Why spend a fortune taking the family out for dinner every night when you can make dinner for the entire family for just $7? Here are 10 delicious and easy chicken dinner recipes you can make for $7 or less and they’re quick and easy!
10 Easy Chicken Dinner Recipes for $7 or Less
These easy chicken dinner recipes are some of our favorite recipes to help give you an easier start to dinner! For me just thinking of what to make is the hardest part of dinner, so picking the recipe is a major step to done! These recipes are cheap, easy and fast so pick one and have it for dinner tomorrow!
Easy Roast Chicken Recipe
This easy roast chicken recipe is a tasty chicken dinner recipe you can make with just 5 minutes prep time! Add sliced veggies like potatoes, carrots, peppers and onions for a complete one-pan meal!
Ingredients
Chicken pieces
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Lay the chicken pieces in a greased pan, uncovered.
- Sprinkle with spices.
- Bake at 300 – 350° for 30 minutes to an hour or 8-10 hours at 170°, until the meat falls away from the bone easily or the juices run clear.
The cooking time for this chicken recipe depends on how big the pieces are, the temperature you use, and your oven. Sometimes, halfway through the cooking I will place a small dab of butter on each piece or brush with butter.
Notes
- You can also add your favorite veggies like carrots, potatoes, onions or peppers to this recipe for an easy one-pan meal!
- You can use whatever kind of chicken you like for this recipe. It works well with boneless or bone-in chicken, so if you find something on sale, this recipe will work great!
(This roast chicken recipe is from Dining On A Dime Cookbook, Volume 1.)
Garlic Roasted Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
3–5 lb. chicken
salt
pepper
paprika
3 Tbsp. minced garlic
about 1/4 lb. butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
Instructions
- Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Rub the bird inside and out with garlic.
- Place in the crockpot.
- Lay a couple of pats of butter on top of the breast.
- Pour in the broth.
- Cook on low 6-8 hours.
- Serve with the garlic butter sauce.
Maple Glazed Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine
Salt and pepper (to taste)
4 pieces chicken
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°.
- Mix maple syrup, lemon juice and butter together in a small saucepan.
- Simmer 5 minutes.
- Spray a baking dish.
- Place chicken in the dish.
- Add salt and pepper to the chicken.
- Bake 10 minutes.
- Remove chicken from oven and pour on glaze.
- Bake 15 minutes more or until juices run clear.
These recipes are from our Dining On A Dime Cookbooks, Volumes 1 and 2.
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Homemade Chicken Soup Recipe
Make this warm and comforting soup with your chicken leftovers. The roasted chicken adds a little different and yummy flavor. Don’t be frightened by all the ingredients. You can chop a lot of it the day before you make it and just dump and add the rest.
Ingredients
1 cup onions, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp. olive oil or canola oil
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. thyme
8 cups chicken broth
4 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tsp. salt (adjust to taste)
2 cups chicken, cooked and diced
2 cups wide egg noodles
1/2 cup evaporated milk
Instructions
- Sauté* the first 4 ingredients in oil in a large Dutch oven (big pot or pan).
- Stir in flour, oregano and thyme.
- Gradually add chicken broth, potatoes and salt.
- Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
- Add chicken and noodles and simmer 10 more minutes.
- Reduce heat and add milk. Do not boil.
Notes
*Saute means to stir and cook until tender, usually about 3-5 minutes.
You can change this recipe to suit your taste:
- Add other veggies like peas, corn or broccoli.
- You can leave out the potatoes or substitute them with something like sweet potatoes or squash.
- You can leave out the milk (but the milk makes a nice creamy soup) and/or add more or less broth.
- You can also adjust the spices, for example you might add a little Tabasco sauce to give it a little kick.
3 Ingredient Chicken Tacos Recipe
Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 package taco seasoning (or 2 Tbsp. homemade taco seasoning)
1 can Rotel tomatoes
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in the crockpot.
- Cook on low in the crockpot for 6-8 hours.
- Shred the chicken and use in tacos, burritos, enchiladas or in a salad.
Notes
- You can serve this chicken tacos recipe hot or cold, so the leftovers would be great to take in a lunch.
- Rotel tomatoes are canned tomatoes with chopped green peppers or jalapeños. Any brand that is labeled “tomatoes and green chilies” should be OK. You can also just used canned tomatoes and add the kind of peppers that you like.
Parmesan Chicken Tenders Recipe
This easy 3 ingredient parmesan chicken tenders recipe makes light and crispy fried chicken tenders perfect for families! This is a quick and easy chicken dinner recipe you can make fast. Our teenagers love this recipe and often request that I make it for dinner!
Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken, cut into strips
1 egg, beaten
Parmesan cheese (the stuff that is already grated in the green can)
Oil for frying (I usually use canola or vegetable oil.)
Instructions
- Cut boneless, skinless chicken into strips.
- In a bowl, beat the egg.
- Place the Parmesan cheese into a separate bowl.
- Place about 2 Tbsp. oil into a frying pan.
- Dip each strip of boneless, skinless chicken into the beaten egg. Turn to coat.
- Then dip it into the Parmesan cheese and turn to coat the other side.
- Fry in your favorite oil.
Easy Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
Here’s an easy chicken and pasta dish your family is sure to love! This easy chicken cacciatore recipe is a tasty Italian dish that is quick and easy to make! A traditional family favorite that will leave everyone asking for more!
Ingredients
2–3 lbs. chicken pieces
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 (14 oz.) cans stewed tomatoes
2 cups mushrooms sliced
1 cup zucchini, sliced
1 tsp. fresh basil, crushed or 1/4 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper, to taste
4 cups pasta, cooked
Instructions
- Brown chicken in oil, 10 minutes, turning occasionally
- Drain.
- Add the rest of the ingredients except the pasta.
- Cover and simmer 25 minutes.
- Serve over pasta.
Apricot Chicken Recipe
This easy apricot chicken recipe makes tasty baked chicken with a delicious apricot and barbecue glaze. Because it uses apricot preserves, you can enjoy it even when apricots are not in season. It’s a perfect way to serve chicken when you’re tired of the same old dinner.
Ingredients
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. oil, olive or vegetable
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. onion soup mix
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Cook the chicken in garlic and oil until brown.
- Place in an 8-inch baking dish.
- Combine everything else and pour over the chicken.
- Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes until juices run clear.
- Serve over rice.
Summer Chicken Fruit Salad Recipe
- Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
Salad:
Dressing:
Instructions
- Arrange spinach leaves on 2 plates.
- Layer the other ingredients in order.
- Mix the mayonnaise and orange juice.
- Drizzle over salad.
Oven Fried Chicken Recipe with Biscuits
This easy oven fried chicken recipe with biscuits is a super easy way to make yummy fried chicken your family will love! It’s a cheap and easy meal and my teenagers love it so much, they always ask for more!
This recipe is from our Dining On A Dime Cookbook, Volume 2.
Ingredients
4 –5 Tbsp. margarine (not butter)
1/2 cup baking mix
4–6 pieces of chicken
Salt and pepper
1 can refrigerator biscuits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Melt margarine in a 9×13 inch pan.
- Pour baking mix on a plate or in a plastic bag.
- Roll chicken in the margarine, then into the baking mix.
- Place back into the pan.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, until the juices run clear.
- About 5-10 minutes before the chicken is done, push the pieces of chicken tightly against one side of the pan and lay biscuits into the pan on the opposite side.
- Finish baking until the biscuits are brown.
Notes
It’s okay to lay the biscuits in the margarine and all in the bottom of the pan. That makes the biscuits margarine soaked and crispy. Oh, yum!
these all sound good, quick and super easy, but my all time favorite is good old roasted chicken with stuffing in the bird (I know current thinking says stuffing can’t go in the bird, I still like it, LOL) I still save my old bread pieces in the freezer and tear them up for stuffing, w/onions, celery, butter, etc. my comfort dinner, for sure!
and then, chicken tacos, and then chicken noodle soup made w/big old egg noodles!
I know that today they say, “oh dear, you mustn’t Stuff the bird!”, but I’m with you. Humans have been stuffing birds for, what?… a thousand years? What we do here is make another pan of stuffing/”dressing” that comes up drier, and then mix the dry stuffing with that cooked in the bird, which is sometimes kind of too ‘wet’. Confession: I almost prefer the stuffing to the bird!
I agree! More stuffing ( in the South we call it dressing!) Yummm!!
I agree, Donna. We think alike.
I take a bag of frozen chicken breasts, cut an onion in a few big pieces,add a can of Campbells Golden Mushroom soup and a can of water into the crockpot on low for 6-7 hours. Serve over mashed potatoes. You can add a cut up peeled apple for a bit of sweetness. You can also throw in small potatoes for less work.
I so look forward to getting your newsletter for fresh ideas for cooking, cleaning and organizing! The money saving tips are wonderful and I use several of them. I got your Dining on a Dime cookbook but am going to have to buy another one as when I put it on the stove so I could get the measurements for the Beef Stroganoff recipes, I went to turn down the boiling water for the egg noodles and instead turned on the burner under my book! I didn’t notice it until the book was on fire! It didn’t burn up the whole book, just the first part of the book as I had it folded to the Beef Stroganoff page. I am totally bummed as I hadn’t read the whole book yet and I have lost the pages from the Chicken Barley Soup to the Beef Stroganoff. I made the Chicken Barely soup last night. My husband wasn’t too thrilled about that but said the Beef Stroganoff was to be put on the menu on a regular basis. He ate the leftovers for breakfast! I made the Chicken Barely soup on a big scale and took some of it over to my parents and they loved it! I made enough to freeze too, as I really liked it. I like taking your recipes and adding to them. On the Beef Stroganoff, I added an onion sliced in rings that I browned first, then added the meat to cook. Then I used Cream of Celery as we don’t like mushrooms. I made the rest of it to your recipe then added a drained can of peas to make it a one pot meal. For the Chicken Barley Soup, I boiled a whole chicken (The store had a sale for whole chickens for 88 cents a pound so I bought 10 of them!) and then I saved the water and took out the chicken to cool so I could bone it. I added chicken base to the chicken stock and more water. I took all the dark meat and put it back in the pot. The white meat I saved for tonight for Chicken Spaghetti. I chopped up 2 bunches of green onions, 8 stalks of celery, a bunch of carrot chips and added onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, salt and a really good squirt of dijon mustard. Dijon mustard adds a kick to it but not too much of one, depending on how much you add. Anyway, I am going to save up the money to buy another copy of your Dining on a Dime as mine is kind of a mess from the flames and the water damage from putting out the flames. Thanks for everything!
Oh boy. Can’t wait to try them.
I always enjoy chicken tacos ! They are a great way to eat more veggies :)
I can’t wait to try some of these recipes on one of my daughter’s family who are really picky eaters. There are so many things they won’t eat, but I think they will eat quite a few of these. Thank you for doing this.
I absolutely love stuffing at Thanksgiving. My recipe includes English muffins and a grainy bread. I add celery onion apples and a handful of raisens. A couple handfuls of chopped walnuts with sage and salt and pepper to taste. Yes I cook it in the bird of course. My kids won’t eat the stuffing from the bird so I cook a separate dish for them. They are missing out!
I am a new viewer to your channel & I like your honest, truthful, pull no punches, tell it like it is attitude. Thank goodness, we need more shows like yours. Can’t wait to try some of your recipes. They look simple, yet tasty. Just my style!
Thank you so much Carolyn. You don’t know how much we appreciate these kind comments. : ) Holler if you ever have any questions about something and thank you for joining us.
How much is the
Vintage cook book?
Debbie here is the link to all of our books and their prices. https://shop.livingonadime.com/
Hi there
I am amazed at your dinners and the low low cost – you are providing me a wonderful service
Thanks much 👍
Thank you Sandra. So glad our tips are helping you. Holler if you have any questions.
I so appreciate your ministry/business, your emails as well as your videos. I feel like you are my neighbor, even though it is only electronically.
Do you ever feature substitutions or advice on how to reduce salt in your recipes? I am trying to do that for health reasons.
Thank you Lyndel. We don’t usually do that but most of our recipes are easy enough to adjust if needed. For example what do you usually substitution in place of salt for other things. You could use that. You can also use sauces or something like that. Just google what can be used for salt substitution and then use that in our recipes.
Love your simple easy recipes!! Thanks for all you do!!
You are so welcome Joyce and thank you for letting us know.
The Easy Chicken Curry Recipe that’s available on the Living on a Dime website is a favorite of mine. I love Indian/Thai food but why spend a small fortune at a restaurant when you can prepare it at home for a fraction of the cost – and it’s just as delicious!
Easy and quick! So glad I discovered your recipes . Bad shoulders & knees. Can not do surgery because am a caregiver. Old fashion cook from scratch which takes lots of prep & standing.
You are helping me see new ways of shortening my meal prep. Thanks.
Oh thank you so much KLM. I am glad the recipes are helping. It is hard when you have handicaps like that.
Thank you for some interesting sounding recipes. I do have a question about the OvenFried Chicken with Biscuits. Why do you say not to sub the margarine with butter?
We don’t ever use margarine.
Thank you.
Because in some recipes when you coat things in butter the butter burns much easier and faster than margarine. In other recipes like cookies if the recipe calls for shortening or margarine and you replace it with butter it will change the texture of the cookies often making them spread and flatten more than they are suppose too.
What can you use if you don’t have baking mix? Flour?
It is really better with baking mix because baking mix has baking powder, shortening and a few other ingredients in it that makes the crust much crispier and nice over plain flour. Here is our recipe for homemade baking mix (you can cut the recipe down by half or more if you want to) or you can just buy some. https://www.livingonadime.com/homemade-bisquick-baking-mix-recipe/
Just made the parmesan chicken tenders. They turned out great and so yummy.
So glad you liked them Bobbi. Thanks for letting us know.
Your teachings have given me a new way to look at “frugal finances “! We have paid off our house and are looking forward to living comfortably yet frugally! Thank you so much for opening my eyes to the reality of growing old with financial security.
Oh that is so great that you have paid off your house and gotten your finances under control. We love hearing from you guys and your success stories and the great job you do because I know it takes a lot of hard work and “stick to itness” to get there. Good job!!!! Thanks for letting us know.