Here's How Many Chicken Wings You Need For Your 2024 Super Bowl Party
With Super Bowl LVIII right around the corner, it's time to start prepping for your Super Bowl party. That means buying a new pack of plastic tablecloths, making a big batch of your favorite cocktail, and working on your game day menu. A traditional Super Bowl spread should include all the indulgent snacks and appetizers you can think of, like nachos, jalapeño poppers, and of course, chicken wings. During the 2023 Super Bowl Americans ate about 1.45 billion wings (per The Hill), and there's no reason even more won't be eaten this year.
And, it's good hosting etiquette to ensure you have enough chicken wings on hand to keep everyone happy. It can be a bit tricky to guess how many wings you'll need for your party, especially if you're throwing a big shindig, but a bit of math will help you get a solid estimate.
On a normal day, a serving of cooked chicken wings is about a pound, or at least six full bone-in wings. If you're serving flats you'll need around 10-12, and drumettes number around 6-8 in a pound, but, we'll stick to at six full bone-in wings to be safe. And, the Super Bowl is a special occasion — it's all about going big, and it can be an all-day event so we can bump that to two pounds, or 12 wings per person. Then just multiply your expected number of partygoers by 12, and that's the minimum amount of wings you need.
Enough wings for everyone to have at least eight
Planning on at least 12 wings per person will give enough of a buffer zone to balance between guests who get full from other food, those who don't like chicken wings, and those who like them a lot. Of course, if your friend group is known to chow down, or if there won't be a lot of other food options you should probably get an extra dozen or so wings. Remember that 12 is the number of whole wings; each person could also get 20 flats and 12-16 drumettes. Always err on the side of caution when deciding how many wings to get. It's better to have too many wings than too few, and you'll have up to four days to finish any leftovers.
Depending on where you do your grocery shopping, you can expect to pay a bit under $4 per pound of whole chicken wings. So, if you're making the chicken wings yourself, they'll cost a little less than $8 a party guest. For $100, which is less than a catering platter from some wing restaurants, you could make enough chicken wings to feed 12 people with plenty left over. You can save some money by making homemade buffalo sauce, too.