Buffalo wing
A deep-fried chicken wing coated in a buttery cayenne-pepper sauce, traditionally served with celery and blue cheese dressing.
Anchor Bar: A restaurant in Buffalo, New York, known as the birthplace of Buffalo wings. Teressa Bellissimo is widely credited with serving the first Buffalo wings here in 1964.
Chicken wing: The wing section of a chicken, commonly divided into drumettes and flats for cooking. Buffalo wings use these sections, usually separated before frying.
Celery: A crisp vegetable with edible stalks, commonly eaten raw or cooked. Its cool crunch traditionally accompanies the spicy, rich wings.
Super Bowl: The annual championship game of the National Football League. Buffalo wings became a particularly prominent food for Super Bowl gatherings.
Teressa Bellissimo: The co-owner of Buffalo's Anchor Bar, widely credited with creating Buffalo wings. The familiar origin story says she devised the dish for her son and his friends.
Deep frying: A cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat or oil. Frying produces the crisp exterior beneath the Buffalo sauce.
Blue cheese dressing: A creamy dressing made with blue cheese, typically mixed with a dairy base and seasonings. Its tangy richness is the classic cooling dip served alongside Buffalo wings.
Bar food: Food commonly served in bars, often designed for sharing or eating alongside drinks. Buffalo wings helped define the spicy, shareable American bar-food menu.
John Young: A Buffalo restaurateur who served chicken wings with a spicy tomato-based sauce before Buffalo wings became famous. His earlier wing business complicates the claim that Anchor Bar alone originated the dish.
Cayenne pepper: A hot red chili pepper commonly dried and ground into a spice. Its heat is the defining pungent component of traditional Buffalo sauce.