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.
