Bourbon Maple Chicken Wings (Smoked and Glazed)

How Bourbon Maple Wings Come Together

Smoke wings at 225°F over cherry for 90 minutes to 160°F, glaze with reduced maple and bourbon, then finish 10 more minutes to 175°F.

Last updated: September 15, 2026 · Originally published November 8, 2025

The order matters more than anything else here. Glaze early and the sugar burns before the wings are cooked. Glaze in the last ten minutes and it sets into a lacquer instead, through Maillard reaction browning at the surface.

Reduce the syrup and bourbon together in a pan while the wings smoke. Most of the alcohol cooks off and what is left is thick enough to cling. Wings are not a long cook: under two hours from rub to rest, which makes this one of the easier things to put on a smoker. Here is the method, no guesswork needed.

Ingredients for Bourbon Maple Chicken Wings (Serves 6)

• 3 lbs chicken wings, split at joints, tips discarded
• ½ cup pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup)
• ¼ cup bourbon (Maker’s Mark for that wheated warmth)
• 1 tbsp chipotle powder (for a subtle smoke kick)
• 2 tsp smoked salt (kosher if you’re subbing)
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• Cherry wood chunks (4-6, soaked 30 mins for clean burn)

Why This Recipe Works

Ninety minutes of clean smoke, then a fast glaze at the end. Cherry is mild enough that the bourbon still reads on the palate, which hickory would flatten. Wings carry a lot of connective tissue for their size, so 175°F suits them better than the 165°F you would pull a breast at.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Prep the Wings (5 min): Pat the wings bone-dry with paper towels. Wet skin will not crisp, and it is the single most common reason smoked wings come out rubbery. Mix the chipotle powder, smoked salt and black pepper and rub it in. Let them sit 20 minutes at room temperature while the pit comes up.
2. Light the Smoker (10 min setup): Cherry chunks in the Big Green Egg or offset. Cherry is mild and slightly sweet, which is what you want against maple. Stabilize at 225°F and wait for the smoke to run clean and thin before the wings go on; white billowing smoke is what makes food taste like an ashtray. Wings skin-up, indirect, 90 minutes, with an apple cider vinegar spritz every 30.
3. Glaze Them (10 min): While the wings smoke, simmer the maple syrup and bourbon over medium heat until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. At the 90-minute mark the wings should be around 160°F. Brush on half the glaze, flip, smoke 10 more minutes and baste again. Pull at 175°F.
4. Rest Them (10 min): Tent loosely with foil for ten minutes. Chicken is safe well below 175°F, but wings are full of connective tissue and they eat better a bit past that. Total time is under two hours.

Tips

No cherry? Apple is the closest swap. Hickory works but it will bury the bourbon, so use less of it. If the weather rules out the smoker, finish under a 450°F broiler on a parchment-lined sheet, ten minutes with one flip, and accept that you are trading the smoke for convenience. This scales cleanly to 10 lbs for a crowd; the glaze quantity roughly triples.

Nutrition & Related Reads

Per serving: ~320 calories, 24g protein, 22g fat, 8g carbs. More reading: Buffalo Wings and Beer Pairings for the perfect pint.

Are They Worth Making?

Sweet glazes on smoked poultry go wrong more often than they go right, and it is nearly always a timing problem rather than a recipe problem. Hold the glaze until the last ten minutes and this is hard to mess up. What wood do you run for wings? Tell me in the comments.

Give it a go and let me know how the glaze set.