Roast Chicken Thighs With Hummus, Sweet Potato, Mushrooms & Sage

Expectations:

This is a great, easy chicken dish that can be ‘dressed up or down’ based on the sides you choose.  My version is based on a Hummus Crusted Chicken recipe from Oprah Magazine’s March 2012 issue, the original uses chicken breasts but I’ve never made it that way.  If you’d like to, then reduce the roasting time to about 20 minutes.

I can feed my family twice making this dish unless my husband is particularly hungry and eats a lot of chicken.  Although it’s very low maintenance, I don’t typically make it on weeknights because the chicken takes about 35 – 40 minutes in the oven.  Prep is super fast (5 minutes) though and it’s delicious served with a wide variety of sides — i.e. barley, cous cous, pasta, rolls, pick your favorite!

Serves 4 – 6 people depending on appetites.

Ingredients:

• Extra virgin olive oil (about 1/4 cup total)
• 1 medium sized sweet potato – peeled and sliced vertically (from the end to end) or in rounds, 1/2 inch thick slices.

Both the mushrooms & sweet potato can be chopped ahead of time & left in the fridge, to make the prep even faster.

• 1 package (typically 1 to 1.5 pounds) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  Seasoned with: salt (about 2 teaspoons) & fresh ground pepper (about 1 – 2 tsp), 2 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil and 2 or 3 garlic cloves chopped.  If you can, it’s great to marinate in this the day or night before, then prep is even faster.  If you don’t have time, don’t worry!  You can just season the chicken with salt & pepper and add the garlic with the hummus.

Marinate the chicken (salt, pepper, olive oil & garlic) day or night before, if you have time.

• Hummus (about 3 to 4 tbsp).
• Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice (about 1 tbsp).
• Optional:  1 cup of small mushrooms (i.e. button) cleaned, and sliced thin
• Optional:  1/4 cup of sage or rosemary leaves – rinsed and chopped into small pieces

Steps to put this on your table:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
• Lightly coat (or spray) the bottom of a 2 inch deep roasting dish or pan with olive oil or coconut oil.
• Place the sweet potato slices in an even layer on the bottom of the dish.

• Place the chicken in an even layer on top of the sweet potato.
• Using a spoon or spatula, spread the hummus on top of the chicken as evenly as possible.
• Top the hummus layer with: balsamic vinegar or lemon juice, mushrooms and rosemary or sage (if using).

• Cover the pan (you can use foil if the pan doesn’t have a cover).
• Roast in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes.  During the last 10 minutes of roasting, remove the cover/foil to allow the top to brown.  The chicken will ‘spring’ back when you poke it with a fork and the juices will run clear when fully cooked.

Enjoy!

Please let me know if you have questions or if you give it a try in the comments.

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