Why Do Some People Despise Breaded Chicken Wings?

Food and drink is usually a big theme in the multimillion-dollar advertising blitz that accompanies the Super Bowl. This year was no different, with television commercials ranging from aliens eating guacamole to an anthropomorphic beer-tap handle dispensing insults. But maybe the most memorable food-themed message of the night came not from a brewer, restaurant chain or snack-food manufacturer but rather from online retail giant Amazon.

In a celebrity-packed ad for the company's new Amazon Echo product, National Football League Hall of Famer Dan Marino surveys an impressive spread of snacks at actor Alec Baldwin's game-day party and issues this damning critique: "Breaded wings? You're blowin' it, bro." (Watch the full ad below.)

Why so snooty about the free snacks? The snippy comment reflects a common sentiment among chicken-wing traditionalists. These people tend to be sticklers for the original Buffalo-style recipe, which is widely credited as having been created by Teresa Bellissimo, owner of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, back in 1964. Bellissimo's wings were deep-fried but unbreaded and then slathered with butter and hot sauce. But while Anchor Bar has proudly embraced this tradition ("Home of the Original Chicken Wing") and parlayed its fried-poultry fame into multiple locations, the business itself isn't entirely anti-breading. According to its menu, the restaurant also serves a boneless version of its world-famous staple that is, in fact, breaded.

Another major player on the national chicken-wings scene, Hooters, is equally agnostic on the issue. The cheeky restaurant chain, which reportedly sells about 2 million wings on Super Bowl Sunday across more than 300 locations, calls for breading in its original Hooters-style recipe. Heck, it even sells its own brand of breading kits.

But here's a pro tip: You can order unbreaded wings at Hooters, too. Just ask the staff to make them "naked."