Name a sporting event from NASCAR to the Super Bowl to your four-year-old daughter’s soccer match, and chances are the official chow of choice to accompany the watching of said event will be buffalo wings. Believe it or not, this culinary delicacy that involves deep frying the chicken wing (either the flapper or the drumette) without breading, then coating it with a secret, spicy sauce and serving with a side of dressing (typically blue cheese) hasn’t been around all that long. In fact, according to some account, buffalo wings were invented just in time for the very first Super Bowl.
As the story goes Teressa Bellissimo, proprietor of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, invented the dish quite by accident in 1964. The family business used chicken necks as an integral part of its spaghetti recipe, but on that particular day, the delivery man left wings instead of necks. Chicken wings, in 1964, were considered the least desirable part of the chicken and were often simply discarded. But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? Teressa’s husband, Frank, being a frugal guy, asked Teressa to use the wings to make a bar snack. Waste not, want not.
Teressa cut the wings into two pieces, the drumette and the flapper, deep fried them without breading and served ‘em up with hot sauce, celery and the house blue cheese dressing. They were an instant hit. By the time the Packers faced off against the Chiefs in the January 1967, the word was beginning to spread about this tasty treat. Today, who can imagine watching the big game, or even the small game, with a side of buffalo wings?