The skinless, boneless chicken breast makes the most money for chicken processors, and most likely always will, but what is, or what was, essentially a by-product of processing chickens, the wing, has become an extremely important part of chicken processors’ sales profile. The National Chicken Council (NCC), Washington, DC, estimated the marketing of approximately 32.5 billion chicken wings in 2022.
“The vast majority of wings, especially those destined for restaurants, are disjointed, with the third joint, the thin part known as the wing tip or flapper, being exported to Asian countries and the meatier first and second joints being sold domestically,” said Tom Super, senior vice president of communications at NCC. “The two segments or portions are known as the ‘drumette’ and the ‘flat,’ as opposed to the whole wing. So, each chicken produces four wing segments.”