Winner winner chicken dinner

It's not that James Broccolo loves to count. He just has a knack for it when it comes to the one thing he deals with day in and day out.

Chickens - wings that is.

For most of 2008, Broccolo's restaurant, Jimmy D's, was flying through its wings supply, selling about two tons of them a week. It got Broccolo to thinking about how long it would take to sell a million wings.

And for the customer who ate the millionth wing, he attached a $100 prize to the honor.

Day after day, he would do the math calculating how many tons, pounds and wings to the pound were being sold. Ten wings to the pound would mean that it would take 100,000 pounds of wings to equal a million wings.

That also equates to 50 tons, or 2,500 cases of wings sold in a little more than two years.

"No matter which way you count it, that's a lot of wings - and these aren't small wings we sell either," Broccolo said. "And that means that somewhere, there are a lot of wingless chickens running around."

Soon, Broccolo's calculating became known to his customers, who would sometimes place orders of 50 wings or more to see whether they reached the 1-million mark. Each time Broccolo would hint at how close the business was to the million mark, but nothing more.

Turns out, eating the one millionth wing was a one-in-a-million shot - at least for two returning customers.

Robert and Mary Barrientos were regular customers of Jimmy Diablo's before it became Jimmy D's and moved to Cortez Boulevard near Interstate 75. Mary said for almost a year, she and her husband didn't go to the restaurant because they weren't sure where it was located.

It just so happens that on Dec. 26, the couple decided to come home to roost at their old stomping ground, not knowing what their decision would lead to.

Each ordered a 10-piece wing order and at the end of their meal, Broccolo told them they had consumed the 1 millionth wing and earned $100.

"Just to make sure we're clear, we did not eat 1 million wings," Robert joked. "But we thought (Broccolo) was kidding. We were so surprised."

Robert said he immediately decided to do the smart thing - give the money to his wife.

Meanwhile, Broccolo said he's going to begin 2010 with another one-million-wing promotion to see how long it will take to sell another million wings. If the economy improves, he said he hopes to reach the goal quicker than the last one.

As for the Barrientos, both agreed they're likely to keep coming back to Jimmy D's, with Mary using her newly acquired $100. And she'll bring her husband, too.

After all, if she's going to help Jimmy D's reach the next goal of selling another million wings, she's going to need ...

Wait for it ...

A wingman.