Chicken Wings
Food · Protein · Food, Typed Supps
The skin doubles the fat and adds nothing else. That is the whole decision.
Stage by stage
- The skin (The cut): Doubles the fat and changes essentially nothing else on the panel.
- Protein holds (Muscle): Around 28 g per 100 g whether the skin stays or goes.
- Niacin (Circulation): 8.06 mg per 100 g, over half a day’s requirement.
- Frying (Liver): Deep-frying adds a second lot of fat on top — where restaurant wings leave these numbers behind.
Timing
Nothing to time. The decision is made before cooking, and deep-frying overwrites it entirely.
Time to effect
- Immediate: Skin on or off roughly doubles or halves the fat.
- —: Nothing accumulates.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Low-FODMAP, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Halal, Kosher, Keto.
Satiety
129 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — moderate. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
9.9 kg CO2e and 660 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Poultry meat" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Mid — roughly £7 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 267
- Protein: 28.2g
- Fat: 17.2g
- of which saturated: 5.2g
- Sodium: 81mg
Food vs. supplement
Chicken wings are a rare clean experiment: one variable changes, the fat doubles, and nothing else moves. Most food choices trade something for something, and this one does not.
Kitchen tip
High heat, on a rack, skin up. You get crisp skin from the fat rendering out rather than from oil going in.
Common myth
“Leave the skin on — that’s where the nutrients are.” In reality: The nutrients are in the flesh. Skin-on wings carry 17.2 g of fat per 100 g against 7.7 g skin-off, while protein, niacin, selenium and the rest barely move. The skin is fat and flavour. That is a perfectly good reason to eat it, and it is not a nutritional one.
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