Chicken Stretching

Every two weeks I buy a bag of individually frozen chicken breasts, usually from Aldi.  At that store a 3 lb. bag costs me $5.49.  That’s the best deal I’ve found by far.  Compare that to Walmart’s 2.5 lb. bag at $6.99. 

Normally there are 5-6 good/decent-sized chicken breasts in that bag.  That means I can either get three 2-person one-breast-each meals or six one-breast-cut-up meals.  Usually we have a mixture of each of those options, resulting in about 4-5 meals per bag.  Not a bad deal all around! 

Since chicken breasts are one of the main protein options on our new gluten-free, low fat, low cholesterol eating plan, we are frequent eaters of this ingredient.  (We were even before those recent changes, though.)  Of course, we’re still on a fairly tight grocery budget, so that always factors into things as well.  (When will ever NOT be on a tight budget, I ask?!)  I like to stretch that chicken as far as it will go.

Here are some of our preferred chicken dishes nowadays:

-Chicken & Rice: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, rice (either 1 cup long-grain or 2 cups Minute depending on how much time I’ve got), can of low fat cream soup (if going gluten-free, there are recipes to make your own cream of mushroom soup - http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/homemade-cream-of-mushroom-soup.html - or even Walmart has a version you can substitute that’s only $1.50 for a box), 1 cup water (unless using the gluten-free box kind, which is not condensed).

-Chicken, Onion & Potato Bake: one chicken breast per person, potatoes cut into chunks, onion cut into wedges, onion soup mix (Lipton’s is gluten free!), 3 T water.  Mix it all together & bake.  Easy, low fat, gluten free & delish.

-Salsa Chicken: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, jar of salsa, served over rice. (I used to add a dollop of sour cream but we forgo that with the new diet plan & we haven’t missed it!)

-Chicken Pasta: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, jar of pasta sauce, gluten free pasta.  (We’ve only tried Quinoa brand’s Veggie Curls pasta, but we’ve LOVED it!!  Can’t tell a difference at all.  We haven’t heard great things about Tinkyada Brown Rice pasta options, though.)

-Onion Chicken: one chicken breast per person, pkg onion soup mix, 1/3 cup Miracle Whip, breadcrumbs (yes, you can get gluten free ones, though we haven’t tried them yet.)  Mix the soup mix & Miracle Whip, spread onto the chicken breasts, top with breadcrumbs & bake.  Yum. 

-Chicken Marsala: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, 1 pkg fresh mushrooms, 2 cloves fresh pressed garlic, ½ cup Marsala wine, 1 T lemon juice, served over rice.  We used to serve it over Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice mix, which is tasty, but since that’s not gluten free, we now do regular rice or a gluten-free rice mix.  Trader Joe’s has a Basmati & Wild Rice mix that we’ve tried & it’d be great with it or you can use just plain rice too.

-Italian Chicken: one frozen chicken breast per person, 1 bottle of Italian dressing.  Marinate in fridge for 2-3 days as chicken thaws.  Grill, bake or broil.

-Poppyseed Chicken Stir-fry: one cut-up chicken breast for every two people, ¾ cup creamy poppyseed dressing (we like Kraft’s), 2 cloves fresh pressed garlic, ½ tsp ginger, ½ T dried basil, served over rice or in salad with baby spinach, diced cucumber, red peppers & broccoli slaw mix.