Wait — boneless wings are cheaper than the real thing?

They're ubiquitous these days at casual restaurants of all stripes: so-called boneless chicken wings. They've popped up on menus at Wendy's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili's and countless other fast-food and casual sit-down restaurants. The name is kind of a misnomer, as anyone who's ever popped one of these bites knows; they're more like grown-up chicken nuggets, a battered or breaded chunk of breast meat tossed in sauce.

While wing die-hards may stick up their noses, the boneless variety do have a few advantages; namely, you can eat them with a fork and they don't require a trip to the restroom afterward to check for Braveheart-style smears of sauce across your face. But we're not here today to debate the merits of tradition vs. boneless wings (although if you'd like to, by all means have at it in the comments section). Rather, we're going to explore the weird quirks of chickonomics that make these newfangled wings considerably cheaper to produce than the real thing.