boxer who traveled. In a later interview, Young recalled the conversation this way: "He told me that there was a restaurant in Washington, D.C. that was doing a good business with wings and I decided to specialize."

  In that same interview, Young stated that the Anchor Bar did not offer Buffalo wings as a regular menu item until 1974. He had registered the name of his restaurant, John Young's Wings 'n Things, at the county courthouse before leaving the Buffalo area in 1970.

  In 2013, the National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo acknowledged his contributions by inducting him into its National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame.

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• 4. Wings Go National

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  On the 29th of July 1977, the city of Buffalo celebrated with an official proclamation. It honored Frank Bellissimo, co-owner of the Anchor Bar, and declared that day to be Chicken Wing Day.

  Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Buffalo wings spread as a bar food and appetizer across the United States. They also reached towns near the border in Canada.

  Large franchises built around wings soon appeared. Buffalo Wild Wings was founded in 1982, and Hooters followed in 1983. In 1990, McDonald's began selling Mighty Wings as an option at its restaurants in the United States.

  The Buffalo Bills football team gave the dish another push. In 1994, following four Super Bowl appearances by the team, the Domino's pizza chain added Buffalo wings to its national menu. Pizza Hut did the same the next year.

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• 5. Anatomy of a Wing

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  A chicken wing used for Buffalo wings is usually cut into three parts: the drumette, the flat, and the flapper, also called the pointer. Most restaurants discard the flapper. Some serve it still attached to the flat.

  Traditionally, the wings are deep-fried in oil with no breading or flour, until they are well browned. Baking, grilling, or broiling are alternatives.

  Frank's RedHot is the classic cayenne pepper-based hot sauce for the coating, though similar sauces such as Crystal may be used. Melted butter and vinegar join it in the standard base. Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder are other common ingredients. The result may be made mild, medium, or hot, and commercial ready-to-use wing sauce comes in varying levels of spiciness. The cooked wings go into a bowl or pot and are shaken until they are completely covered.

  At the table, small sticks of celery come alongside, sometimes with baby carrots or carrot sticks. A blue cheese dipping sauce sits on the side. Ranch dressing, however, is the most popular wing dipping sauce in the United States.

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• 6. Beyond Buffalo Sauce

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  Blueberry BBQ Wing Sauce and Maple/Bacon Glaze are two of the flavors restaurants created to keep customers interested and grow their businesses. As the wing market expanded, kitchens moved well past the original sauce. Some of the new sauces drew on Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Caribbean, and Indian cuisines.

  Then the price of raw wings increased. Some diners also wanted a neater meal. Restaurants answered with boneless wings, sometimes sold under the name wyngz. These are small pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast coated in flour and spices, then fried or baked, much like a chicken nugget. They usually come in the same sauces as Buffalo wings.

  Rising demand for wings and for restaurants that serve them has led to actual and perceived shortages of chicken wings in the United States at certain times.

  The word Buffalo itself has also traveled. It now labels boneless wings, chicken fries, chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken, shrimp, and cauliflower served with dipping sauces. Pizza seasoned with the Buffalo-style sauce or a seasoning carries the name too.

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• 7. Eating Contests

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  Philadelphia's Wing Bowl is one of the events where Buffalo wings become a competitive eating sport. The National Buffalo Wing Festival is another. In many areas of the United States, chicken wing festivals are held with exactly this kind of competition.

  The contest has also moved into ordinary restaurants. It has become commonplace for a bar or restaurant to offer a wing-eating challenge. Many of them intentionally create an extra-hot sauce for the purpose.

  Customers who finish the challenge are sometimes rewarded with their picture posted on the restaurant's wall or website. Other prizes include a commemorative T-shirt or a free meal, and some places offer a combination of rewards.

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