Experiencing The National Chicken Wing Festival

A staple in bars and restaurants across the country, in terms of food history, fried chicken wings are a fairly new dish. Developed in upstate New York in the mid-20th century, wings have evolved from being tossed in hot sauce to having coatings ranging from BBQ, bourbon, Asian sauces, and lemon pepper. People will even argue over whether a chicken wing should be breaded or naked.

But there’s no need to choose when you attend the biggest wing festival in the US, The National Chicken Wing Festival. Held in the birth place of chicken wings, the festival welcomes restaurants, chefs, and chicken wing lovers from around the world to sample and celebrate the Buffalo wing.

The history of wings.

While fried chicken has been a staple in the United States since the 1800s, Buffalo wings didn’t come into existence until 1964. That’s when the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York created the dish of fried chicken wings in hot sauce and served with blue cheese and celery on their menu. At the time the wings of the chicken were primarily used for stock or were discarded. But the Anchor Bar’s dish was a success. After word about the dish began to spread, chicken wings became popular across the country.

Less than 60 years later, Buffalo wings are one of the most popular dishes in the US. So popular that the National Chicken Council estimated that 1.42 billion chicken wings were eaten on Super Bowl Sunday. That’s a 2% increase over the previous year, showing that the love of chicken wings is only increasing.

A big wing festival.

Known as the Chicken Wing Capital of the World, Buffalo is, of course, home to The National Chicken Wing Festival. Founded in 2002, thanks to inspiration from the Bill Murray movie Osmosis Jones, the festival not only has wing eating contests, a baby costume parade, and sauce competitions, but also helps raise money for local charities. Attendees have come from across all 50 states and around the world. Over 5 million wings have been consumed over the past 20 years at The National Chicken Wing Festival and there’s even been a wedding on site.

Get on Team Pitco.

It doesn’t matter if you’re team drum or team flat – no matter what type of chicken wings you’re frying, Pitco can help. An official fryer sponsor of the National Chicken Wing Festival for the past six years, we know what it takes to fry the perfect buffalo wing. With fryers that can cook any quantity of wings needed, built-in oil filtration, and reduce oil volume, Pitco has what your commercial kitchen needs to serve customers the crispiest fried wings.

Get advice from your local expert to get your fried wing program started today.