Wing Country

a wordflat

also: wingette · flats · wing flat · second segment wing portion · mid-section

'Flats or drums?' — and most places cannot answer it.

flatthe adjective flat, turned into a noun for the piece it describes; the competing name wingette is wing + -ette, the same diminutive that built drumett

Middle segment, two bones with a gap between them, and more skin per bite than any other piece of a chicken. Flat because it is — it lies down in the fryer basket and comes out on one plane. Two per bird.

Root. the adjective flat, turned into a noun for the piece it describes; the competing name wingette is wing + -ette, the same diminutive that built drumette
Two words, one piece. The National Chicken Council calls it "the mid-section or 'flat'"; Wikipedia's poultry article gives it as "the 'wingette' (also called the 'flat')". USDA's grading captions use neither, labelling it 'Grade A Second Segment Wing Portion (Wing Flat)'. Inference — wingette reads as packer's English and flat as counter English, and the counter is winning. Cited · web-ncc-wings-hot-topic

How it is done Tradition

Twist out the smaller bone, then pull the larger one, and the meat comes free in a strip; people who order all flats are usually doing that. More surface means more crust and more sauce clinging, which is the case its partisans make against the drumette.

The particulars

part of speechnoun
regionThe United States
confidencehigh · needs verification · updated 2026-09-16

Who it runs with

wordsdrumetteThe other half of the split, and the side of the argument this one is against.and of this page it says: The other piece off the same joint, and the one people compare it against.wordswingOne of the two pieces a menu means when it says wing.and of this page it says: The middle piece, two bones and the most skin.wordsall flatsThe order that asks for nothing but these.and of this page it says: The piece the order is asking for, and why.wordswing tipAttached to this piece until somebody cuts it off; a few kitchens leave it on.and of this page it says: What it is attached to, and what it gets cut away from.storiesThe flat and the drumThe argument this word is the other half of.and of this page it says: The two-boned middle piece, the one federal regulation refuses to name.the kitchenthe wing cutWhere the second cut goes, and why this piece keeps two bones.and of this page it says: The middle piece, two bones and the most skin, which is the argument's other side.wordsparty wingBagged with the drumettes and sold as one product.and of this page it says: The other half, in about equal number.

Who talks about it

words · on this pageflapperThe piece it hangs off until the first cut.stories · on this pageBoneless is not a wingOne of the two pieces a bone-in order actually contains, and the reason the count works differently.

Where we got it

Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.

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