What Part Of The Chicken Do Boneless Wings Come From?

The easygoing popularity of chicken wings is easy to understand. Whether you're enjoying a batch of classic buffalo wings at a bar or crafting a creative home rendition, this poultry dish offers a uniquely hands-on experience. Yet for some, the tactile nature of eating chicken on the bone can be a downside. Hence, many menus feature boneless wings.

Similarly sized and convenient, it's easy to think that such a cut is simply a chicken wing with bone removed; akin to a filleted fish. Yet, this finger food actually comes from a completely different part of the chicken altogether: the breast. Boneless chicken wings are made by either slicing the cut into a wing shape or simply preparing smaller pieces of white meat. Either way, the chicken is tossed in seasoned batter, deep-fried, and covered in a wing sauce, resulting in a dish meant to replicate classic wings in flavor.

Boneless chicken wings offer a resemblance to chicken tenders or fingers as well as chicken nuggets. However, their use of specifically breast meat — not ground like with nuggets — as well as shape and seasonings place it into a delicious category of its own.

Chicken fans' tastes often fall into one of two camps: white or dark meat. The preferential divide can be surprisingly rigid; after all, the two types of cuts do have distinct compositions fat and fiber thereby creating quite different flavors. While most chicken cuts — like a breast or thigh — neatly fall into one category, bone-in chicken wings straddle the line. Since chickens don't take to the skies, the muscles in the wings don't get a lot of use, hence a fiber content that lands in the white meat camp. However, the fat content in the wings is higher, almost at the quantity of dark meat. Such a composition lends them a distinct flavor and mouthfeel that's both meaty and tender.

On the other hand, since boneless chicken wings are sourced from the breast, they're definitively in the white meat camp. It's a delineation that can throw off some chicken wing fans — the lower fat content, lack of skin, and boneless composition contribute to a drier result. Texturally, the "wing" is more uniform, which can take away some of the satisfaction of eating one. The contentious composition has even led to claims for eliminating the name altogether. Nevertheless, doused in a delicious wing sauce (like Andrew Zimmern's favorite) and enjoyed alongside a tasty beverage, boneless chicken wing semantics can certainly be forgiven.