The Porch Open

Spring has officially come to Saint Paul, not because the crabapples are about to blossom on Como Lake but because we had the first neighborhood cookout on Sherry's porch.

My sister recommended this recipe despite knowing my following issues with Cooking Light magazine:

• 15 ingredient recipes
• recipes that instruct you to put in the first 4 ingredients, and then the next 2, so you have to spend too much time going back and counting which were the first 4 etc
• their utter stingyness with sharing recipes online, which they now have caved on
• the fact that all of their articles look like a Special Advertising Section in any other cooking magazine

So I took her advice and made it for the crowd and it was well recieved along with grilled asparagus, a pear and blue cheese salad, Old Wisconsin wieners for the kids and ice cream with homemade carmel sauce.

Recipe notes: We opted to grill them rather than broil them and the frugal person in me needs to tell you that boneless chicken thighs are on sale this week buy one, get one free at Cub Foods


Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients (see what I mean?) in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs)