Hummus makes baked chicken incredibly juicy

I used to think chicken breasts needed a lot of help — brining or marinating — to make them juicy and flavorful. But a tip provided by several readers gave me a surprisingly simple answer to my dinnertime dilemma. A swipe of hummus and a sprinkling of smoky seasoning gives ho-hum chicken breasts a tender, golden-brown crust and a moist interior.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are notoriously fickle to prepare. Because they’re lean and have little flavor of their own, they often require extra attention when it comes to seasoning and cooking. But this recipe requires nothing of the sort. In fact, you’ll be sending them to the oven in just five minutes.

You’ll start by sprinkling salt and pepper on both sides of the chicken breasts, then spreading on the hummus — you’ll want to cover the top and sides of the chicken in a thin layer to seal in the juices. Sprinkle on the smoked paprika, pop them in the oven to bake, then finish under the broiler to brown and crisp the crust.

The hummus protects the lean chicken breasts from the oven’s intense heat, resulting in baked chicken that’s incredibly juicy beneath a tender crust.

Silky-smooth hummus is preferred for dipping, but when it comes to crusting chicken, you actually want to choose a hummus with a bit of texture. You can use whatever brand you have stashed in the fridge, but I’ve found that the Ithaca brand and private-label store brands have a coarser texture.

Super-smooth hummus is made by pureeing chickpeas for an extended amount of time, and often has a larger proportion of oil, tahini or other liquid. The moisture from these ingredients prevents the hummus from drying into a crust. The bits of chickpeas in coarser hummus toast in the oven, adding texture to the chicken’s coating. If you make hummus from scratch, don’t pulse the chickpeas as finely and hold back on the olive oil.

You can adjust the chicken’s flavor by simply changing the flavor of hummus you use. Make it spicy with a hot pepper variety, or keep it cool and fresh with a lemon and dill-flavored hummus.