Not so Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken

I have been wanting to try Cooking Light's Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs for some time now. The recipe gets rave reviews on The Nest's What's Cooking message board and I trust those ladies. So I knew it would probably be really good. But I was scared. See, I don't really like spicy food. Actually, that's not true. For a long time I didn't like spicier foods. Now that I'm trying to branch out and try more new things, I'm finding that I'm building up a pretty decent tolerance for spicy stuff. Still. I was scared. A recipe with Spicy right in the title didn't really sound like something I would be able to handle. But I read the recipe a little closer and saw that I could very easily control the amount of heat. So I gave it a try.

I did not use boneless skinless chicken thighs because I didn't have any. Instead, I used chicken leg quarters, but I did remove the skin. This recipe was so incredible. I loved the smoky flavor. It was really wonderful. I have to say that I didn't really measure the spices very well. So I'm not going to type up the recipe the way I made it because I'm not really sure what I did :-) I will link to the original recipe here though. What I tried to do was cut the spicy spices in half (cumin, chili powder) and add more of the smoky stuff (paprika) Also, I didn't have any ground red pepper, so I just used my black peppercorns in my pepper mill. It was not spicy at all! I think next time (and there will be a next time!) I will make it just as the recipe says and see what happens.