Super Bowl parties may be a little smaller this year, but Americans' consumption of chicken wings won't be.
According to the National Chicken Council, which estimates that Americans will eat a record 1.42 billion chicken wings this year, up 2% from last year.
Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, isn't surprised. “If you think about it, restaurants like wing joints and pizza places were built around takeout and delivery, so they didn’t have to change their business model that much during the pandemic. Wings travel well and hold up during delivery conditions. Plus, they align with consumer desire for comfort food during the pandemic.
"Chicken production remained steady in 2020, and as long as people are sitting around watching TV and maybe drinking a beer, wings will remain in the game. Don’t forget the air fryer revolution, either.”
Further, servings of chicken wings in restaurants were up 7% in 2020 compared to 2019, according to the NPD Group/CREST. And according to IRI, total U.S. wing retail and supermarket sales during the pandemic totaled nearly $3 billion, up 10.3% from a year ago, and the in-store frozen wing category is up 37.2%.
The National Chicken Council offers this map of America's favorite Super Bowl snacks broken down by state here. It's unclear what kind of methodology was used in these findings. ;)