One of my favorite days of the year is coming up- Super Bowl Sunday! No, I’m not a 49ers fan, a Chiefs fan, nor am I a so-called “Swiftie”. I’m a fan of the food! I’ll have my fair share of chicken wings this weekend, and Tom Super with the National Chicken Council says plenty of other people will too.
“We are projecting Americans will devour about 1.45 billion chicken wings this weekend for Super Bowl 58. That is a billion with a ‘b’.”
For me, it’s buffalo sauce on those bone-in wings that I then dip in some ranch. Super shares the details on what’s most popular.
“In terms of dipping sauces, barbecue, in our last consumer survey, came out number one followed by ranch. Buffalo hot sauce was third. French fries are the preferred side for wings and then you have your celery and your carrots. And there was a slight edge to bone-in traditional wings over the boneless wings out there.”
1.45 billion is a big number, but Super says it certainly could have been bigger.
“USDA is projecting that last year’s pounds and number of birds are pretty much flat compared to a year ago. And the reason that there wasn’t an increase was feed costs remain relatively high and continued labor challenges… Demand is up. People would eat more wings if they were available, but they’re just not there. So, it’s flat compared to last year.”
There is some good news going into Super Bowl Sunday. Retail prices are down a bit for wings, but Super encourages you to not wait until the last minute to get your wing purchases done or your wing orders in.
Source: NAFB News Service
