Serving chicken wings and curious to know how much to buy? This handy guide will tell you how many chicken wings in a pound so you’ll always have enough!
As a rule of thumb, the average raw chicken wing is about 3.5 ounces, meaning there are 4-5 full chicken wings in a pound. If you are serving boneless wings, there are about 10-12 in a pound.
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How many chicken wings do I need?
I love hosting. Whether it’s a small group of friends enjoying Super Bowl Sunday or a large group of family celebrating Thanksgiving, I will always volunteer my home for the occasion.
It’s great having a place where loved ones can gather and enjoy great food and great company. In my years of hosting, one thing I am always nervous about is having enough food to feed all of my guests.
Nothing is worse than not having enough food to feed everyone at the party. At the same time, I don’t want food to go to waste if it is not eaten.
Making sure you have just the right amount of food takes careful planning and thinking about what kind of food you want to serve. I like to serve foods that come in small portion sizes but are still filling. For me, chicken wings check both of those boxes.
Buffalo wings work great as a main appetizer because they come in small portion sizes. Making it easy to prepare in different ways with a variety of sauces. They are great with hot sauce, buffalo sauce, BBQ sauce, or any other of your favorite sauces.
Before hitting the grocery store for some wings, it is important to figure out how much you will need to buy. This guide will help you decide how much food you will need for the number of people you are serving.
After you buy them, check out these amazing chicken wing recipes. My favorite are these crispy wings with pepper jelly!
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How many chicken wings are a pound?
The average raw wing weighs approximately 3.5 ounces. So, on average, there are about 4-5 whole wings in a pound of uncooked chicken wings.
The number of wings can vary depending on wing size, how much meat is on the bone, and different size of the birds. Some wings are smaller, and some are larger, so the number of chicken wings can vary slightly.
There are also different parts of the wings you should be aware of. Only two parts of the wings are worth eating: the drumettes and flat wings.
Parts of a Chicken Wing
The drumettes have one long bone running down and are very meaty. A drumette typically weighs a bit more than flat wings.
The flat wings are the flat middle part where there are two bones. This meat is more tender than drumettes. Flat wings weigh less than drumettes.
In most cases, there is an even mix of drumettes and flats in a serving of chicken wings. Because chicken wings are most often served with an equal mix of drumettes and flats, the difference in weight evens out.
If there is an instance where you are serving only drumettes or only flat wings, then the answer to how many chicken wings are in a pound will be a bit different. An uncooked drumette is about 2-4 ounces, and an uncooked flat wing is about 1.5-2 ounces.
The wing tip is the final part of the wing that is usually discarded. It is mostly skin, bone, and cartilage and therefore not worth eating. If you are buying wings at the grocery store, the tips are probably already removed. If they are not, you can save these in a bag to make chicken broth.
Cooked vs Raw Chicken Wing Weight
Another factor to be aware of is the shrinkage that comes from cooking the wings. Like I mentioned earlier, uncooked wings will be about 3.5 ounces. Cooked chicken meat will weigh less.
Like other meats, chicken meat will lose about 25% of its original weight. Since you will most likely be buying the chicken wings when they are still raw, I recommend only focusing on the weight of the raw chicken wings to decide how much you will need to buy.
How many boneless chicken wings in a pound?
Boneless wings are an increasingly popular type of wing. Actually, a boneless chicken wing is not actually a chicken wing at all!
Boneless wings are made of chicken breast meat that is cut and breaded. It is closer to a chicken nugget than a chicken wing. We call it a wing still because it is cut to look like a chicken wing.
If you are planning to serve boneless chicken wings, the number of wings in a pound will be slightly different than traditional wings. Without the added weight from the bone, boneless wings weigh less overall. Because of this smaller size, there are about 10-12 boneless chicken wings in a pound.
How many pounds is 6 wings?
Since each chicken wing is about 3.5 ounces, 6 wings would be about 1.3 pounds when uncooked.
If you are serving boneless wings, 6 wings will be closer to 1 pound uncooked.
Again, wings can vary in weight depending on the ounces of meat on each wing, the size of the chicken wing, and which wing pieces are included.
Since weight can vary so much, many times, the weight is printed on the packaging of both fresh chicken wings and frozen chicken wings.
Using 3.5 ounces per wing as a general rule is a great place to start, but I would recommend consulting the weight on the packaging for a more accurate weight for the specific type of wings you are purchasing.
How many pounds are in 10 wings?
When you buy wings at the grocery store, they can come in bulk bags. A 10-pound bag is a very common size to sell frozen chicken wings.
Frozen chicken wings are usually already cooked, but you don’t need to factor in the weight loss that comes with cooking the wings because frozen wings will still lose weight when they are cooked.
The water and sometimes other preservatives used in frozen chicken wings are lost in the reheating process, meaning the wings will still end up losing about 25% of their weight when frozen.
How many chicken wings to serve per person?
How many chicken wings to serve per person depends on if you plan to serve them as the main dish or as side dishes.
If you are serving chicken wings as the main course, I like to buy one pound of uncooked chicken wings per person. This portion would come out to about 4-5 wings a person. If I am serving wings as an appetizer or a side dish, I am for about ½ a pound per person, or 2-3 wings.
This portion size should satisfy the average person, but if you want to be extra prepared, I recommend adding in an extra pound for those with more than average appetites. You can always save the extra wings as leftovers.
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I hope this guide helps next time you are faced with the daunting task of buying chicken wings at the grocery store. These tips will definitely help you love hosting more and take the stress away! With this guide, I am certain you will be able to nail the right serving size each and every time.
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