As beef prices soar and production decreases, expect the leading burgermeisters to create new menu items using poultry. Chicken is the new pink. And Wendy’s has never been afraid to chicken out — it’s known just as much for its Spicy Chicken Sandwich as for its burgers.

Last year, Wendy’s introduced three flavors of boneless wings: Honey BBQ, Bold Buffalo and Sweet & Spicy Asian. Bold Buffalo has shuffled off, and in its place comes Spicy Chipotle.

Here’s the blueprint: Seven to nine chunks of real, honest-to-goodness white-meat chicken breast, lightly breaded and deep-fried, and splattered with sauce made with chipotle peppers, dark chili powder and light-amber honey. Served on an elegant plastic plate.

Total calories: 500. Fat grams: 20. Dietary fiber: 3 grams. Carbs: 48 grams. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $3.99.

Whoa! Price alert! Why are these $3.99 when if you look on the right side of the menu, you can get five Spicy Chicken Nuggets with a pack of dipping sauce for only a buck?

OK, for starters, Spicy Chipotle Boneless Wings are clearly bigger than Spicy Chicken Nuggets. And it looks like the chicken-to-breading ratio is considerably more favorable in Boneless Wings. Also, Boneless Wings are one shard from one breast from one chicken.

But the big difference is the sauce. With buck-naked nuggets, you get a sealed pack of sauce from a huge cardboard box stuffed under the soft-drink machine. I mean, it’s fine, but it’s not the personal touch you get from the Boneless Wings.

You get a little show with Boneless Wings. The polite Wendy’s counter chef will fish the Boneless Wings from the fryer, plop them into a bowl and squirt on the sauce. The wings are hand-tossed, just like at Hooters, where your waitress dots her i’s with a heart on your bill. She likes you, and she’s not just writing that — next to the empty line where you write in a tip.

The sauce on Wendy’s Spicy Chipotle Boneless Wings is high-quality stuff. You can taste the peppers and chili powder. The light-amber honey gives the sauce a slightly sweet tinge that offsets the heat. You even can see and feel the bits of pepper in the sauce.

It’s spicy, all right, but definitely PG-13. Remember, Wendy’s won’t knock you unconscious with blazing-hot spice, where you need five beers to stop the smoke pouring from your ears. Come on, there are children watching.

But there’s enough heat to stir your embers. Dad and Mom will go for Spicy Chipotle Boneless Wings more than their precious muffins in the back seat will.

Spicy Chipotle Boneless Wings will sell big for Wendy’s because they’re not as sticky-sweet as Honey BBQ or Sweet & Spicy Asian wings. In fact, there’s only 10 grams of sugar in Spicy Chipotle, compared with 27 grams in Honey BBQ and 34 grams in Sweet & Spicy Asian.

Wendy’s is hedging its bets with Spicy Chipotle wings, though, introducing them as a limited-time-only deal — going buh-bye on June 6. Bet they’ll be back.