Boneless wings aren't wings at all, they're just 'oversized nuggets' — but restaurants love them because they're cheaper and easier to produce

• Boneless wings aren't actually wings at all. Instead, they're made from breaded chicken breast.
• They're more like "oversized nuggets," one wing-shop owner told BI.
• Breast meat is more abundant than wings, making it cheaper. Boneless wings are also less messy to eat.

Some chicken-wing shops offer customers a choice of what cut of the bird to get: bone-in or boneless wings.

But International Wing Factory in New York City doesn't describe them as boneless wings, preferring to simply call them boneless chicken.

"I always wrote 'boneless' on my menu because being a chef, I know there is nothing called boneless wings," owner Deepak Ballaney told Business Insider. For a de-boned wing, customers would have to pay $6 or $7 a wing to cover the labor involved, he said.