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Hummus-Crusted Chicken

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This past week while standing around on a photo shoot, my coworkers and I noticed that our conversations somehow kept circling back to food (as often seems to happen!). I was getting ready to go grocery shopping that night, so asked if anyone had any blog-worthy chicken recipes to recommend. My friend, Jen, immediately lit up and told us about this hummus-crusted chicken recipe she had recently tried and loved.

Um, “hummus-crusted”??? Sign me up!

Somehow the idea of using hummus as a sauce in baking had never occurred to me. But as soon as she mentioned it, the recipe moved to the top of my list. So this weekend, I picked up some chicken and my favorite hummus (thought about going homemade, but I was in the mood for quick and easy). And then in order to make it a one-pot meal, I also picked up a bunch of veggies to bake up alongside the chicken. And then in less than 10 minutes of prep time, roughly chopped the veggies and added them and the chicken breasts to a big baking dish, slathered the chicken with hummus and some lemon juices, sprinkled on a little sumac (or you can use smoked paprika), and popped it in the oven. About a half hour later, I learned what “hummus-crusted” is all about.

Pure deliciousness, people.

I took the dish to a friend’s house for dinner on Saturday night, and we couldn’t stop talking about how amazingly flavorful and yummy this dish was! The hummus was the total rockstar of the dish — it indeed developed a light crust on the chicken, and then some of the extra oozed onto the veggies to give them a little extra sauce to go with the light lemony flavor. You could easily add some extra herbs, or balsamic, or even a little white wine to go with this. And of course, you could customize it by using your favorite flavors of hummus. But honestly, I loved the simple version with classic chickpea hummus. And holy moly — you can’t beat a one-pot meal with less than 10 minutes of prep time!

Highly recommend that you give this one a try. Thanks, Jen!!

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Hummus-Crusted Chicken

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 35 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x

Description

Hummus serves as the perfect sauce in this easy baked chicken dish!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 zucchini, chopped
  • 1 yellow squash, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 cup hummus, homemade or storebought
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 lemons
  • 1 tsp. smoked paprika or sumac

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare one large baking dish or two smaller baking dishes with cooking spray.
  2. Pat the chicken dry. Season the chicken breasts with generous pinches of salt and pepper. In a large bowl, toss the zucchini, squash and onion with olive oil until evenly coated. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. If using one baking dish, place all of the vegetables on the bottom of the dish in an even layer. Lay the four chicken breasts evenly on top, then cover each chicken breast with the hummus so that the entire breast is covered. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the chicken and vegetables. Then sprinkle the pan with smoked paprika or sumac. Thinly slice the remaining lemon, and place the slices in between the chicken and vegetables if desired.
  4. **If using two pans, use one for the chicken and one for the vegetables.**
  5. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Serve immediately.

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304 comments on “Hummus-Crusted Chicken”

  1. I made the hummus-crusted chicken with roasted garlic hummus. Yum Yum Yum!!! My husband loved it!

  2. Yum! I made your recipe last night and it went down a storm with my hubby! Who would have thought hummus would make such a tasty crust once it had been in the oven. Thank you for sharing this. 

  3. This sounds really good!  Always looking for something new when it comes to cooking chicken!  Would have never thought of doing this!  Thanks for sharing!

  4. I linked to this recipe today because it was so darn good!!! I am not necessarily a HUGE hummus fan, but mixed with the lemon and baked, it is seriously a new favorite for me! Thanks for sharing!!

    https://growin-a-me.blogspot.com/2015/03/so-much-for-easier.html

  5. Question! I just made this and it’s very good! But just wondering the hummus isn’t very crusty. Any way that I can make it more crusty? 

  6. This sounds really good, but haven’t tried yet. I just want to make sure I read right – bake at 450F for 25 – 30 min? That seems really high… If it works, I’ll try it, but thought I would double-check. Thanks in advance:)

    • Yep, it’s pretty high and will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts, but the high heat helps crisp up the hummus.

  7. Made this with horseradish hummus (I was worried at first) and it was a total hit with my fiancé (who complimented me by having seconds!). 10/10 for a quick, easy and delicious meal. Thanks for sharing!!

  8. Do you cover the chicken?

  9. hi! I’m from Australia and so I converted the 450degrees to 240 degrees and baked for 25mins but when I lifted up the chicken to serve, it wasn’t cooked. Did I do it wrong?

    • Hey Jenna, oh no, I’m so sorry! It sounds like you converted correctly, so I’m not sure what went wrong. :( It can take anywhere between 25 and 30 min, so maybe it just needed around 5 more minutes in the oven? How undercooked was it?

  10. Made this for dinner last night – prepped all the veggies ahead so when I got home from work I tossed the veggies with a little garlic, EVOO, S&P & olive oil, added the chicken with hummus on top and cooked. It was ready by the time my some was home from soccer practice – we served it over rice. I was planning on leftovers for lunch today, but there was NOTHING leftover! It was a major hit in our house and will be adding to our regular rotation – thanks for the great idea!

  11. This is a great recipe! 

  12. Looks easy, quick and tasty. Do you think this would work with pork chops too?

  13. Made this last night with a half cup of hummus instead of a whole cup and it was perfect! It really does make a light crust on the chicken. My boyfriend loved it so much he asked me to make it again tonight!

  14. I made this recipe for dinner tonight and it was really good and so easy. In my experience, it’s rare to find such a simple recipe that ACTUALLY tastes good. I added some crushed red pepper to the hummus and topped the chicken with chopped parsley after I took it out of the oven. Also, I used chicken thighs instead of breasts because that’s what I had. My husband literally scraped his plate and was licking his knife afterwards.

    • Thanks Kacey, I’m so happy you were pleased with it, and I love your take on it! Glad it was a hit with your husband too, that’s always a good thing. : D

  15. I tried this recipe today and I lowered the oven temp to 400 degrees, and cooked for 25 minutes. Sadly it burned!! I am wondering if I was supposed to cover with foil? I am an experienced cook so not sure what went wrong. I really wanted to try this. 

    • Oh no! So sorry about that. Different ovens sometimes perform differently, or it might have been closer to the heat with mine. Yes, if you try it again, I would recommend cooking it on the middle rack and covering it with aluminum foil if it’s getting too browned on top.

  16. I adjusted the cooking time to 20 minutes at 450 degrees since i was using thin chicken breasts. It was a little overcooked, so I think 15 minutes next time would be good. However, it was not enough time for the hummus to get crusty so it was still mushy… The zucchini was also extremelyy mushy, I’ll have to cook that separately next time, maybe pop it in for 10 minutes instead. 

    • Thanks for sharing, Lina. I’m sorry things didn’t come out quite right. I do think thicker chicken breasts work better for this recipe, if you can get them next time. Not sure what happened with the zucchini though!

  17. I’m so in love with this recipe! So much so that I shared & linked you on my personal blog!

    https://www.greenpalatelife.com/recipe-box/baked-hummus-crusted-chicken-a-one-pan-meal/
    Thank you so much for sharing! Xo

    • That’s awesome, Melissa! Thanks for sharing, yours looks like it turned out perfectly. So happy you like it! : )

  18. This looks great! What a good idea. I’ll definitely pair it with my Greek hummus, which is simple and easy to throw together! https://zest-to-impress.blogspot.com/2014/01/greek-hummus-healthy.html

  19. My family LOVED this as a meal and I loved it even more because it was so easy! Was worried that either the chicken or vegetables would cook before the other, but all came out perfectly.Thank you for the recipe and I will definetly be checking back in for more!

  20. Very nice pictures and and it looks like it taste really good

  21. Made this tonight! I love hummus and I love chicken so I knew I’d love this! Normally I don’t like squash so I was a little skeptical, but wow! I cooked it all in one big baking dish and the veggies soaked up the juice and hummus so nicely! My husband who also doesn’t like squash ate all of his too. Thanks for such a yummy recipe. 

  22. This sounds delicious!  I love hummus so love anything coated with it.  I don’t eat chicken though.  Do you think this would work well on fish?  Thanks for such a great recipe!

    https://lemonsandpetals.com/2015/06/20/zucchini-hummus-vegan-low-carb-high-protein-keto/

    • Thank you, Kavita! Hmm, it probably depends on the fish. We can’t say for sure, since we haven’t tried it, but we say go for it! Let us know how it turns out!

  23. Could you make this using pork?

    • Hey, Bethany! We haven’t tried it with pork, but don’t see why it wouldn’t work just as well with a pork chop!

  24. Made this last night, didn’t have any zucchini in the garden, so I used yellow squash, carrots and onion. I loved this dish, the chicken was very tender and moist the flavors were good and the prep time was minimal. only downside was that my husband thought the texture of the hummus was odd (yet we eat hummus a lot) and it didn’t really get crispy. I would recommend this dish and will make it again using zucchini as written.

    • Thank you, Jane! We’re glad you and your husband enjoyed the dish, and we’re sorry it didn’t get crispy like it’s supposed to! Hopefully second time’s a charm! : )

  25. This was amazingly good.  Thanks.  Chicken breast stayed really moist and was full of flavour.

  26. this recipe is AMAZING!!! Huge hit with the fam! Thank you for sharing!!

  27. I covered mine with foil, and it turned out a little soupy. I recommend not covering the chicken, but also it’s probably a better idea to cook the chicken and veggies separate so that the hummus doesn’t slide off into them.

    • We’re sorry to hear that Emily :( Thanks for sharing your experience though. Not covering it next time really should help it stay coated, and crisp up!

  28. I tried this tonight and the chicken came out very tender and moist. I loved the choice of veggies with this recipe. My chicken was a bit thicker so I baked it about 35 minutes. Not being a big lemon nut, I would cut down the amount next time out of personal preference. This was delicious!

  29. this looks sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good

  30. Thank you for this fast and FAB! recipe, and please forgive me for initially questioning your sanity… LOL. The unexpected use of hummus and 450 degree temp sounded like a recipe for disaster , but I had an almost expired tub of plain Saba® Hummus so I thought I’d give your a recipe a shot.  I only had some baby carrots and sugar snap peas, so subbed them for the summer squash in the original recipe. I also got all crazy-clever and added a several sprigs of fresh Greek oregano I clipped from my garden.  I must have checked the oven 10 times, expecting a scorched ruin of chicken.  Exactly :25 minutes, and I opened the door a final time to see…chicken magic!!!  Perfectly done, moist meat, a nice thin crust, and vegetables done to a turn.  (Did I mention it was MAGIC?! ) Anyway, thank you, and I promise never to doubt you again.

    Just a couple of my thoughts that may help those who have had less success with the crust.. I made sure to pat my chicken breasts completely dry, so as to help the hummus ‘stick’ better.  I also used more than a cup of hummus; I actually used the whole tub and made sure each breast was generously covered.  I hope this helps!  Don’t give up, this one is a keeper! 

    • Thank you Terri! We’re so happy you like the recipe, and appreciate you sharing! :)

  31. This was DELICIOUS!!! And soooo easy to make! I just made the chicken breasts by themselves since I didn’t have the vegetables on hand, but it was great! Plus I’m also a big fan of not having to use every piece of cookware I own. It makes doing dishes a lot easier.

  32. Just made this today and the chicken was sooo yummy! Hallelujah, delicious and flavorful chicken breasts!! I always dreaded cooking them because mine always turned out so bland and dry. I used random vegetables I had (zucchini, broccoli, asparagus) and turned out wonderful… My hummus didn’t turn out crispy, unfortunately — I put it in the broiler for 5 min and it worked a bit, but i was scared to burn the chicken. 

  33. Amazing and simple recipe! We made it two nights in a row for dinner. We used jalapeño hummus and it turned out fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

  34. Tried the recipe ‘as is’. Turned out delish. Did not take pic :( Switching up the hummus flavors could also be fun. Thank you!

  35. Love is recpe!
    Question… My mom is allergic to chickpeas,  can i make this recipe with black bean hummus?
    Thanks!!

  36. This recipe looks awesome, but my husband doesn’t like yellow squash or zucchini–can you recommend any other vegetables for this dish?

    • Thanks Skye! It’s really up to you and what you two like, as just about any vegetable (s) would be great with the chicken. We like roasted broccoli and potatoes, sautéed green beans, crispy brussels sprouts, roasted carrots and cauliflower (to give you some ideas). We hope you enjoy!

  37. I just made your chicken tonight.  I had made homemade Kicked Up Syrian Hummus and thought I would give it a try.  We were very skeptical, but pleasantly surprised.  My boys and husband all thought it tasted like fried chicken without the frying.  I have three other hummus recipes and can’t wait to try them all.  Thanks for sharing the recipe

  38. We just had this tonight (finally trying out some Pinterest recipes ;) ) — So easy & delicious! We will definitely be adding this into the dinner rotation! 

    • That’s so nice to hear Melissa, thanks for sharing! We’re happy you enjoyed it. :)

  39. A fellow here in Little Rock makes Spicy Curry Hummus. I used that and tossed the vegetables in a little olive oil and garam massala before cooking. The result was amazing!

    • That sounds amazing, we wish we had some of that hummus! We’re glad you enjoyed the chicken! :)

  40. I have to admit that even after reading all of the rave reviews, I was a little skeptical that this recipe would turn out so great.  It was delicious!  I cooked everything in one dish.  For the veggies, I used squash, zucchini, tomato, and onion.  I wanted to add garlic, but I was out of fresh garlic.  I put a little olive oil, white wine, and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute on the veggies.  I made sure the chicken breasts were dry and I seasoned them as directed (salt, pepper, a little paprika), again adding the 21 Seasoning Salute.  I blended 1/2 container each of the Sabra Garlic hummus and the Sabra Classic hummus to coat the chicken.  Served all over orzo with a salad on the side.

    • Awesome Christy, we’re so glad you enjoyed it! The way you did it sounds so delicious, thanks for sharing! :)

  41. I was so excited to try this tonight! It’s been in the oven at 450 for almost an hour now and the chicken still isn’t cooked through. I’m very disappointed. 

    • Hmmm that definitely doesn’t sound right Natasha. Were the chicken breasts just really thick? That’s honestly the only thing we can think of as to why these wouldn’t have cooked through at such a high temp for so long. That’s never happened to us. :(

  42. This is honestly one of the best recipes I’ve tried this year! Quick question – have you tried making this ahead of time and freezing? I’m doing a big batch of freezer meals and am wondering if I can prep ahead of time…

    • Thanks Elise, we’re so happy you like it! Hmmm, we haven’ tried making this ahead of time and freezing it. You mean making it and cooking it all the way, right? We would try that, let it cool completely, then freeze – we think that should work fine.

  43. What is a good side dish if any for this recipe?

    • Hi Ashley! We like it best with some kind of orzo dish and grilled veggies, or a Greek salad, but honestly this chicken pairs well with so many things! :) We hope this helps, and that you enjoy!

  44. Question..  I’m making this right now for a dinner party tonight.  I wanted to make in advance to make sure it turns out good.  Should I cook the normal time and just broil for 5-10 minutes once I get to party to heat it up?  Sorry.. I’m not a very experienced cook. 

    • Hi Christy, yes, that’s probably what we would try (just make sure not to leave it under the broil for too long. We’d keep a close eye on it). We hope you and your guests enjoy!

  45. I rarely get compliments for my culinary efforts, not so with this recipe. My husband stood at the counter and ate until he remembered he could sit. LMAO!! Thank you Jen

  46. What are the nutritionals? Is this healthy?

    • Hi Ally, while we believe this recipe is healthy, we’re sorry but we are unsure of the actual nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!

  47. Does one cover the chicken while baking?

    • Hi Nan! No, you don’t need to cover the chicken while it’s baking. We hope you enjoy this!

  48. This was great. I went to Fresh Market today to take advantage of a $10 off coupon and picked up some of their antibiotic free chicken breasts on sale on Tuesdays. They are some really big and thick breasts. I googled “chicken breast recipes” and found this. It just so happens I had a big old tupperware of yummy homemade hummus — mine is made with chick peas, tahini, raw garlic, fresh lemon, and a few Thai chile peppers for a touch of spice. Like many of the other commenters I had my doubts about how this would turn out. My chicken was cooked to absolute perfection at 450 for 30 minutes. I can’t imagine people are cooking with breasts much bigger than these. They were so tender and juicy and had the perfect look all the way through the middle. I would probably cut back on the hummus next time only because while it did crisp up on the top, it was layered so thick that it was still a bit mushy. That didn’t take away from the flavor but I could see how using about half the amount would just give it a better crunchy texture. Also I didn’t cut the lemon slices. I felt they were unnecessary given all the lemon juice. Oh and I also used some really good smoked paprika from Spain that I have had on hand and it really complemented everything. Given that I am a big fan of the high quality but cheap chicken breasts from Fresh Market and that I regularly make my own hummus, I am sure I will be making this again!

    • Thanks for sharing all of this with us Chris! We’re so happy you enjoyed the recipe (your homemade hummus sounds amazing), so does that Paprika you used! :)

  49. Just made this recipe – I’m an amateur cook (this is the literally the first dish I have made in YEARS) and it was a major hit! I love the flavors – and I never would have thought to put hummus over chicken and bake it in the oven.  So juicy and delicious.  Thank you!

  50. Hello Hayley ,

    Cooked this recipe tonight. It worked out very well and my family ate it with gusto. The lemon juice and the hummus mixed together during the baking and made for a very tasty sauce on top of the sliced chicken. I made it alongside pan butter fried fingerling potatoes with garlic and dill, and steamed broccoli. I did marinate my chicken overnight with some lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil.  

    Great way to use up leftover hummus. I appreciate the low prep time and the clever use of the humble chicken breast. 

    This dish is delicious, thank you so much for creating it!

    • Hello Marianna! This recipe and all of the others on this blog are Ali’s (this is her blog, I just help out with some things). :) But we’re so happy to hear that you and your family enjoyed this! And we think those fingerling potatoes and the broccoli sound awesome — thanks for sharing with us! :D