Mahogany chicken with chipotle-lime sweet potatoes & cilantro chimichurri: $2.16/serving

If you’re thinking this looks awfully fancy and composed for something I’d come up with on my own, your suspicions would be founded. It’s an oldie but goodie from the Food Network—a recipe I’ve had in the rotation for quite a few years now when I happen to have some chicken thighs to spare (in this case, Costco: $1.69/lb.) and the weather calls for sweet potatoes. Not only are the colors fantastic, but it’s relatively quick to make and is an excellent vehicle for an ending-its-lifespan bunch of cilantro. (If you haven’t yet been enlightened with my tip for making bunches of herbs last for weeks past when they’d normally die a sad, slimy death in the crisper, check it out.)

Peruvian chicken chili with peanuts (aji de gallina): $2.60/serving

It’s been hot lately. Like, triple-digit hot. Which, for someone who’s almost seven months pregnant and doesn’t have air conditioning, means suddenly entering a special circle of hell. A place where every appendage on your body feels like it weighs 3,000 pounds and sweat comes out of places you didn’t even know had sweat glands. Some nights I admit I didn’t cook at all; others I simply threw a banana, some ice and frozen berries, and some yogurt into a blender and called it a day. This is also one of the only meals I’ve made lately that isn’t something I’ve already posted on the blog. It’s quite similar to one of my favorite weeknight dishes of all time, pozole verde, but with a sweet-and-umami kick from peanuts and Parmesan cheese. It’s a great way to use up inexpensive cuts of chicken—just grind them up in the food processor.

Korean fried chicken: $2.12/serving

Fried chicken can be expensive. Not only is there the cost of the chicken itself, there’s also the copious amount of oil used to fry it in. But did you know you can re-use fryer oil several times, even if it was used to cook meat? Just strain it when you’re done and store it in the fridge or freezer. This way $4 worth of oil (provided you’re already buying it inexpensively in bulk) becomes $2 or even $1 worth. Also, while it’s cheapest to just buy a whole chicken and cut it up yourself, it’s often possible to find packages of drumsticks on markdown—not a lot of people seem to buy them, especially the big packages of 16 or more, so be on the lookout. When you see them, take them home, package them into manageable portions, and freeze them. This particular version of fried chicken was born of just that: a package of drumsticks on major markdown, plus a bounty of garlic harvested from my neighbor’s yard. (The pineapple was not on sale, but I’m going to invoke the pregnancy pass for that one.)

Grilled chicken yakitori: $1.82/serving

Despite the fact we in Portland are more or less forced to make the absolute most of our three months of sunshine, I don’t do a whole lot of grilling. Mostly because there’s not much to grill other than large amounts of (expensive and not-too-good-for-you) meat, and also because if I am going to grill a large amount of expensive and not-too-good-for-you meat, I’d rather do it on the smoker and really make the whole enterprise worthwhile. Dragging out the grill for just a quick 20-30 minutes just seems so inefficient. But if I’m going to do it, this is one of the things I like to make. It’s on skewers so you can choose as many or as few bite-sized chicken pieces as you want, and the yakitori glaze really complements the grill-smoke flavor. Serve it as a full meal with rice and salad, or bring some skewers to a group barbecue.

Arroz con pollo: 96 cents/serving

There are a lot of variations floating around out there for Latin American arroz con pollo—saffron, achiote paste, long-grain rice, arborio rice, peas, olives. My version, of course, is what I feel to be the best-tasting arroz con pollo for the least amount of money. No extraneous gewgaws or pricey ingredients—just a sofrito of bacon and vegetables; some oregano, cumin, chicken, rice, broth, and tomato paste; and a bottle of beer. Simple, satisfying, and one-pot. It also makes a ton, so it’s good for a crowd or potluck, or for heat-and-eat lunches throughout the week.

Gorgonzola- and prosciutto-stuffed chicken breast with strawberry-balsamic sauce: $1.94/serving

The garden strawberries! They just won’t quit! In my zeal to use them, I even broke one of my personal rules against meals consisting largely of one big ol’ hunk of meat. And it was chicken breast, at that. (I usually prefer thighs, as they’re more flavorful and less prone to dryness, but in this case breasts were easier to stuff.) However, this is the best savory use for strawberries—outside of salads—I’ve ever found, and I’ve been making it for years now (pre $35-a-week, of course) to great acclaim. If you want to get real fancy you could even convert this into a roulade, which would make for a much prettier picture than the one above. The sauce also doubles as a salad dressing; feel free to add a mess of spinach leaves or other greens to the other half of the plate. (As I did after this picture was taken.)

Szechuan chicken: $1.44/serving

I have a complicated relationship with this dish, which originally came out of an old Jeff Smith “Frugal Gourmet” paperback (I couldn’t tell you which one; I threw out the book long ago and kept only this page) that belonged to my mom. Though she wrote on this very recipe (“great!”) and I remember eating it growing up, she denies ever having made it. I started cooking it myself about a decade ago simply because it was easy, but B. is, has been, and probably always will be completely obsessed with it. He can eat an entire pan by himself, and for some reason never tires of what, to me, is a depressingly rudimentary flavor profile of pepper, soy sauce, and sherry. That said, it is a simple, tasty, cheap weeknight meal that can be used as a template for whatever you have on hand—feel free to add greens, vegetables, garlic, ginger…whatever strikes your fancy. Or keep to the original recipe, in all its original glory. It just might become an unexpected favorite in your house as well.

Ye olde chicken noodle soup: 83 cents/serving

Found yourself a whole chicken on sale and not sure what to do with it? You’ve got two failsafe options: roast it (or, as I prefer to do, cut it up and roast the parts separately), or simmer it whole for soup. This week has been more of a soup week, so I chose to do the latter with my little friend. There’s nothing at all fancy, different, or innovative about this soup. It’s the one everyone’s mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother probably made; simple, comforting, and cheap, and nothing smells better bubbling away on top of the stove. In fact, you don’t even really need a recipe for it, but I’m providing one anyway for inspiration.

Chinese takeout-style orange chicken: $1.30/serving

You know those occasional dark days—you’re dieting, perhaps, or on a juice cleanse, or had a bad day at work—when you drive by a Panda Express, which is unfathomably gross under the best of circumstances, and your eyes suddenly do this and you’re unable to think about anything but stuffing your face with gloriously greasy, MSG-laden Chinese food? No? Then we will never be friends. But, more to the point, despite my best intentions, I have these days, and I’m ashamed to admit that the only thing stopping me isn’t health considerations or dignity, but price. Unless it’s a super-special occasion, I physically cannot bring myself to pay more than $3 per serving for dinner. I just can’t. Especially for what’s basically a small pile of fried meat pieces of indeterminate origin. Thankfully, most takeout-style Chinese food is easy to make at home and is not only infinitely cheaper, but tastes better and is (somewhat) healthier.

Chicken taco stuffed shells: $2.04/serving

Astute readers recall there have been a couple meals on this blog that veer (in my mind, anyway) dangerously into “Semi-Homemade” territory. Thankfully it’s literally been only a couple—the mini-meatloaves that use prepackaged onion soup mix, and the honey-lime chicken enchiladas for which store-bought flour tortillas are absolutely mandatory. As ashamed as I am of posting those (which I did because, as much as it pains me to admit it, they’re too good not to share), this recipe absolutely takes the cake. I practically had to put a paper bag over my head when it came time to buy prepackaged taco seasoning and taco sauce. The worst part is that I’ve tried quite a few times to make this using my own taco seasoning and taco sauce, and it’s never the same. I will never feel comfortable putting in the amounts of salt, sugar and MSG the big companies do, and it’s all necessary in this dish. This is certainly not something you’d serve at a dinner party, or even admit in public to making, but it’s a quintessential crowd pleaser—perfect for potlucks, parties, kids, bringing to someone who’s sick or has a new baby at home, and so on. A word of warning: They are addictive.