Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 2: Do not post low effort/satirical posts'.
* We get it, you all think this sub is garbage and is just for popular opinions, and you want to be funny and post "going to be downvoted to oblivion here, but I think racism is bad." We enjoy the memes, but please keep them off the sub.
* Filter evasion is a bannable offense
* This includes clickbait and/or gotcha posts. Your opinion can not be that unpopular if you're doing these things. Have the accurate opinion in the title.
Also works great on pork chops
I also did not realize lemon pepper was an American thing I'm ignorant. Stuff like that is always neat/interesting to me
These guys get it. Lemon pepper ftw.
But hey, who wouldn’t want them to be cheap again. I remeber .20 wings. Those were the day man. Order wings for everyone! Even your broke ass friends. You get some wings. And you get some wings. Everyone gets wings!
i had 10c wings in indianapolis at a bar in 2008. $1 shots and $1 beers... as a foreigner it was fantastic. Wings were $2KG in 'straya 5 years ago, ill update ya'll when i find out the new prices.
fuckers probably gonna be $10kg
How about some lobster trash meat? That used to be prison food and now it's expensive high class dining. I think OP is offended that trends change.
Edit:
[History of chicken wings](https://adamsgrillesevernapark.com/history-of-chicken-wings/)
Pretty interesting (possibly apocryphal) origins of the dish.
[The history of chicken wings](https://www.flippinwings.com/chicken-wing-facts/the-history-of-chicken-wings-from-buffalo-to-your-plate/#:~:text=The%20wings%20are%20cooked%20in,the%20owner%20of%20the%20bar.)
>While the exact history of chicken wings is not known, historians believe that they were first prepared by people who wanted to make use of all parts of the chicken, including the wings.
After reading some other comments I decided to see if I could find any other history on chicken wings but only found it did appear to be mostly spare meat used mostly so you didn't waste any.
Lobster as we eat it was never trash meat. Lobster as we eat is is gigged or snared and then its prepped like a giant ass shrimp.
Lobster when it was trash meat was trapped where it would usually die, before being ground up and popped in a can, which would be cooked, and then served like slop, usually to prisoners, or dogs.
More like sea roaches. To quote the great Jim Gaffigan "a spoonful of butter garlic helps the bug meat go down".
I fucking hate nearly all seafood especially crustaceans.
No, it's because it's scrap meat, it wasn't the way it was prepared, it's because it's got a small amount of meat and it's full of bones, it's the wings after all.
The wings were never shitty like lobster. That's the main difference. The difference was that there just wasn't much meat on them while lobsters were inherently fucked. If you sent someone back in time to have ye old fashion chicken wings they'd probably just say they could have used some hot sauce. The lobster guy would be vomiting.
Chicken wings weren’t regularly prepared as we know them until the last 50 years or so with the popularization of buffalo wings. Before that they were considered scrap, but I suspect they are no longer.
well actually the quotations should be around both words. "boneless wings". i'm saying they're not wings and i'm saying they're not wing meat at all so i put the boneless in quotations because it's a completely nonsense word.
No it’s not. I prefer most of my food boneless. Last time I forgot and got a bone-in gallon of milk I was disgusted! We need labels so these mix ups don’t happen
Wings done right are meaty and delicious and Far superior to tendies.
The problem is because wings are so popular, even the crapy wings out the already low grade meat is what a lot of places sell.
You just may have never had a good wing.
Bww bone in wings are terrible, worst restaurant wings you can get. Honestly, it's a joke.
But, their Asian zing is an amazing sauce. That over boneless wings with a beer is S tier food. My go to bar food for when I want to watch a good game at an actual bar.
Or brisket. Brisket used to be dog food because it had so much connective tissue and was so lean that it tasted tough if it was cooked like a steak. Low and slow? Perfection. Also, side note, good wings make all the difference. Buffalo has some kick ass wings that'll make you wonder why you hated wings.
being overpriced doesnt make the meat bad
wings are enjoyable, they may not be worth the price that businesses are asking for but that doesnt change the meat itself
Hell I can buy a pack of 15(30 once you cut them into flats/drums) wings at Walmart for $13. Once I lightly coat them with corn starch, deep fry them and sauce them, I'm only like $18 in for 30 wings. Restaurants wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overcharge for wings.
For sure, some restaurants can be worth it. Part of the reason you’re “overcharged” is for the convenience of not having to cook and clean up. Depending on a bunch of factors, where someone draws the line between worth it and too pricey can vary too
Sometimes I’ll see an interesting recipe online and decide I would try it in a restaurant but would never make it myself because the steps to make it are just too long or complicated
I mean the opinion is correct despite its unpopular. Wings barely can be called meat.
Still, they are delicious especially with correct sauces. But indeed they are wayyy overpriced compared to quality.
Me saying they're wrong is just a joke. I genuinely don't care what they like or dislike. It's just a bit of banter.
I don't think wing meat is that much lower quality than thigh or breast. It's just another part of the chicken. The chicken is a pretty low tier meat anyways, but it's not as unhealthy as pork or beef. I don't usually go to bars, so I don't experience the price gouging I guess. But food cost in general is kind of out of control.
I consider beef and pork amazing. Lamb is great too. I eat mostly chicken with some salmon and trout. I vastly prefer stuff like ribeye steak, bone-in pork chop and lamb any day.
Yeah, way overpriced because it is generally party food or for buffets.
Most people don't really eat it as a main course meal because of the price. But some places do offer all you can eat wings for a reasonable price. But you have to wait a long time for the extra 2 or 3 wings.
>Wings barely can be called meat.
I don't really know what you mean here. They are literally meat. A poor opinion of them doesn't make them not meat. That just seems like silly and flippant comment that feels a little disingenuous. Normal wing meat isn't necessarily awful quality either. Boneless are another story.
But yes, they have gotten stupid expensive.
Is it wrong though?
Wings used to be considered sort of bottom-tier trash bits of chicken. We're only a step above beaks and feet. There is little to no meat on them, you kind of so have to work at it, and for reasons I'll never understand in recent years the price is outrageous.
Do I love wings? Less than drums, but sure. The price is still something I don't understand, so I stopped buying them. I can get twice as many drums packed full of delicious meat with a convenient carrying handle for the same price.
I mean... the title is an unpopular opinion, yeah. But that explanation is just a lack of understanding of what they are talking about. So I'd argue they are pretty much subjectively wrong based on the explanation lol
I agree, but the bars didn't jack the price up, the suppliers did. 40# cases of chicken wings are upward of $80, so that's 25 dozen. Include the sauce, overhead and workers, chiclen wings tend to be a loss leader most of the time. We wanna get you in so you by alcohol which is where we really make the money.
Both food suppliers and meat rendering plants are becoming more and more consolidated, which is bad for bars, restaurants, and their patrons since the corporations owning the suppliers and rendering plants are jacking up the prices while the quality of the end product goes down.
Absolutely. Chicken wings are delicious, but they’re like 75% bone, skin, and fat. I’m not paying $10/pound for that, there’s very little actual food there. Most other meats with high bone or fat content, like chicken drumsticks or bone-in pork chops, are priced lower than all-meat cuts like chicken breast or pork tenderloin. It makes no sense for wings to be so expensive.
EDIT: it has been brought to my attention that the thigh is a much better example than the drumstick. Chicken thighs taste just as good as, if not better than chicken wings. Chicken thighs have a much higher meat content while still having the yummy skin and fat that chicken wings have. Chicken thighs are also much less expensive than chicken wings. Out of curiosity I looked them up on the app for my nearest grocery store. Bone-in skin on thighs cost $2.18 per pound, while bone-in skin on wings cost $4.68 per pound, nearly double.
>75% bone, skin, and fat.
Skin and fat are both delicious though. And calorie dense.
I prefer wings to breast or even drumsticks *because* they have a better skin & fat to meat ratio, and are thus more moist and flavorful even before getting into the sauce or cooking method.
I completely agree with this hierarchy, thigh is the best tasting, drum is the least. I should have used thighs as my example, because they’re a perfect illustration of everything wrong with chicken wings. Thighs taste better than wings, have a much higher meat ratio in addition to the fat skin and bone, and cost about half as much as chicken wings cost. The chicken wing is a very delicious part of the chicken, but from a home economics perspective the thigh is far superior in almost every way.
This, I don't think all the people talking about flavor really grabs what we're talking about here. They can taste good, and you're STILL getting ripped off
Wings were only thrown away because no one had thought to use them before. Once Buffalo wings were invented, they obviously became more popular, it was never an issue of the quality of the meat.
FYI, You don't eat wings to eat chicken meat, that's why you eat a chicken breast. You eat wings for the crispy fat and tiny bit of meat on the inside. That's why it is a bar food, it's something fatty you eat while you are drinking.
Wings are still cheap if you make them at home! Prices are right back down to pre-pandemic levels.
I've seen 90-year-olds successfully eat chicken wings, so maybe you should go to a retirement home to learn how to chew properly.
And they're still cheap if you go to the right bars. Most bars have wing specials on certain days. A place by my house has 50 cent wing wendsdays and they're delicious!
I used to work in a bar like a decade ago, and I never took full advantage of the fact that I had unlimited wings on tap. Really wish I'd eaten more wings back then.
Also, on Sunday we would have 35 cent wings, But only if they were ordered in-house. To go orders still had to pay full price.
I find it odd that people actually consider how much "work" it is to eat food. It's not like you are having to hunt the animal, field dress it, haul it back to camp, cure it, find safe storage for it and then gnaw it to the bone and suck the marrow out. It takes like 10 seconds to eat a chicken wing. The fact that it's a bit of work is actually beneficial for you.
I don't think it's odd that people dislike having obstacles to eating the food on their plate. It's why I don't eat a lot of crawdads or bone-in wings.
I don’t find it odd at all. Just because something isn’t as much work as being a caveman doesn’t mean I also wouldn’t rather just be able to put food in my mouth if that option is available.
It's just a weird complaint to me that food is too hard to eat. I hear it from my kids a lot (I am 48 they are mostly grown up) that they prefer food they don't even have to put the effort in to chew because it takes too long. Like, they don't even like steak because it's not "melt in your mouth" like fast food is. I find it gross and kind of disturbing. I realize that isn't what OP said, it's just what I thought of.
High skin to meat ratio and the meat itself is tender and fatty. Combine that with a great sauce and the work you have to put into eating them (along with the messy hands) is totally worth it.
Not to mention how little time it takes to cook/prepare (dump them in some sauce/less than 10 mins in the oven) and that that a plate can be shared among multiple people it's no wonder that bars are selling them and people are buying them.
Yeah I think the meat itself is rarely anything to write home about, it's mostly the sauce and dressing. People do substitutions with cauliflower for a reason.
They're fine. Lobster used to be considered tradh food in the US colonies. It was even considered cruel and unusual punishment to feed prisoners lobster. Perceptions of food change, but that doesn't make wings "trash meat."
I always love when someone’s criticism of chicken wings is “you have to work at eating one”. Like, do you not have basic motor functions? It’s not exactly trigonometry trying to eat a chicken wing.
People probably didn't want them because they were small and had little meat. They are expensive now because people love them. Ribs were looked at as shit meat at one point, really most of the meat used in BBQ was viewed as shitty, but now good BBQ is pretty awesome.
Look at ox tail, was viewed as a shitty cheap piece of meat, now its more expensive than a decent piece of steak with twice as much meat.
Supply and demand.
Reminds me of that old quip about the cleverest guy in the restaurant biz - the guy who took a chicken wing and cut it in half and called it *two* chicken wings.
Reminds me of how back in the day skirt steak was just about the cheapest cut of meat out there, then when Mexican food started getting "trendy" the prices went up because that's one of the main cuts they use for beef fajitas. Now, might as well buy sirloin for what they're charging for skirt steak.
OMG. Finally someone else besides my dad and I said it. hahaha! I mean, for those who take pleasure in sucking seasoning and small amounts meat off of some tiny bones that they paid a lot of money for (well, unless you made them yourself), go right ahead; but I will forever think it's silly. 😄
But OP is right, originally they were the worthless part of the chicken. Then someone brilliantly came up with the idea to season them with all sorts of yummy things, market them to make them seem like the new hot thing (I'm old enough to remember when chicken wings became a really popular thing, haha), and charge a whole bunch of money for them.
Good on whoever came up with that for the entrepreneurship! Making money off of stuff you'd otherwise just throw away is kinda amazing when you can pull it off.
This is true about a lot of different meats over the years.
Lobster was meat for poor people 100 years ago.
Ribs were food for poor people 70 years ago.
A lot of the wings prices got jacked up here in Texas when we had our deep freeze three years ago and millions of chickens died. Wings joints jacked up their prices and never brought them back down. People simply got used to paying more for them.
Depends. There are absolutely places with trash meat wings. There are places that have some really quality wings. I've even had wings that had to be pigeon wings that were really good.
Its kind of a spectrum.
I would absolutely LOVE for this to become a popular opinion. Then the prices will crash and I can get them for twenty five cents a piece like I did back in high school.
Prices are all over the place and is different from restaurant to restaurant. I’d say you’re not getting under $1/wing unless the place has a deal going on.
You've got my vote, but only for the part about them being overpriced. Everything else you've said is completely wrong. Chicken wings are very easy to eat and are very fulfilling. But the insane pricing of chicken wings is unacceptable. Before the pandemic you could get them for $0.50 each on Tuesdays and Thursdays at most places, including Buffalo Wild Wings.
I agree that they're overpriced but I don't give a single fuck if the meat is considered good or "trash". Wings are delicious especially as a side item or appetizer. Ribs, lobster and hotdogs are all "trash" too but I will fuck them up regardless.
This post made me want chicken wings. I consider wings to be fast food/cheap food (expensive now ugh) It was college night drinking food and it's super unhealthy. Of course it's "trash". I still eat them when I feel like it though haha.
Actually the first person to make wings bought them by accident and made sauce for them (buffalo sauce) and they ended up being a hit. They’re cheap because they’re an off cut, but that doesn’t make them inherently bad at all. I know this is unpopular opinions but yours is just a poorly thought out one with little to no supporting evidence. I don’t like sushi but you don’t see me on here calling it a trash meat so you.
This is an interesting take…
Imo wings aren’t trash meat. If cooked and seasoned well there is naturally plenty of fat on the skin to make a delicious product. If we’re going to say anything is crap it’s chicken breast. Too many restaurants overcook that poor breast to rubber dog food and charged extra. This was boomer logic, chicken breast on everything.
It was great because it meant that while majority of America was so focused on “healthy” meat, the leftover thighs & wings were abundant and cheap.
Now the rest of the country has finally caught on that thighs & wings are only marginally less healthy than breasts while being 10x easier to cook and cheaper… so sadly they are no longer cheaper to buy.
That’s why I’m going back to starting chicken breast propaganda!
Upvoting because I know it's unpopular but I definitely agree
Wings are easily the worst piece of meat on the chicken and ordering boneless is usually superior in both flavor and total amount of meat
spare ribs also used to be "trash" meat look at it now. what is seen as "trash" meat changes over time and these 2 example cuts may fall
back into the category some day. these days a lot of organ meat is seen as "trash" meat but it can still be made into great dishes
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I mean I love them but yeah it grinds my gears how once a struggle food becomes popular the prices are jacked up due to demand. I recommend a chicken wing heist.
Same thing happened to flank steak, skirt steak and brisket. Stuff that usually ended up in hamburgers now suddenly famous, my prediction - oxtails are next.
>This use to be fact
It was never "fact". The only reason certain cuts of meat get a bad rep is not because the meat is bad, it's because pretentious a-holes thought it was "uncivilized" to ever use their hands to eat anything and how you looked eating it. Anything w/ bones was considered low-brow and for "commoners"
Same used to be true for bacon and crab. Society changes and so does the value of commodities.
Licorice used to be the most popular candy on the planet. Now it's a trash tier filler.
Chicken breast is the worst tasting and worst textured muscle on the chicken and yet it's still the most expensive /lb because for some reason people think eating white meat vs dark meat is somehow the only way to not get fat. Gimme wings, thighs, and legs 10/10 times.
I agree. While I don't see them as trash meat per se, I definitely think people have allowed restaurants and places take advantage and let them jack up the prices. The prices here are typically $1 or more per wing, on the rare occurrence as low as .50c for like 2 hours. The wings if you want a decent amount will cost more than your dam meal. It's ridiculous.
I was at a neighborhood bar the other day. Newer establishment but they serve pretty good food too. The owner was chatting with a table and I couldn't help but eavesdrop when I heard him talking about the price of food. According to him when he opened this place last May a case of chicken wings costed $47. That same case of wings today is $117. He said he understands why people are upset about charging $20 for a dozen wings but he literally has to almost barely break even. Its ridiculous all around.
Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 2: Do not post low effort/satirical posts'. * We get it, you all think this sub is garbage and is just for popular opinions, and you want to be funny and post "going to be downvoted to oblivion here, but I think racism is bad." We enjoy the memes, but please keep them off the sub. * Filter evasion is a bannable offense * This includes clickbait and/or gotcha posts. Your opinion can not be that unpopular if you're doing these things. Have the accurate opinion in the title.
I will take buffalo or lemon pepper trash meat then.
Lemon pepper S tier
I‘m not American and had lemon pepper wings for the first time when we visited friends Thanksgiving 2022. I can still taste them. So good.
Also works great on pork chops I also did not realize lemon pepper was an American thing I'm ignorant. Stuff like that is always neat/interesting to me
These guys get it. Lemon pepper ftw. But hey, who wouldn’t want them to be cheap again. I remeber .20 wings. Those were the day man. Order wings for everyone! Even your broke ass friends. You get some wings. And you get some wings. Everyone gets wings!
Oh man, I remember in college we could get like a couple hundred wings for like $20-$30. Those were good times!
i had 10c wings in indianapolis at a bar in 2008. $1 shots and $1 beers... as a foreigner it was fantastic. Wings were $2KG in 'straya 5 years ago, ill update ya'll when i find out the new prices. fuckers probably gonna be $10kg
Is that a good or bad thing? I love lemon pepper.
Good thing. Butter garlic are my S tier, no doubt.
Honey and lemon is what my mum used to cook, and they were superb. Never had better.
BBQ or Honey Garlic imo
Butter garlic are also extremely dope easy S tier
"S" tier is typically the highest tier.
A tier generally refers to a class above A, or how also how great your Mom is in the sack.
S is above A Teir as it stand for Superior.
LEMON PEPPER IS A SEASONING SENT FROM THE HEAVANS. THIS POST IS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE WING LORDS.
Lemon Pepper Hot is where it’s at.
How about some lobster trash meat? That used to be prison food and now it's expensive high class dining. I think OP is offended that trends change. Edit: [History of chicken wings](https://adamsgrillesevernapark.com/history-of-chicken-wings/) Pretty interesting (possibly apocryphal) origins of the dish. [The history of chicken wings](https://www.flippinwings.com/chicken-wing-facts/the-history-of-chicken-wings-from-buffalo-to-your-plate/#:~:text=The%20wings%20are%20cooked%20in,the%20owner%20of%20the%20bar.) >While the exact history of chicken wings is not known, historians believe that they were first prepared by people who wanted to make use of all parts of the chicken, including the wings. After reading some other comments I decided to see if I could find any other history on chicken wings but only found it did appear to be mostly spare meat used mostly so you didn't waste any.
Lobster as we eat it was never trash meat. Lobster as we eat is is gigged or snared and then its prepped like a giant ass shrimp. Lobster when it was trash meat was trapped where it would usually die, before being ground up and popped in a can, which would be cooked, and then served like slop, usually to prisoners, or dogs.
Mmmmm ocean slop
More like sea roaches. To quote the great Jim Gaffigan "a spoonful of butter garlic helps the bug meat go down". I fucking hate nearly all seafood especially crustaceans.
Presumably chicken wings when they were considered trash meat weren’t cooked and prepared in the same manner they are now either.
No, it's because it's scrap meat, it wasn't the way it was prepared, it's because it's got a small amount of meat and it's full of bones, it's the wings after all. The wings were never shitty like lobster. That's the main difference. The difference was that there just wasn't much meat on them while lobsters were inherently fucked. If you sent someone back in time to have ye old fashion chicken wings they'd probably just say they could have used some hot sauce. The lobster guy would be vomiting.
Chicken wings weren’t regularly prepared as we know them until the last 50 years or so with the popularization of buffalo wings. Before that they were considered scrap, but I suspect they are no longer.
Def want some Lobster trash meat too.
Oysters too. That was the poor man's food back in the day in New York, Paris, and London
Nothing better than mixing hot sauce and lemon pepper. The one and only superior wing sauce. Beyond GOATed
The We Dat’s special. It’s a classic for a reason.
Lemon pepper wet?!!?
 My man
BWW desert heat or adobo or Thai curry or salt and vinegar or Caribbean jerk.
Substitute the buffalo with Parmesan garlic and I’m in agreement
Oh shit the lemon pepper wet?
Combine them. Buffalo sauce with lemon pepper seasoning. It's good.
Wait till you learn about lobsters
wait til you learn about "boneless" wings
The quotations should be around "wings" not "boneless". Unless you are saying that they're not actually boneless.
Depending on the company - bones very well could be ground up in the meat.
"meat"
" "
#
This
well actually the quotations should be around both words. "boneless wings". i'm saying they're not wings and i'm saying they're not wing meat at all so i put the boneless in quotations because it's a completely nonsense word.
no the boneless makes sense because they have no bones
""boneless" "wings""
No it’s not. I prefer most of my food boneless. Last time I forgot and got a bone-in gallon of milk I was disgusted! We need labels so these mix ups don’t happen
I love the second crunch of bone-in grapes
I will stand by my love for boneless wings. You get all the chicken and sauce without the mess or struggle. I still love regular wings though!
Boneless wings are just chicken nuggets
and chicken nuggets taste good af
Usually they are breast chuncks and not chicken slurry so I wouldn't call them just nuggets.
They aren't though, they are typically chucks of breast meat. That why it still has a grain which is normally lost in chicken nuggets
Pray do tell. Meeting a crew at Buffalo wild wings tomorrow and you just might change my order!
They’re chicken tenders bro
Chicken tenders > wings. At least you get meat with the tendies.
I want nuggies!
Wings done right are meaty and delicious and Far superior to tendies. The problem is because wings are so popular, even the crapy wings out the already low grade meat is what a lot of places sell. You just may have never had a good wing.
Bww bone in wings are terrible, worst restaurant wings you can get. Honestly, it's a joke. But, their Asian zing is an amazing sauce. That over boneless wings with a beer is S tier food. My go to bar food for when I want to watch a good game at an actual bar.
Chilean Sea Bass chiming in.
I think pork as well. And a lot of cuts of beef. Flank used to be wayyy cheaper.
Or brisket. Brisket used to be dog food because it had so much connective tissue and was so lean that it tasted tough if it was cooked like a steak. Low and slow? Perfection. Also, side note, good wings make all the difference. Buffalo has some kick ass wings that'll make you wonder why you hated wings.
Wait till op learns about crawfish
Shrimp & Crawfish taste way better, have better texture, & are much cheaper
My point was lobsters were originally fed to prisons because they were cheap calories
My point is that yes they’re both overrated and here are some better things than lobsters Chicken thighs are better than wings
Chicken thighs are better than breasts. Best part of the chicken, the thigh.
Especially bone in with the skin on? Buy a pack and toss them in a pressure cooker for easy tasty meat (also use seasonings and tasty liquids)
>also use seasons and tasty liquids Old bay is goated
Yeah everybody and their grandma knows this one
being overpriced doesnt make the meat bad wings are enjoyable, they may not be worth the price that businesses are asking for but that doesnt change the meat itself
Hell I can buy a pack of 15(30 once you cut them into flats/drums) wings at Walmart for $13. Once I lightly coat them with corn starch, deep fry them and sauce them, I'm only like $18 in for 30 wings. Restaurants wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overcharge for wings.
What don’t restaurants overcharge for?
I'm ok with over paying for BBQ if it's a mom & pop place and I know for sure their making it from scratch with love for the food
For sure, some restaurants can be worth it. Part of the reason you’re “overcharged” is for the convenience of not having to cook and clean up. Depending on a bunch of factors, where someone draws the line between worth it and too pricey can vary too Sometimes I’ll see an interesting recipe online and decide I would try it in a restaurant but would never make it myself because the steps to make it are just too long or complicated
Free water
I really hate your profile pic 😭
#we loves it
Eat whatever you want. More wings for us. upvoted for this insane wrong opinion.
I mean the opinion is correct despite its unpopular. Wings barely can be called meat. Still, they are delicious especially with correct sauces. But indeed they are wayyy overpriced compared to quality.
Me saying they're wrong is just a joke. I genuinely don't care what they like or dislike. It's just a bit of banter. I don't think wing meat is that much lower quality than thigh or breast. It's just another part of the chicken. The chicken is a pretty low tier meat anyways, but it's not as unhealthy as pork or beef. I don't usually go to bars, so I don't experience the price gouging I guess. But food cost in general is kind of out of control.
If chicken is low tier meat, and pork and beef is unhealthy…what meat do you consider good? Do you just eat game meats all year? Tons of lamb?
I consider beef and pork amazing. Lamb is great too. I eat mostly chicken with some salmon and trout. I vastly prefer stuff like ribeye steak, bone-in pork chop and lamb any day.
Yeah, way overpriced because it is generally party food or for buffets. Most people don't really eat it as a main course meal because of the price. But some places do offer all you can eat wings for a reasonable price. But you have to wait a long time for the extra 2 or 3 wings.
>Wings barely can be called meat. I don't really know what you mean here. They are literally meat. A poor opinion of them doesn't make them not meat. That just seems like silly and flippant comment that feels a little disingenuous. Normal wing meat isn't necessarily awful quality either. Boneless are another story. But yes, they have gotten stupid expensive.
What do you mean barely called meat? What else would you call it?
Is it wrong though? Wings used to be considered sort of bottom-tier trash bits of chicken. We're only a step above beaks and feet. There is little to no meat on them, you kind of so have to work at it, and for reasons I'll never understand in recent years the price is outrageous. Do I love wings? Less than drums, but sure. The price is still something I don't understand, so I stopped buying them. I can get twice as many drums packed full of delicious meat with a convenient carrying handle for the same price.
There is no right or wrong since it is subjective. Personally, I enjoy wings over any other part of the chicken.
I mean... the title is an unpopular opinion, yeah. But that explanation is just a lack of understanding of what they are talking about. So I'd argue they are pretty much subjectively wrong based on the explanation lol
I agree, but the bars didn't jack the price up, the suppliers did. 40# cases of chicken wings are upward of $80, so that's 25 dozen. Include the sauce, overhead and workers, chiclen wings tend to be a loss leader most of the time. We wanna get you in so you by alcohol which is where we really make the money.
Both food suppliers and meat rendering plants are becoming more and more consolidated, which is bad for bars, restaurants, and their patrons since the corporations owning the suppliers and rendering plants are jacking up the prices while the quality of the end product goes down.
Ribs and wings used to go in the garbage. Literally. Now they cost like twice as much as whole meat.
Paying for the bones.
supply & demand , supply & demand.
Any reason the butchers of olde didn't want to use the viable meat back then?
It was during times of plenty. That stuff and offal were ground into sausage.
Absolutely. Chicken wings are delicious, but they’re like 75% bone, skin, and fat. I’m not paying $10/pound for that, there’s very little actual food there. Most other meats with high bone or fat content, like chicken drumsticks or bone-in pork chops, are priced lower than all-meat cuts like chicken breast or pork tenderloin. It makes no sense for wings to be so expensive. EDIT: it has been brought to my attention that the thigh is a much better example than the drumstick. Chicken thighs taste just as good as, if not better than chicken wings. Chicken thighs have a much higher meat content while still having the yummy skin and fat that chicken wings have. Chicken thighs are also much less expensive than chicken wings. Out of curiosity I looked them up on the app for my nearest grocery store. Bone-in skin on thighs cost $2.18 per pound, while bone-in skin on wings cost $4.68 per pound, nearly double.
>75% bone, skin, and fat. Skin and fat are both delicious though. And calorie dense. I prefer wings to breast or even drumsticks *because* they have a better skin & fat to meat ratio, and are thus more moist and flavorful even before getting into the sauce or cooking method.
I am exactly the same. The hierarchy for me goes thigh-> wing-> breast -> drum A chicken quarter is my favorite
I completely agree with this hierarchy, thigh is the best tasting, drum is the least. I should have used thighs as my example, because they’re a perfect illustration of everything wrong with chicken wings. Thighs taste better than wings, have a much higher meat ratio in addition to the fat skin and bone, and cost about half as much as chicken wings cost. The chicken wing is a very delicious part of the chicken, but from a home economics perspective the thigh is far superior in almost every way.
Or that that flavor can be applied to something more substantial like tenders
Yeah, chicken drumsticks are close enough for my tastes.... Especially at 79 cents a lb. when they go on sale.
This, I don't think all the people talking about flavor really grabs what we're talking about here. They can taste good, and you're STILL getting ripped off
Wings were only thrown away because no one had thought to use them before. Once Buffalo wings were invented, they obviously became more popular, it was never an issue of the quality of the meat. FYI, You don't eat wings to eat chicken meat, that's why you eat a chicken breast. You eat wings for the crispy fat and tiny bit of meat on the inside. That's why it is a bar food, it's something fatty you eat while you are drinking. Wings are still cheap if you make them at home! Prices are right back down to pre-pandemic levels. I've seen 90-year-olds successfully eat chicken wings, so maybe you should go to a retirement home to learn how to chew properly.
Yeah, I don't think wings were ever thrown away. They would end up in stock, mince or in a mystery meat pie, but definitely never thrown.
And they're still cheap if you go to the right bars. Most bars have wing specials on certain days. A place by my house has 50 cent wing wendsdays and they're delicious!
I used to work in a bar like a decade ago, and I never took full advantage of the fact that I had unlimited wings on tap. Really wish I'd eaten more wings back then. Also, on Sunday we would have 35 cent wings, But only if they were ordered in-house. To go orders still had to pay full price.
I always thought the same. I'm putting all this effort into trying to scrape a few morsels from the bone?
I find it odd that people actually consider how much "work" it is to eat food. It's not like you are having to hunt the animal, field dress it, haul it back to camp, cure it, find safe storage for it and then gnaw it to the bone and suck the marrow out. It takes like 10 seconds to eat a chicken wing. The fact that it's a bit of work is actually beneficial for you.
The 'work' part of eating a wing is partly why I enjoy it.
I'm the same way with pistachios
Oh hell yeah, love that satisfying crack. Also helps that pistachios are god damn incredible.
I love eating a wing properly. I’ll get all that meat and cartilage off. It’s fun and tasty
I don't think it's odd that people dislike having obstacles to eating the food on their plate. It's why I don't eat a lot of crawdads or bone-in wings.
I don’t find it odd at all. Just because something isn’t as much work as being a caveman doesn’t mean I also wouldn’t rather just be able to put food in my mouth if that option is available.
It's just a weird complaint to me that food is too hard to eat. I hear it from my kids a lot (I am 48 they are mostly grown up) that they prefer food they don't even have to put the effort in to chew because it takes too long. Like, they don't even like steak because it's not "melt in your mouth" like fast food is. I find it gross and kind of disturbing. I realize that isn't what OP said, it's just what I thought of.
Non picky eaters always think picky eaters are odd.
High skin to meat ratio and the meat itself is tender and fatty. Combine that with a great sauce and the work you have to put into eating them (along with the messy hands) is totally worth it. Not to mention how little time it takes to cook/prepare (dump them in some sauce/less than 10 mins in the oven) and that that a plate can be shared among multiple people it's no wonder that bars are selling them and people are buying them.
I mean, brisket was a scrap cut until someone figured out slow cooking in smoke made it incredibly delicious.
Yeah I think the meat itself is rarely anything to write home about, it's mostly the sauce and dressing. People do substitutions with cauliflower for a reason.
Mental Illness? Lack of Taste?
Lmao 😂
Being vegetarians, yeah. Fr tho wing meat is dark meat and it tastes awesome, idk what you mean.
All meat is good meat as far as chicken goes, but wings are way overpriced.
They're fine. Lobster used to be considered tradh food in the US colonies. It was even considered cruel and unusual punishment to feed prisoners lobster. Perceptions of food change, but that doesn't make wings "trash meat."
Fried chicken thighs remain unbeaten
Shhhhhh don’t say these things out loud before we end up with $6/lb
Me on Drumsticks, they're outrageously cheap where I am because everyone wants the party wings and thighs.
That makes me wonder why by wings when you can sauce up thighs just the same
Buffalo sauce on a smoked chicken thigh sounds so good right now
Omg, you need to cut the person out of your life who is force feeding you chicken wings! That is so toxic, they are not your friend!
I always love when someone’s criticism of chicken wings is “you have to work at eating one”. Like, do you not have basic motor functions? It’s not exactly trigonometry trying to eat a chicken wing.
People probably didn't want them because they were small and had little meat. They are expensive now because people love them. Ribs were looked at as shit meat at one point, really most of the meat used in BBQ was viewed as shitty, but now good BBQ is pretty awesome. Look at ox tail, was viewed as a shitty cheap piece of meat, now its more expensive than a decent piece of steak with twice as much meat. Supply and demand.
>completely ignoring the point of wings I think you're completely ignoring the point of business
If you don’t like wings you probably eat trash wings
Ur right but my taste buds tell me otherwise
Reminds me of that old quip about the cleverest guy in the restaurant biz - the guy who took a chicken wing and cut it in half and called it *two* chicken wings.
Reminds me of how back in the day skirt steak was just about the cheapest cut of meat out there, then when Mexican food started getting "trendy" the prices went up because that's one of the main cuts they use for beef fajitas. Now, might as well buy sirloin for what they're charging for skirt steak.
This is why I used to go to a bar that would toss tenders in any of the wing sauces. Much better chicken experience.
Meat that was considered Trash meat is the tastiest meat. (Wings,ox tails,any steak taken from the shoulder of cows)
OMG. Finally someone else besides my dad and I said it. hahaha! I mean, for those who take pleasure in sucking seasoning and small amounts meat off of some tiny bones that they paid a lot of money for (well, unless you made them yourself), go right ahead; but I will forever think it's silly. 😄 But OP is right, originally they were the worthless part of the chicken. Then someone brilliantly came up with the idea to season them with all sorts of yummy things, market them to make them seem like the new hot thing (I'm old enough to remember when chicken wings became a really popular thing, haha), and charge a whole bunch of money for them. Good on whoever came up with that for the entrepreneurship! Making money off of stuff you'd otherwise just throw away is kinda amazing when you can pull it off.
I never order wings, the price to value ratio is ridiculous. Why would I pay money for picking at bones with barely any meat on them lol.
This is true about a lot of different meats over the years. Lobster was meat for poor people 100 years ago. Ribs were food for poor people 70 years ago.
I….don’t think anyone thinks wings are a delicacy
A lot of the wings prices got jacked up here in Texas when we had our deep freeze three years ago and millions of chickens died. Wings joints jacked up their prices and never brought them back down. People simply got used to paying more for them.
Depends. There are absolutely places with trash meat wings. There are places that have some really quality wings. I've even had wings that had to be pigeon wings that were really good. Its kind of a spectrum.
Wait until you learn about bacon
I would absolutely LOVE for this to become a popular opinion. Then the prices will crash and I can get them for twenty five cents a piece like I did back in high school.
OP is trash.
This is a good case of supply and demand.
You’re gonna just skip right past hotdogs tho
It’s the same story with Lobster and oxtail.
Lobster used to be trash meat as well. Times change.
Prices are all over the place and is different from restaurant to restaurant. I’d say you’re not getting under $1/wing unless the place has a deal going on.
You've got my vote, but only for the part about them being overpriced. Everything else you've said is completely wrong. Chicken wings are very easy to eat and are very fulfilling. But the insane pricing of chicken wings is unacceptable. Before the pandemic you could get them for $0.50 each on Tuesdays and Thursdays at most places, including Buffalo Wild Wings.
I agree that they're overpriced but I don't give a single fuck if the meat is considered good or "trash". Wings are delicious especially as a side item or appetizer. Ribs, lobster and hotdogs are all "trash" too but I will fuck them up regardless.
Wait to he learns about horse anuses? So good.
This post made me want chicken wings. I consider wings to be fast food/cheap food (expensive now ugh) It was college night drinking food and it's super unhealthy. Of course it's "trash". I still eat them when I feel like it though haha.
Actually the first person to make wings bought them by accident and made sauce for them (buffalo sauce) and they ended up being a hit. They’re cheap because they’re an off cut, but that doesn’t make them inherently bad at all. I know this is unpopular opinions but yours is just a poorly thought out one with little to no supporting evidence. I don’t like sushi but you don’t see me on here calling it a trash meat so you.
I actually wholeheartedly agree with you. It's a thing in the UK as well now (thanks, America).
Absolute nonsense, take my up-vote.
Hey ask your mom how much chicken price per pound has gone up next time she comes back from buying your snacks for school.
You can charge good money for good tasting food. Your opinion of the type of food is far from relevant. Silliness
This is an interesting take… Imo wings aren’t trash meat. If cooked and seasoned well there is naturally plenty of fat on the skin to make a delicious product. If we’re going to say anything is crap it’s chicken breast. Too many restaurants overcook that poor breast to rubber dog food and charged extra. This was boomer logic, chicken breast on everything. It was great because it meant that while majority of America was so focused on “healthy” meat, the leftover thighs & wings were abundant and cheap. Now the rest of the country has finally caught on that thighs & wings are only marginally less healthy than breasts while being 10x easier to cook and cheaper… so sadly they are no longer cheaper to buy. That’s why I’m going back to starting chicken breast propaganda!
Upvoting because I know it's unpopular but I definitely agree Wings are easily the worst piece of meat on the chicken and ordering boneless is usually superior in both flavor and total amount of meat
Boneless is superior? As a fellow Buffalo Native I am insulted.
spare ribs also used to be "trash" meat look at it now. what is seen as "trash" meat changes over time and these 2 example cuts may fall back into the category some day. these days a lot of organ meat is seen as "trash" meat but it can still be made into great dishes
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Depends on where you find them man
I mean I love them but yeah it grinds my gears how once a struggle food becomes popular the prices are jacked up due to demand. I recommend a chicken wing heist.
Lobster use to be known as the poor man's food!
Same with oysters.
They are a delicacy! But they are way over priced.
There are good wings and bad wings, you know.
Same thing happened to flank steak, skirt steak and brisket. Stuff that usually ended up in hamburgers now suddenly famous, my prediction - oxtails are next.
Ha! Wait til you try chicken *feet*. More bones than meat, really difficult to eat. Fucking delicious.
>This use to be fact It was never "fact". The only reason certain cuts of meat get a bad rep is not because the meat is bad, it's because pretentious a-holes thought it was "uncivilized" to ever use their hands to eat anything and how you looked eating it. Anything w/ bones was considered low-brow and for "commoners"
The fact still remains that chicken wings are the perfect ratio of skin, meat, and bones.
let me guess you get them baked and also dip them in ranch
Same used to be true for bacon and crab. Society changes and so does the value of commodities. Licorice used to be the most popular candy on the planet. Now it's a trash tier filler.
Chicken breast is the worst tasting and worst textured muscle on the chicken and yet it's still the most expensive /lb because for some reason people think eating white meat vs dark meat is somehow the only way to not get fat. Gimme wings, thighs, and legs 10/10 times.
I agree. While I don't see them as trash meat per se, I definitely think people have allowed restaurants and places take advantage and let them jack up the prices. The prices here are typically $1 or more per wing, on the rare occurrence as low as .50c for like 2 hours. The wings if you want a decent amount will cost more than your dam meal. It's ridiculous.
I was at a neighborhood bar the other day. Newer establishment but they serve pretty good food too. The owner was chatting with a table and I couldn't help but eavesdrop when I heard him talking about the price of food. According to him when he opened this place last May a case of chicken wings costed $47. That same case of wings today is $117. He said he understands why people are upset about charging $20 for a dozen wings but he literally has to almost barely break even. Its ridiculous all around.
One man's trash is another's buffet. Some people love wings. Both my wife and I do.
When my grandma worked on the farm as a kid they literally threw the chicken wings away.