The Seattle Times recently touched on two spicy condiments that you may or not have heard of. I'd guess more people are familiar with Sriracha. It's a staple in a lot of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, often right on the table, in place of ketchup. Speaking of which, I often skip ketchup with my french fries, but when I do use it, ninety-nine times out of a hundred it's mixed with Sriracha.
If anyone has had a spicy tuna roll at their local sushi place, often the spicy tuna is nothing more than the bits and scraps of the tuna not used for sashimi chopped up and mixed with Sriracha. When I saw that, a light bulb went off in my head and I decided to use it in my next tuna salad. My super quick go-to snack is now just canned tuna, Sriracha and a little mayo on multi-grain Saltines. I'm sure it could be expanded to have some cilantro and minced shallot, served over some mixed greens and topped with some crispy lo-mein noodles and crunchy wasabi peas for a fancy (yet still simple) lunch.
The aforementioned Seattle Times article includes a recipe for Sriracha Glazed Chicken Wings. I'm sure the recipe could be adapted to use boneless thighs, and served with julienne carrots and snow peas tossed with a little sesame oil and rice noodles for a quick and tasty dinner.
They also discuss the lesser known but equally tasty Middle Eastern condiment harissa, including a simple recipe for making your own. I've experimented with several recipes, and found a short cut was to use the ground chili paste you can find in most Asian markets. Toasting whole seeds and grinding them yourself will go a lot farther in flavor than soaking and processing your own chiles. Even if you do process your own chiles, you would be doing yourself a favor to toast and grind your cumin and coriander seeds yourself. An inexpensive coffee grinder works well for grinding your own spices. Also, if my memory serves me, many versions also contain caraway in addition to the cumin and coriander.
If your looking for how you might experiment with using harissa, a popular dish I had on one of my menus was harissa glazed baked salmon with a cous-cous, black olive and feta salad.