TORONTO -- A Nebraska man has made an impassioned plea to his city council for the public and restaurants to stop using the phrase "boneless chicken wings鈥� and rename the popular finger food.
Lincoln, Neb. resident Ander Christensen on Sunday, asking the city to do away with the term "from our menus and from our hearts" in place of something more accurate, such as "buffalo-style chicken tenders," or "saucy nugs."
Recorded on the city council's livestream, Christensen begins his appeal during the public comments portion of the meeting with a proposal for Lincoln council members to take the lead in this chicken dilemma.
"Lincoln has the opportunity to be a social leader in this county. We have been casually ignoring a problem that has gotten so out of control that our children are throwing around names and words without even understanding their true meaning," Christensen said.
Despite some laughs from the audience, Christensen implores them to take him seriously.
He goes on to say that families dining at restaurants in the city are throwing around the phase "boneless chicken wings" and "pretending as though everything is just fine."
However, Christensen says, he is not OK with this.
He explains that boneless chicken wings don't actually come from the wing of a chicken, adding that the finger food is not even remotely similar to bone-in chicken wings. "We would be disgusted if a butcher was mislabeling their cuts of meats, but then we go around pretending as though the breast of a chicken is its wing," Christensen said.
He added that boneless chicken wings are "just chicken tenders, which are already boneless." Boneless chicken wings are typically made by deep-frying slices of chicken breast however, chicken tenders are narrow strips of meat attached to the underside of the breast.
"I don't go to order boneless tacos. I don't go and order boneless club sandwiches," he said. "It's just what's expected."
Christensen also suggested that mislabelling the chicken product may be leading the next generation astray.
"We need to raise our children better. They are raised being afraid of having bones attached to their meat. That's where meat comes from -- it grows on bones. We need to teach them that a wing of a chicken is from a chicken, and it鈥檚 delicious," Christensen said.
Following the widespread attention his plea garnered online, Christensen's father, who is a member of Lincoln's city council, that the chicken wing dilemma has officially been taken under advisement.
While Christensen is not a fan of the finger food, he said he does not want to be rid of boneless chicken wings, only rename them.
Christensen suggested "wet tenders" or even just "trash" as possible, more accurate alternatives.
"We can take these steps and show the country that's where we stand and that we understand that we've been living a lie for far too long, and we know it, because we feel it in our bones," he concluded.
