Creativity is a key part of making my $5 dinners every night. It would be much easier to make spaghetti or chicken and rice every night. But there’s no fun in that! A little imagination with some basic ingredients can really add some spark to your meals.
Here’s a delicious dinner I made recently for, yes, $5:
Bacon-Wrapped BBQ Chicken
serves 4
- 3-4 chicken breasts ($2.29)
- 1/2 cup BBQ sauce ($0.20)
- 1-2 apples, peeled and grated ($0.50)
- 1 lemon, juiced ($0.30)
- 6 slices bacon ($0.50)
- 2-3 sweet potatoes ($0.99)
- 1 cup chopped frozen broccoli ($0.25)
Directions:
1. In small bowl, combine BBQ sauce with grated apple and lemon juice.
2. Place chicken breasts in base of crock pot, pour BBQ/apple mixture over the chicken. Wrap 2 pieces of bacon around each chicken breast. Set to low and cook for 8 hours.
3. Slit sweet potatoes with knife or vent with fork. Bake sweet potatoes at 350 degrees for 1 hour in baking dish with 1/4 inch water. Cover with foil. Remove and let cool about 10 minutes. Peel skins off of the potato and mash. Serve with cinnamon and butter if you like.
4. Cook frozen broccoli as directed on package.
5. Serve yummy chicken breast with side of broccoli and sweet potatoes.
If you’d like a $5 Dinner meal, just like this one, delivered to your inbox every night, come on over to 5DollarDinners.com and subscribe to our email updates!
ZenCityChick says
I’m TOTALLY making this for my boyfriend tonight!!!
I love chicken, he loves bbq/bacon – win win!
http://zencitychick.blogspot.com
[email protected] says
That looks pretty yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Mary A. says
Great use of the chicken. I think I will try it this week and maybe instead of the grated apple use applesauce like jennifer said since I always have that in the pantry. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Jennifer says
Instead of using apples, I thought I might try mixing the bbq sauce with applesauce. I bet it would have the same effect, you wouldn’t have to use lemon juice, and it might make the meat more tender!
KN says
If you have an Aldi’s- They sell 3.5 lbs of chicken breasts for 6.99 daily. That is pretty reasonable to me.
Maureen says
Wow! This looks delicious! I also happen to have a lot of apples lying around for something else I was going to make, but this sounds better. I can’t wait to try it.
Penny Holder says
Can’t wait to try it!
Penny
http://tupelodeals.blogspot.com
Sarah A Thrifty Mom says
Albertsons has it’s boneless, skinless Chicken breasts on sale this week for $1.77 a pound. It’s right on the front page of the ad. I always buy at least 10 pounds when it is this cheap. I put 2 breasts in a freezer bag. then stack them all in the freezer. My family has chicken for the next few months.
Also I was able to get Kraft BBQ sauce for .25 cents this week at albertsons……no coupon needed check it out on my blog. Stock up at this price!
Sarah
http://athriftymom.com
http://athriftymom.com/2009/01/albertsons-kraft-bbq-sauce-for-25-cents.html
A Frugal Friend says
I make a similar recipe in the oven……cut the chicken breast in half and wrap bacon around with a toothpick….then pour teriyaki sauce over it….love that flavor better.
Bake for 35 minutes on 350 degrees….serve with my corn casserole and Voila! A great meal.
http://afrugalfriend.blogspot.com
$5 Dinner Mom says
Amybee, yes these are boneless skinless.
And Chantelle, you could do this in a glass baking dish. I would bake at 350 for 45 minutes covered with foil, to keep the chicken nice and tender. Then I would remove the foil for the last 15 minutes to let the bacon get a little crispy.
🙂 Erin
$5 Dinner Mom says
Erin for $5 Dinners here!
Yes…I only buy chicken when it’s a lost leader and on sale for $1.77/lb or less! I never pay any more than that! Watch those grocery circulars. I will go out of my way to get it at that price if it’s advertised at another store in my area for that price!
Marianne @ TheNewFrugalMom says
This looks great, Erin! I love bacon-wrapped anything!
😉
Oh, and JMorrell Bacon is on sale this week at Kroger, B1G1Free, $3.99 (Cincy Region) and Tyson frozen chicken breasts are on sale, $4.99 for a 2.5 lb bag.
amybee says
Are those boneless skinless breasts?
Lora says
I made this recipe a few weeks ago after I saw it on her blog and it turned out great! She posted it at a really good time for me because I had both apples and bacon that needed to be used up!
Jan says
that looks really yummy- unfortunately chicken breast around here is about $5 or $6 a package of 3 breasts!
*****************
Money Saving Mom here: That’s definitely the normal price here, too. However, I don’t think I’ve bought it at the normal price in ages! I only buy it when it goes on a great sale or when it is reduced for quick sale. I’m pretty sure that’s how Erin got it for this recipe.
Charlene says
i was going to make Robin Millers Crock Pot chicken and apples tonight and just realized I don’t have any cream soup! I have all this- what great timing!
Chantelle says
Could you make the chicken without a crock pot? I’m a wife in a small apartment with no room for one.
Valerie says
Looking forward to giving this a try… thanks!
Valerie
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com
Tanya says
I made this last week after seeing it on her blog and it was awesome. we did regular potatoes instead of sweet and a different vegetable. Great idea of house to use of chicken. I even got Chicken at Super Saver marked down and stocked up on the freezer since boneless skinless chicken tenderloins were $2.00-$2.50 a package.
Cheryl says
I’d like to know where I can find chicken that cheap!