WASHINGTON - As Americans plan their menus for Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5, few items will be more prominent on viewers?? plates than America??s favorite appetizer - chicken wings. Super Bowl weekend is unquestionably the biggest time of the year for wings. More than 1.25 billion wing portions will be consumed during Super Bowl weekend in 2012, totaling more than 100 million pounds of wings, according to the National Chicken Council's (NCC) 2012 Wing Report.

Some 23% of those who watch the big game will eat chicken wings, up slightly in popularity from last year, and second only to dips and spreads (32%) on Super Bowl menus, according to the third annual Supervalu Snack Down Survey by Harris Interactive.

NCC Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Bill Roenigk said that chicken wings would be consumed by three times the number of Americans on Super Bowl Sunday than a typical Sunday throughout the year. About half will be ordered from restaurants and half purchased from retail grocery stores.

"Foodservice and retail grocery stores should really be commended for helping chicken companies take a small part of the chicken and make it such a big part of Super Bowl Sunday," he said. "Whether the wings are mildly-spiced, medium-spiced or super-hot, restaurants and grocery stores have made wings a bigger part of menus throughout the year."

Overall, chicken tops the menu on Super Bowl Sunday. The NPD Group found that chicken dishes are seven times more popular than wings on Super Bowl Sunday. "Chicken is a very popular dish overall on that day?? and it's not just wings," said Harry Balzer, chief food and beverage industry analyst and vice president of The NPD Group.