A Swicy Hot Honey Baked Chicken Recipe for the Flavour SPAM Just Bet a New Permanent Product On

Sweet food that turns spicy partway through a bite, the flavour pattern the food industry has taken to calling swicy, is not a fringe idea anymore. A 3 September piece on the global rise of swicy flavours traced the pattern through hot honey on pizza and fried chicken, Korean tteokbokki and sweet chilli momos, describing the sensation in three bites: "the first bite says, nice and sweet. The second says, oh, there's some heat. The third says, okay, this is interesting." Sixteen days later, Hormel Foods put its money behind the same idea, launching SPAM Hot Honey on 19 September, its first permanent addition to the lineup in two years, explicitly built to tap what the company called one of today's fastest-growing flavour trends.

Why chicken thighs carry it better than a cutlet

Hot honey glazes are usually brushed onto something fried, which makes them delicious but not something most people want to cook on a Tuesday. Baking bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs instead gets you rendered, crisp skin from the oven's dry heat while the glaze caramelises directly onto it in the final ten minutes, no deep-fat fryer required. Thighs also hold up to the glaze's sugar content without drying out the way a lean chicken breast can, since the fat under the skin keeps basting the meat as it roasts.

Ingredients, for four servings

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1.2kg / 2.5lb)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to season
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 120ml runny honey (1/3 cup)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons hot sauce, such as a cayenne-based one, to taste
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 spring onion, thinly sliced, to serve

Method

Heat the oven to 200C (400F). Pat the chicken thighs dry with kitchen paper, a dry surface is what lets the skin crisp, then toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, smoked paprika, garlic powder, the teaspoon of salt and the black pepper until evenly coated. Arrange skin-side up on a wire rack set over a foil-lined baking tray, spaced apart so the hot air can circulate around each piece.