During the Super Bowl a billion or so chicken wings are sold what happens to the rest of the chicken parts?

I suppose they get sold as chicken breasts and drumsticks. Nothing profitable gets wasted.

Thinking of things I see at the grocery store, there’s chicken broth, legs, breasts, thighs, gizzards, livers, and necks. Chicken feet at that Vietnamese grocery.

Chicken flavored bullion and soups and pet food. Chicken sausage.

Also, pretty much all the soft parts can be turned into “mechanically separated meat” which goes into chicken hot dogs, lunch meat, and chicken “nuggets” (not McDonalds’).

It’s as nutritional as whole chicken parts, but, kuje sausage in general, you wouldn’t want to watch it made.

@Love_my_doggie Is their that much of demand for scrap parts. Maybe as soup stock in a factory.

@jaytkay Thanks . That makes sence.

I always wondered what part of the chicken is the nugget!

Believe it or not, when I was a kid, I always got the wings from the chicken because no one else wanted them. If I hadn’t eaten them, they probably would have been fed to the cats, like the neck and back.

When I worked in a factory making canned chicken spread, everything came in in measurable parts. Frozen cooked chicken skins. Chicken fat. Cubed chicken meat. Etc. That’s how the ingredients panels are exact instead of an approximation.

Now, I know you love KFC, @RedDeerGuy1. Those are not identifiable chicken parts. How can you ask, “What happens to the rest of the chicken?” YOU eat it! lol

As others have said, any remaining by-products such as bones, heads, feet, etc. are made into “animal by-products” that can be in anything from animal food to fertilizer.

Keep wondering, @Yetanotheruser.
These imitate chicken better than McDonald’s. Seriously.

McDonalds McNuggets are white meat chicken. I should have elaborated why I mentioned them before.

Chicken McNuggets are a type of chicken product offered by international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s. They consist of small pieces of processed chicken meat that have been battered and deep fried.

Processed chicken meat.

McDonald’s uses Chicken — white meat chicken.
The chicken, which is cut from the tenderloin, breast and rib, gets ground with a bit of chicken skin and a marinade for flavor and to act as a binder.

@ibstubro

Thanks for the photo of that lovely goo.

It is eerily reminiscent of the infamous “Pink Slime” to which it has more than just a passing resemblance.

On a road trip a few years ago, I was so hungry and pressed for time that I allowed myself to get suckered in to McD’s allure of cheap and fast chicken. I couldn’t even finish the measly portion of four that’s how bad they were. Two and a half were enough to take the edge off my hunger enough for me to wait for decent food at the end of my trip.

But regarding the original Q. :

What all this obsession with the white meat of the chicken has done is to make it so much easier on the budget and wallets of those of us who enjoy the dark meat.

For me, the best and most flavorful part of the chicken is the thigh. Delicious. And usually cheap as dirt all the time.

Ask any chef what is the most flavorful chicken meat and they usually answer the dark meat.

And for those obsessed about fat, it’s easy enough to just remove the skin from a thigh piece and what’s left is almost as healthy as those dry cardboard chicken breasts.

But as long as people keep insisting on prizing those boneless skinless breasts so highly, it just means bargain prices on chicken thighs for the rest of us. I don’t mind a bit :)

I don’t eat meat, @Buttonstc, and last year I was accidentally given a 20 piece Chicken McNuggets in the drive thru. I generously donated them to a friend, McDonald’s now using “white meat” and all. I was shocked that they were not breaded pieces of chicken breast! Morningstar Farms does a better imitation with wheat gluten.

I’m increasingly noticing boneless thighs. I would use them in a heartbeat, if I ate meat, as they are much more flavorful. Gross as it sounds, most of the flavor in meat seems to be in the blood.

In short, @RedDeerGuy1, rest assured that nearly none of the chicken is wasted.