The Super Bowl is an enjoyed family-and-friends favorite for all football fans, but if there’s one thing Americans love just as much as football, it’s food. I mean, honestly–who doesn’t? We surveyed 44 students all across Massachusetts (some even from Rhode Island), and our results were actually quite surprising.

According to USA today, about three-quarters (15-25% only watching it for the commercials) of Americans watch the Super Bowl each year, and within our state just about 77% of people watch the Super Bowl (15.9% only for commercials). While 80% of nation-wide viewers, as ESPN tells us, like to have something to eat, about 55% of our survey respondents like to enjoy a snack or meal. Out of the national average, nearly half will have pizza, 44% will have some type of chicken, 36% salsa and chips, 32% pick nachos and dip, and 26% enjoy burgers and sliders. Yes, I know the numbers don’t add up, because the percent overlaps. That means some people from the 36% that like salsa and chips could also be part of the 49% that like pizza, or other examples apply. 

When I asked people what their favorite thing to eat was, without giving them options, over 50% of our top 19 responses said they enjoyed buffalo chicken dip. And that’s pretty funny, considering buffalo chicken dip was only popular within 18% of the country before the Super Bowl. Now it is the #1 food, says WSYR. Could that have been the New England dip of the Super Bowl? By the way, the answer is yes. 

It is the number one favorite food to eat during the Super Bowl among the northeast. Our runner up is the classic pizza, enjoyed by 20 percent of the same 19 responses. MSN says this is actually more popular in the mid-atlantic and great lakes states–Michigan, Delaware, Pennsylvania, etc. 15% also enjoyed chips, with or without salsa, sauce, etc. And the reigning second-place of the nation (chicken wings/tenders) placed in the small 11 percent of our top answers. Yes, we had 44 responses, but we ranged out the smaller, diverse answers to give you an average, and among other enjoyed foods there was taco salad, deviled eggs, chilli, and more. 

When people were given options to select along with their already-chosen favorite, and it was averaged down to 131 selected options (out of 171 selected options–top 6 foods out of 12) our champion among the food was actually a tie between chicken variants and nachos. Both being about 20 percent of the vote each, our top 3 New England’s favorited is the grand buffalo chicken in first, and our tie

in 2nd and 3rd. Our immediate runner up is the 18% of votes directed at taco variants, followed by the 12% of votes for sliders and the 8% for pretzel bites. Out of the same 12 options, respondents picked foods they think they’d enjoy that they hadn’t tried before. Our top 4 (24 responses), in order, are loaded potato skins (9–38%), pigs in a blanket (6–25%), pretzel bites (5–21%), and cheese balls (4–17%).

I actually happened to try a recipe of loaded potato skins over the weekend. I personally do not watch the Super Bowl nor had I ever tried loaded potato skins up til yesterday. I let the potato sit in boiling water for a bit until it softened, removed the flesh of the potato and put it in a separate bowl. In that bowl, we had mixed it with ground beef and a mozzarella/cheddar cheese mix, filled the potato skins with the mash, sprinkled more cheese over it and put it in the airfryer for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. I actually happened to really enjoy it, although I do know that is not the traditional recipe.