Yankee Stadium 'chicken' ice cream bucket a big hit

It was the most important mission of the day for the Rosazza family.

They left their home in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, at 3:15 p.m. Friday to make it to the front of the line before gates opened at 5:30 p.m. at Yankee Stadium for the 7:10 p.m. game between the Yankees and the Orioles.

Once 5:30 hit, it was off to the races for 11-year-old Carter Rosazza, who succeeded at being the first person at the Section 125 dessert stand.

The reason? The Yankees’ mini dessert “chicken” bucket, the viral dessert (which features no chicken) that officially is described by the team as a “drumstick-shaped vanilla waffle-cone ice cream with a chocolate-covered pretzel stick ‘bone’ center, an outer coating of caramelized white chocolate and corn flakes served in a souvenir mini ‘chicken’ bucket.”

The bucket, which comes with two “drumsticks” and sells for $11.97 after tax, had been sold out since the first inning of the Yankees’ first home game on April 3, according to workers at the Section 125 stand, one of three where it’s sold; the others are at Sections 205 and 318.

Was it worth it?

“It’s definitely worth it,” said Carter, who secured buckets for his family of four: mom, Aja, 45; dad, Keith, 47; and sister Ella, 14.

Aja said: “We’re huge Yankees fans, so we always watch what the new food is for the season. And we saw this and we were like, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

Said Keith: “We’re very vulnerable to social media trends.”

For John Salerno, 23, of Patchogue, his crack at the bucket was long-awaited.

“I saw it all over TikTok like two years ago, and I'm a diehard Yankee fan,” he said. “I'm here probably 20 times a year. And I saw they had it this year, and I was like, dude, I got to get here.

“I came to Opening Day and I waited on line for like two-and-a-half hours, sold out. So I'm excited to try it.”

So, how was it?

“It’s awesome,” said Salerno, who added it’s “100%” a future staple at hot summer games.

The bucket, which can fit in the palm of a hand, also could be a nice souvenir — akin to the ice cream helmets that fans get at different ballparks.

“Yankee Stadium is infamous for the chicken [tenders] bucket in general,” Salerno said. “So to have a mini version in ice cream form, it’s beautiful. My girlfriend's very excited for me to bring home the mini bucket because she thinks it's the cutest thing in the world. So it’s a win-win.”

Commack’s Elisabeth Frassetti, 24, was at her first Yankees game of the season. She learned about the bucket “about 30 seconds” before she purchased it, and said she would get it again.

“I can understand why there's a hype around it,” she said. “It reminds me of my childhood.”

Frassetti was at the game with Alex Valeri, 30, of Harrison, who noted: “[We’ve] been chasing it. It's not easy to get. It’s a big deal.”

Todd Kirschner, 51, of Commack, was at Friday’s game with his family. He learned about the bucket like most others.

“Well, we saw it on social media,” he said. “And my daughter's like, the first thing we do when we get to the stadium, we have to go get the ice cream. So here we go, got the ice cream.

“And it’s OK, it's ice cream. It's a fad. There’s nothing special about it.”

While Kirschner certainly did not dislike the ice cream, he said that in the future he probably would get a sundae instead.

“It’s different,” he said. “It’s cool. It’s ice cream.”

Not chicken.