Americans' Super Bowl Wing Preferences, Broken Down By State
The Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest day of the year for football. It’s basically a national food holiday as Americans indulge in chicken wings, delicious dips and more.
And it turns out people’s preferred game day fare tends to vary depending on where they live. In advance of the big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, the folks at Google shared the most uniquely searched wing flavors and styles in every state.
Although the Buffalo Bills’ Super Bowl dreams were again sadly dashed, the city’s namesake chicken wings reign supreme. Buffalo wings dominated in six different states, with Buffalo cauliflower wings winning in an additional one.
“Air fried wings” also claimed the title in six different states, with “smoked wings” dominating in four and “garlic parmesan wings” in three. In the Super Bowl’s host state of Louisiana, the most uniquely searched chicken wing type was “mango habanero.”
Google’s data is based on searches for chicken wing flavors and styles that showed a higher volume in a given state ahead of the Super Bowl compared to the country as a whole. Specifically, it reflects searches with the term “Super Bowl” between Jan. 21 and Jan. 28.
“Super Bowl parties are so well known for the food that’s served,” Jenny Lee, Google Trends’ lead analyst, told HuffPost. “I love to see what people are thinking about making for the biggest day in football. While some people are focused on the game and which teams are playing, there are always people more excited about the buffalo chicken dip ― like I am.”
To that end, Lee and her colleagues also took a look at Americans’ game day dip preferences in each state. Again, Buffalo chicken was the winning recipe in the highest number of states, as well as in the U.S. as a whole.
“I thought it was interesting that Philly cheesesteak dip was the uniquely searched dip in California and not in Pennsylvania,” Lee said. “The other thing that surprised me was the cranberry jalapeño dip that was the uniquely searched dip for Texas. It’s an interesting combination that I’d never thought of making for myself, even though I do like spicy foods.”
The Google Trends team also shared the top-searched Super Bowl appetizers in the U.S. overall: Philly cheesesteak sliders, Hawaiian roll sliders, pigs in a blanket, cowboy caviar and potato skin. They dove into the most popular Super Bowl cocktail recipes as well ― the top five being jungle juice, old fashioneds, margaritas, espresso martinis and the New Orleans specialty, the Sazerac.
“I hope people get inspired to try something new this year,” Lee said. “The uniquely searched by state maps give a good glimpse into different trends across the U.S., so you can either lean into what your state is searching for or break the mold with a recipe from across the country.”
