By Alyssa Lukpat

At Buffalo Wild Wings, a boneless chicken wing doesn't need to come from a wing, a judge ruled.

Judge John Tharp Jr. in Illinois's northern district denied a customer victory Tuesday in his quest to hold the chain accountable for describing chicken-breast pieces as wings. Aimen Halim had sued Buffalo Wild Wings in 2023 for misleading him about its boneless wings and demanded about $10 million in damages.

The judge said Halim's claim had "no meat on its bones."

"A reasonable consumer would not think that BWW's boneless wings were truly deboned chicken wings, reconstituted into some sort of Franken-wing," Tharp said.

He said the chain can sell boneless wings, even though they are essentially chicken nuggets.

Halim wanted the judge to order Buffalo Wild Wings to rename its boneless wings to something like "chicken poppers." He said he wouldn't have bought the product if he knew they weren't wings, causing him financial harm. He claimed the company violated Illinois's consumer fraud act and was unjustly enriching itself.

"Words can have multiple meanings," Tharp said in a 10-page opinion.

Halim sued Buffalo Wild Wings months after dining on wings that weren't actually deboned. He previously sued the makers of Hefty recycling bags and Kind granola over deceptive wording and lost in court.

Lawyers for Halim and Buffalo Wild Wings didn't immediately return requests for comment Tuesday.

Tharp denied Halim's effort to gain class-action status.

Chicken wings are generally more expensive than chicken-breast meat, which has become more available as chickens have gotten bigger.

Georgia-based Buffalo Wild Wings argued that Halim didn't prove he sustained a concrete injury by consuming boneless wings.

The company's menu currently has a handful of different wings, including bone-in and boneless and one made of cauliflower. The chain describes its boneless wings as "juicy all-white chicken, lightly breaded, handspun in choice of sauce or dry rub."

The judge said Halim had until next month to amend his lawsuit. Still, Tharp said, "it is difficult to imagine that Halim can provide additional facts about his experience that would demonstrate that BWW is committing a deceptive act by calling its nuggets 'boneless wings.'"

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 17, 2026 20:02 ET (01:02 GMT)

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