Your best cheap dish

[SobaAddict70]

Oh, that's easy.

Roast chicken (made T. Keller's style)

Leftovers become:

Chicken and bread salad, Zuni Cafe style

Chicken and mushroom ragout, over noodles

Chicken salad sandwiches, with homemade mayo

Chicken fried rice or congee

and the best part, the carcass usually end up as:

chicken stock, or soup base for Hainanese chicken rice

Never has one bird fed so many.

Edited March 8, 2011 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[Shalmanese]

My go-to dish is spaghetti with peas. At it's most simple, it's just dried a lb of dried spaghetti & a bag of frozen peas which are cooked through and then blitzed into a coarse puree and seasoned with S&P. Incredibly cheap.

[Dakki]

Frijoles charros. Get some complete protein in there with bacon ends and trimmings, pork skin and bulk chorizo. Make some white rice to go on the side and you can live for a week for under $5, as I had ample opportunity to prove in my starving student days.

This also happens to be my most-requested dish.

[annachan]

Eggs! One of my favorite pasta dish is just cooked pasta of your choice, a little good olive oil, s & p to taste, and then top with a fried egg (runny yolk) and some toasted breadcrumbs. Break the yolk over the pasta and it's just gorgeous.

Egg and rice is another cheap meal. Either a fried egg or two on top of the rice with some soy sauce, or just a simple egg fried rice.

[Peter the eater]

When my neighbors butcher a hog, I can do pretty well with some discount pork as well

It's hard to beat pork for value and versatility. It's a better deal than poultry, seafood, beef and other red meat. Better still if you like those bits between the nose and tail more than your neighbor with the hog does.

[Peter the eater]

Eggs! One of my favorite pasta dish is just cooked pasta of your choice, a little good olive oil, s & p to taste, and then top with a fried egg (runny yolk) and some toasted breadcrumbs. Break the yolk over the pasta and it's just gorgeous.

They're so versatile and sustaining. A large chicken egg has 75 calories, 5g of fat, a little iron and 10% of a day's vitamin A. Twenty-five cents for all that, what a deal.

[helenjp]

At this time of year, cabbage udon is a favorite cheap and tasty dinner...the spring cabbages are sweet, with thick, meaty stems and leaves, and go incredibly well with fried tofu, bland udon, and a fairly mild udon soup. Lifting the udon noodles while still chewy and simmering them briefly with the other ingredients is the key. The only snag is the quality of the fried tofu (thin-sliced aburage is best, but even thick atsu-age is OK) - good quality aburage does a wonderful job of absorbing flavor. Pasta and cabbage go well together too...I believe there is a Jamie Oliver recipe which takes that old standby up a level too.

Cheap summer entertaining - husband's expat friends often come to stay for days or weeks in the summer. When the piggy bank sounds hollow, I make a sashimi "namero" of fresh sardines, saury, or baby yellowtail. The flesh is minced up very finely with scallions　or Japanese dividing onions, green shiso leaves, ginger (occasionally myouga), and miso to season. Drizzle (saturate!) with vinegar or citrus juice and a sprinkling of shredded ginger to serve. If the fish is very strongly flavored (sardines, saury etc.), a touch of raw garlic in the mix doesn't hurt. I haven't tried it recently, but there is no reason why this shouldn't work with different herbs or spices for a Thai/S.E. Asian, Italian, or Middle Eastern flavor.

Vegetarian chirashi sushi is a cheap and pretty thing on the table, if you want an alternative to the egg fried rice theme!

[scubadoo97]

As far as good and Cheap it's hard to beat Mujaddarah/rice and lentils. Both are very inexpensive and work so well together both in flavor and to make a complete protein.

[Burnin' It]

Anything I can braise. I'm a meat eater. Chances are, if you have a cheap cut, braise it, and you'll get something good.

[djyee100]

Chicken wing spaghetti sauce. The wings add flavor to the sauce and make for good eating with your fingers. Wish I could take credit for the idea, but somebody's Italian grandmother thought of it first.

[toolprincess]

Fried potatoes and over easy eggs with some hot sauce and/or ketchup.

Beans and rice.

Casseroles.

[maggiethecat]

Poached egg on buttered toast.With herbs and leftover sauces I can tweak this forever.

[janeer]

I make pulled pork, cole slaw, rolls, and barbecue sauce for end-of-semester meals for students. Very cheap, delicious, easy, portable.

Spaghetti and meatballs. (spaghetti with garlic, oil, salt and red pepper, still cheaper)

And my favorite one-person dish, parsley omelet or potato omelet.

Of course, there is always fried rice.

[jxt]

Hard to choose between chili or pizza. Or maybe polenta with wild mushrooms.

[Doodad]

For a "new" dish, it would probably be Ma Po. A little ground pork is cheap and tofu is not expensive. Ditto rice.

But, sheer frugality and good is the leftover users so nothing goes to waste. Brunswick stew, fried rice, jambalaya, soups. Everything in and empty the fridge.

[dividend]

Chicken and dumplings are the cheapest great thing meal I can think of. I can make a pot of this from what's left after four people eat off a small roasted chicken, so I think of it as like a "free" bonus. A 10-serving bonus.

Chickpea and tomato curry is great too. I always have canned chickpeas and canned tomatoes around.

And of course, ham bean soup. I was excited to discover that the Honeybaked Ham store sells ham bones, for ~$3/lb. I picked one up for ~$10 that not only made a giant pot of soup with mixed beans and canned tomatoes (10+ servings), but it also had enough meat on it to make many dinner portions. Beat the heck out of buying a $70 half ham when the bone is the best part anyway.

[Terrasanct]

I have to admit I've never spent $70 on a ham! It sounds good, though.

Tonight's dinner is beef-barley stew, cooked in the slow cooker. Might make some biscuits if I have time. My husband will be beside himself if I do. I love beef barley stew, and it is very inexpensive.

[skavoovie]

This may be temporary, but oxtail. I go to a farm to pick up beef about once a month. My beef guy has never sold his oxtail--and only has it packaged because one of his long-time customers will take it off his hands. I became customer number two who will do him this "favor."

Free oxtail

I buy salmon heads and scraps at the fish monger and make a variety of things out of them, depending on how much meat remains. At least, I can get a nice soup with just potatoes and cream, but often there's enough meat for a variety of options.

[annachan]

Chicken wing spaghetti sauce. The wings add flavor to the sauce and make for good eating with your fingers. Wish I could take credit for the idea, but somebody's Italian grandmother thought of it first.

This sounds really interesting. Is it just wings cooked in a red sauce? I have some wings in the freezer and may give this a try.

[ShutterSaute]

Chana Masala definitely. Basically just need some rice and chick peas!

[djyee100]

Chicken wing spaghetti sauce. The wings add flavor to the sauce and make for good eating with your fingers. Wish I could take credit for the idea, but somebody's Italian grandmother thought of it first.

This sounds really interesting. Is it just wings cooked in a red sauce? I have some wings in the freezer and may give this a try.

Yes. The chicken wings are simmered in the red sauce. When done, they should be soft, almost falling off the bone, but still hold their shape. Browning the wings beforehand will firm them up and add a nice touch of color when they're cooked.

[JadeShing]

I recently tried a one pot dish which consisted of sliced chicken breast from the freezer mixed with campbells mushroom soup, then I added some left-over steamed white rice from last nights meal in to make it more starchy.

Had it on the simmer for about 30 mins and it tasted pretty good which was great because I went into it with kinda- low expectations haha.. I'll try to get a photo of this crazyness next time ^^

[JadeShing]

Chana Masala definitely. Basically just need some rice and chick peas!

Rice is always great! Btw you have some tasty photos on your website sir!

[_john]

japan centric but...

stir fried bean sprouts 30¥

okara (the solids left over when making tofu/soy milk) 0¥

cold tofu with soy and ginger 13¥

noodles of many varieties 19¥

I don't know if there are supermarkets this cheap in eastern Japan. I've heard that this is a western Japan phenomenon.

[andiesenji]

My favorite, very inexpensive dish, is a Bean, Bean, Bean & Rice with Bacon and Onion that can fill several bellies for only a few dollars. It stretches a little bacon a long, long way.

The beans part consists of a medley of black-eye peas (beans), red or kidney beans and green beans. Or you can go wild and use black beans, white beans and cranberry beans, just cook them separately first.

Dry beans and fresh green beans work but canned beans are fine. Total 3-4 cups

Any kind of rice, cooked 3-4 cups. Or equal amounts total beans and the rice

1 medium onion chopped

1/2 to 1 cup cup cooked bacon, chopped and loosely filling cup measure.

Cook the bacon till done but not too crisp. Transfer to plate covered by paper towels to drain.

Cook the onion in the bacon fat until soft and transparent.

Season to taste with your favorite seasoning blend or with salt and pepper.

Add the cooked rice, toss to distribute fat throughout.

Add the cooked (or canned) beans and the bacon.

Cover tightly, reduce heat to very low and leave it for 40 minutes

If you have a rice cooker you can cook the rice in it and then add the cooked bacon and onion, then the beans and reset to "Cook" and it will heat up nicely. This works particularly well with canned beans.