Is Calling Boneless Wings 'Wings' False Advertising? Federal Judge Says No

In January 2023, Aimen Halim purchased an order of "boneless wings" at a Buffalo Wild Wings location in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Halim later claimed he assumed the product consisted of deboned chicken wing meat. However, he discovered it was actually made from chicken breast meat.

This revelation led to a federal lawsuit. Two months after his purchase, Halim sued Buffalo Wild Wings, alleging breach of express warranty, common law fraud, and unjust enrichment.

On February 2026, U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. dismissed the lawsuit. While Tharp did not dispute Halim’s confusion about the product’s composition, he ruled that Halim’s complaint lacked legal merit. Tharp stated, "his complaint has no meat on its bones," because "Halim does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are deceived by boneless wings."

Halim argued that he expected "wings that were deboned (i.e., comprised entirely of chicken wing meat)." However, Tharp noted that Halim’s complaint did not explain what such a product would look like or how it would be made. The complaint also failed to clarify when or how Halim learned that Buffalo Wild Wings’ boneless wings are not made from wing meat.

Tharp pointed out several clues that should have alerted Halim to the product’s true nature, including:

• The restaurant’s description of boneless wings as "juicy all-white chicken."
• The fact that boneless wings cost less than "traditional wings," despite Halim’s belief that deboning should increase the price.
• The chain’s "cauliflower wings," which Halim conceded was a fanciful name since cauliflowers do not have wings.

Tharp emphasized that "'boneless wing' is also clearly a fanciful name," because chickens have wings with bones. He added that boneless wings "are not a niche product for which a consumer would need to do extensive research to figure out the truth." Instead, he noted that the term has been in common use for over two decades.

Halim was represented by Treehouse Law, a firm that describes itself as the country’s "premier consumer class action firm." However, the lawsuit sought damages on behalf of all similarly situated customers, a claim Tharp rejected. The judge ruled that boneless wings are not inherently fraudulent.

Buffalo Wild Wings responded to the lawsuit with a humorous tweet, stating:

"It's true. Our boneless wings are all white meat chicken. Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo."