This post has been in the works for a while. Six years ago, when I was home on maternity leave, I saw this idea on Rachael Ray. I found it online and did it, and liked it. Then, I lost my printed copy of the recipe collection and have googled my little heart out and she doesn’t have it online anymore. So, I had to reconstruct it in my mind and put it here. It may vary from what she originally had and I’ve tried to add a more budget friendly twist to it. I have done different versions of this over the years and while it is easy and frugal, admittedly by days 4 and 5, you’re growing weary of chicken. You may want to modify it so that you can freeze portions or the meals and eat at a later date.
But, there is a demand for more budget friendly meals out there, so here you go. I also am going on the assumption that you can get whole chickens on a bogo sale. I know that Acme, Giant and Superfresh offer these sales quite often in the cooler months and I usually get two decent sized whole roasters for $10-$15. Even if I add up what I have listed here, it’s just under $40, so you have some wiggle room. Keep in mind I didn’t price things like the milk for mashed potatoes, flour for gravy and stuff like that. I’m wrote it with the assumption that you’d have these basic staples in your kitchen.
- 2 whole roaster chickens-$10-$15
- 5 lb bag of potatoes-$2
- milk
- butter
- flour
- salt, pepper seasonings
- side dish veggie-$1
- Cook both chickens either in your oven or in crock pots.
- When chickens are done, get ALL the meat off of them and divide into portions for 5 meals.
- If you have a large family, you may need either 3 chickens or skip some of the meals and just do 3-4 days of meals
- Your first night’s dinner is roast chicken, mashed potatoes and a veggie for a side dish. Make gravy with the chicken juice and flour and water.
- You should have leftover mashed potatoes.
- chicken off bone, broken/cut into bite-sized pieces
- mashed potatoes
- gravy from previous night
- 1 bag of frozen mixed veggies-$1
- Microwave the frozen vegetables for 3-4 minutes as directed on package.
- Drain and mix in a bowl with the chicken and the gravy.
- Spread that mixture in a deep pie dish or 8×8 pan.
- Spread mashed potatoes over top of that.
- Cover with foil, leave space for venting.
- Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes and serve
- chicken, off bone and broken/cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 can of black beans, drained-$1
- 1 can of hominy, drained, $1
- 1 packet of taco seasoning-$1
- 1 can of cream of chicken soup, $1
- 1 can of small white beans, drained, $1
- tortilla chips or shredded cheese or sour cream for topping
- Mix all of this in a crockpot.
- Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
- At the start, it will feel like you don’t have enough liquid in the pot, but you do.
- When done, serve with a topping.
- 2 cups of cubed chicken
- 1 cup diced celery-$1
- 1 cup mayo-$1
- 1 cup shredded cheddar-$1
- 1 T diced garlic
- 2 T lemon juice
- ½ cup chopped nuts-almonds or walnuts-$1
- salt & pepper to taste
- crumbled potato chips-$1
- Pita or iceberg lettuce-$1
- Mix everything together, except potato chips
- Spread in pan.
- Crumble chips and spread on top
- bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes
- serve on pita or on iceberg lettuce, like a lettuce wrap
- package of tortillas-$1
- bag of shredded cheddar-$3
- green onions, diced-$1
- diced chicken
- bottle of BBQ sauce-$1
- diced tomatoes-$2
- shredded iceberg lettuce-$1
- If you have anything left of your chicken, use it to make either Quesadillas with the above ingredients or BBQ chicken pizza. Just assemble and warm in the oven.
My family LOVES shepards pie but I’ve never thought about doing it with chicken. great idea! gonna try this, maybe skipping the chili. My kids throw a fit with beans LOL
Sounds awesome! Stores here run whole chickens on sale for about .79/lb. Think I will stock up and try this. Thanks!