Super Bowl & chicken wings: An American love affair

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Chicken wings and football are the perfect pairing. Like Batman & Robin. Laverne & Shirley. Hall & Oates. Simon & Garfunkel. Tom & Jerry.

You get the point.

According to the National Chicken Council, Super Bowl Sunday is the second-biggest eating day of the year, behind Thanksgiving.

Wichita restaurants and caterers prepare for the Super Bowl

KSN’s Jason Lamb set out to find a few of Wichita’s best spots for Super Bowl Sunday chicken wings.

“Here we got our Chipotle Maple sauce. We’ve got our Buffalo. Tastes different than any Buffalo in Wichita, and here’s our award-winning Korean BBQ,” says Kayson Chong as he presents three fresh baskets of Jumbo’s Beef & Brew’s chicken wings.

Chicken wings and the Super Bowl. It’s an American love affair. Born in Buffalo and perfected in Wichita at places like Jumbo’s on North Woodlawn.

“Here, we bred ours. We’ve got a nice little spice mix that we bred. We fry them, and we hold them, and we cook to perfection at the end,” said Chong, the owner of Jumbo’s. “Yeah, so it’s nice, juicy, crispy on the outside no matter what kind of sauce you put on it.”

Chong adds Jumbo’s chicken wings are about a third bigger than most other wings in Wichita.

Although he wouldn’t disclose a number, Chong says Jumbo’s sells a “decent” amount of wings on a normal basis, but he expects the fryers to be busier than usual on Super Bowl Sunday.

“I feel like we probably will sell double,” he said.

Across town, at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux on Maize Road, planning for the Big Game started two weeks ago.

“Once we got the Chiefs into the Super Bowl, then we had to ramp up our plans getting ready to sell a lot more wings and a lot more beer. Having a lot more people to watch the game,” said General Manager Kirk Keling.

Keling says on a normal Sunday, Walk-On’s sells around 500 wings.

“This weekend, we’re planning on somewhere around 1,200 to 1,400 with our promotions we have going on where you can do takeout with Uber. For every $50 you buy, you get $10 free,” said Keling. “So, a great opportunity to buy some wings and get some other appetizers to go for the party as well.”

Walk-On’s will also have $1 draft beers during the Super Bowl.

“Cold, cold beer and nice, spicy wings. Definitely a good way to spend the day,” said Keling.

Many more Chiefs fans will spend Sunday at Side Pockets Restaurant & Sports Bar on South Tyler, where the general manager says they have loaded up on extra wings.

“Well, we bought 35 cases. And in one case, you can get up to 250 wings,” said Elayna. “Yeah, typically, we go through about 10 to 12 cases a week. But we have 35 geared up for the weekend.”

Do the math, and that amounts to 8,750 chicken wings!

“We’re ready. We are staffed. We’re prepared. Oh yeah. If anybody wants a to-go order, you know, ahead of time, they just need to give us a call. Get it on the list. Walk in, pick up your order, and you can go, or you can stay and have a drink at halftime before and after the show. We are going to have some bigger prize giveaways,” said Elayna.

Buffalo Wild Wings has two Wichita locations. According to their PR team, last year’s Super Bowl was the biggest sales day in the company’s history. Nationwide, Buffalo Wild Wings will sell more than 11 million chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday.

If you choose to cook your own wings, Dillon’s is selling 2.5-pound bags of frozen wings for $5.99. Fresh wings are $3.99 per pound.

Back at Side Pockets, you can buy wings for a buck, dine-in only, on Sunday.

“It’s 10 for $10. You can get 10 boneless for $10. Bone-in for $9.99. You can add fries or tots for 99 cents to that,” said Elayna. “For the to-go ones, it is regular menu pricing, but the more you order, the less it becomes. So, it does get a little cheaper if you order a hundred wings, which some people are doing. We’re also offering drink specials.”

Chiefs fans deal with the price of the Super Bowl

Bottom line, Americans will devour 1.45 billion wings while watching Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs try to capture their fourth Super Bowl title.

“That’s a lot of wings. We’re going to be part of this, yes, and go Chiefs,” says Chong.

Again, according to the Nation Chicken Council, 1.45 billion wings is enough for every man, woman, and child in the United States to eat four wings each. Also, if Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid ate 50 chicken wings every day, it would take him 79,452 years to eat 1.45 billion.

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