I’ve never in my life used 1/2 tsp cayenne, and wonder if if that is like the sugar - not all of it absorbed by the chicken, and thus not too spicy. O

Sorry this is late:

Having made this recipe many times (yeah my household loves this recipe), the 1/2 tsp results in very mild heat and not a searing blast. It provides a nice warmth. So it is not all absorbed into the meat. In fact, we like more heat so we doubled the cayenne to 1 tsp.

It is your call based on *YOUR* knowledge of the taste buds of the particular diners that will be at your table and their individual levels of heat tolerance.

This is not a recipe whose quantities are etched in stone. It is quite flexible. I have not made this specific recipe but I have made chicken over a hundred times with similar spice mixtures, never twice identical since I don't cook with recipes.

Let's walk through this.

First of all, this is 2 lbs. of chicken for 4 servings. That's 1/8 tsp. of cayenne per 6 oz. serving, not a huge amount in my experience. One thing I would do is increase the amount of salt since chicken can easily handle 0.5% kosher salt by weight. For 900 grams of chicken, that's 4.5 grams of kosher salt, about a teaspoon.

As for the cayenne, the author herself mentions in the headnote that increased quantities occasionally ended up in the marinade and was enjoyed by her diners nonetheless.

There are eighteen comments for this particular recipe and most of them indicate success.

Moreover, a couple of commenters mentioned partial or complete substitution of the cayenne with another spice. I know that I have made similar preparations using a wide variety of spices: Chinese five spice, coriander, cumin, cayenne, paprikas of different strengths, shichimi, various curry powders, rubbed sage, turmeric, sansho, pretty much every powdery spice in my cabinet.

Thus, you have multiple options. You could make the recipe as presented. You could make two separate batches, one with the cayenne at half strength. You could blend in some paprika with the cayenne or completely sub for it. You could blend in other spices that don't have any heat.

You could omit the heat altogether and use other spices that are well loved by your particular dinner guests. You could replace the powdered garlic with powdered ginger.

The comments also include alternative cooking methods such as baking or using a grill pan.

Ultimately it's about you doing what you need to so the people are your dinner table are happy, not about following a recipe like this word for word.

Best of luck.