**Admittedly, due to inflation (or devaluation of the dollar), this has become increasingly difficult to keep the cost of chicken down. It is still very feasible, though, to keep costs at $30 a month or less.
Since we have been learning to budget, I began to ask myself how we could make certain expenses (like grocery bills) shrink. I quickly realized that I already had several crucial ideals at my disposal. These included cooking every dish from scratch (it's really not as hard as you think), a passion for cooking, making big dishes often that last for more than one meal, and never wasting a thing! If I wanted to save money every month, these tools had to go into overdrive.
I was originally spending probably $10-15 a week on overpriced organic chicken breasts, drumsticks, and thighs. I quickly realized that buying whole chickens was much cheaper and easy to cut up myself. At most grocery stores, you can find whole chickens for roughly $13-15 each. I buy mine from Costco or Sprouts at roughly $2.99 per pound. At Costco they come in a package of 2, each weighing about 4-5 lbs. These two chickens last me all month long. Granted, I am feeding a family of 4 so your results may vary if you have more mouths to feed. I stretch these chickens out in a number of ways. First I will place one in the fridge and the other in the freezer when I get home from the store. Sometimes I will roast the entire chicken and make several dishes from the pieces. Here is a basic recipe for roasted chicken below.
Roasted Chicken
1 whole chicken
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the melted butter, olive oil, and seasonings in a small bowl. Place whole chicken in baking dish. Now time to get your hands dirty. I recommend taking this mixture and rubbing it all over the chicken, including under the skin, for best flavor. Put in the oven and roast for about 1 1/2 hours. Baste about every 15 minutes, so the chicken does not dry out. Once finished, the skin should be nicely browned with an internal temperature of 165 degrees or more. Remember to save those juices for super easy pan gravy.
In order for this system to work, you must use EVERY part of the chicken. Sometimes, I will cut up the chicken before it's cooked. I will sometimes cut the breasts into thin slices and throw them in a marinade in order to grill or roast them. I pair them with roasted veggies, throw them in a salad, or make some kind of pasta dish. The leftover dark meat usually gets roasted, BBQed, or poached to make pulled chicken. I can then use that for a thousand different things, such as soups, casseroles, chicken salad, etc. etc. etc. Lastly, the leftover carcass will be made into a simple chicken broth or healing bone broth for even more dishes.
As I've stated previously, my family and I have no-meat meals (including lunch) at least 3-4 times a week, which saves money and is great for your body. Transitioning to a more plant-based diet has enabled us to make our pocketbook work for us, and is great for when you're trying to lose weight and build muscle definition. You can read more about these thoughts in my article on how to transition to a healthier lifestyle.
Overall, I spend about $50 or less on meat a month: $30 on chicken and $20 on beef. I will usually buy 3 lbs. of organic ground beef from Aldi (about $4.69 each when on sale) or a 3-pack (4lbs.) for $18 when they have it. Sometimes I will purchase organic chuck roast or stew meat for around $10 at Aldi as well (usually about 1.3 lbs.). I will cut the roast into three equal parts and store them separately in the freezer for several different dishes. Badabing. That is how you make the grocery store your b****. Sorry for the language, but it feels so good to 'stick it to the man'!
If you have a few more family members, you will need to budget for a few more pounds of meat every month. Again, do not assume that you need to give everyone a hunk of meat for every meal. It's just not feasible, and it's not healthy. The real way to make this work is by jumping on the plant-based bandwagon. Here are a few more articles to help you out:
There are a few other plant-based recipes on the site for you to explore and consider.
Here are a few more ideas on what to do with all that chicken....
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