Dynamic Hummus

Healthy Hump Day Recipe

When we were home visiting our families in Sarasota for Father's Day a couple of weekends ago, my mom sent us on our way with the BEST kind of pita bread (we actually call it "Leb bread", short for Lebanese bread, in our house) from our favorite Lebanese restaurant in Sarasota. Although they do carry pita bread at grocery stores, none are quite like the kind from this restaurant. It is so fresh, so thin, and so soft. With it being a multipurpose food item in our house, it can be used at breakfast to scoop up bites of eggs after you tear it into small pieces, at lunch for pita sandwiches, at dinner to soak up the last bit of sauce from your meal, and even at dessert after buttering and sprinkling cinnamon sugar on it. YUM! I was inspired to create a Lebanese dinner when we got back home to Orlando just so that we could have an excuse to get into that bread (as if we really needed an excuse...). It had been a while since I had made my hummus, so I decided to make a hummus chicken using the hummus as a pasty marinade. I served it with a salad and that delicious pita bread. It was so tasty! With the hummus being thicker, it created a nice shell over the chicken, and the grilled taste of the hummus was to die for. For my hummus recipe that I usually make as a dip, click here. I named it "Handy Hummus" because it really can be used for so many things, and this chicken recipe proves that. Cut up your chicken and enjoy a pita with that delicious Leb bread, rip the pita into lots of smaller pieces for mini bite-sized sandwiches, or use some of the leftover hummus to dip the bread in. Endless options! Enjoy!

Hummus Chicken

Ingredients
-1 batch of Handy Hummus found here
-4 chicken breast halves

Directions
1. Prepare hummus per the Handy Hummus recipe found here (3rd time's a charm, right?). The hummus will be on the thicker side.
2. Take 1 tbsp of the hummus and smear it on one side of all 4 chicken. You may need more than 1 tbsp depending on how big your chicken breasts halves are, but you want each to be completely covered in a layer of hummus on that one side.
3. Place one hummus-coated chicken breast half hummus side down in a medium bowl. Smear another equal portion of hummus onto the naked side of the chicken. Repeat this process of layering and smearing until all chicken is coated, and refrigerate for at least 4hrs (or overnight).
4. Preheat a George Foreman grill to 350. Spray with cooking oil.
5. Cook chicken on the grill for 8min or until there is no pink when cut open.

*Make the Handy Hummus less thick for more of a traditional marinade!
*Experiment with the various Handy Hummus recipes for a completely different taste! (My favorite is the black olive recipe)
*In general, dips can make an excellent marinade or sauce for meals!