40+ Budget Chicken Recipes

If you’re looking at these budget-friendly chicken recipes because you’re learning to cook at home to stick to a budget, The Ultimate Guide To Saving Money By Cooking At Home will help you with tools, tips, recipes, and more.

Chicken And Dumplings With Canned Biscuits

This chicken and dumplings recipe is so hearty and tastes just like a Southern grandma made it. But, it’s easy enough for a weeknight because you use canned biscuit dough instead of making biscuits from scratch.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Mini chicken pot pies are a great way to use up leftover chicken. Plus, the base is store-bought biscuit dough, rather than pie crust, which makes the recipe really simple to assemble.

Chicken Piccata Soup

This chicken piccata soup has all the flavors of chicken piccata, which you can order in an Italian restaurant, just in soup form. It’s made from simple ingredients that you probably have at home, keeping this recipe really budget friendly.

Easy One Pan Chicken And Veggies

This one pan chicken and veggie bake is a really good dinner that’s filled with flavor. Everything cooks together in one pan, making cleanup a breeze.

Fiesta Chicken Quesadillas

Chicken quesadillas are super cheap to make at home too, a lot less than you’d pay at a restaurant. This version uses a spicy cheese for a little extra pizzazz making these feel like an elevated home meal.

Cheesy Bacon And Mushroom Chicken

This cheesy bacon and mushroom chicken is one of those dinners that feels fancy and like a lot of work, but it’s really just perfect for a weeknight. It’s also a copycat of a restaurant meal I used to order, but way more budget-friendly than what the restaurant would charge.

Sheet Pan Chicken Vesuvio

Sheet pan chicken vesuvio is a really easy meal because everything is cooked in one pan, making clean up a breeze. It uses a whole chicken, so everyone can have the pieces they like and be satisfied.

Caprese Chicken

If you love a caprese salad, you’ll love this chicken caprese. It’s the same ingredients as the salad with the addition of chicken.

Chicken & Eggplant Teriyaki

If you have some extra eggplant, it works perfectly in this chicken and eggplant teriyaki. The recipe for the teriyaki sauce is in the post too, which makes this recipe taste so much better than if you used something from a bottle.

Chicken Parmesan Pasta

Chicken parmesan pasta is a one-pot meal that incorporates all your favorite flavors from chicken parm, but in a much simpler weeknight dinner form.

Chicken Salad BLT

Chicken salad meets a BLT to make this perfect sandwich. Once you make it, you’ll start to dream about it, then make it for lunch all the time.

Mediterranean Grain Bowl

This Mediterranean grain bowl is a copycat of a menu item Panera discontinued, so the only way you can get it is by making it at home. You use a lot of ingredients, but not much of each, so the recipe is pretty cheap when you break it down per serving.

Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas

All the ingredients for chicken fajitas are baked together on a sheet pan, so everything cooks together and is ready at once. It makes a really delicious, budget-friendly dinner that feeds a crowd.

Dutch Oven Whole Roast Chicken

It’s so easy to roast a whole chicken in the oven, even if you’ve never done it before. A whole chicken is a lot more budget friendly than buying chicken in pieces, so once you make this, it may be your go-to choice.

Salsa Pouch Chicken

Pouch chicken sounds intimidating, but it’s honestly one of the easiest ways to cook. And one of the cleanest too. All the ingredients stay in a pouch, and that pouch goes on a tray in the oven, so there’s nothing to wash.

Pulled Chicken Nachos

If you have leftover shredded or pulled chicken, pulled chicken nachos are a breeze to make for either a snack dinner or just a game-day snack.

Spicy Chicken Quesadillas

There’s a little heat in these spicy chicken quesadillas, but you can completely tone that down and customize them to fit your family’s palates.

Pork Rind-Crusted Chicken Fingers

Instead of breading chicken in traditional breadcrumbs or panko, this chicken is coated in pork rinds. It adds a fun texture to the chicken fingers.

Grilled Chicken Salad

This grilled chicken salad is such a good recipe for when it’s hot and you don’t want to turn on the oven. You can make the chicken on an outdoor or an indoor grill, whichever is easier for you.

Chicken Burrito Bowl

Burrito bowls are expensive if you order them out, but they’re so budget-friendly if you make them at home. Plus, you can customize them however you’d prefer.

Buffalo Chicken Crescent Ring

This buffalo chicken crescent ring, served with a ranch in the center for dipping, is the perfect party appetizer. Or, if you serve it with some salad and veggies, it becomes a great dinner idea.

Shredded Chicken And Arugula Flatbread

This shredded chicken and arugula flatbread is easy to make for a decadent-feeling weeknight dinner. It’s made from 2 ingredient dough, so you don’t even have to wait for the dough to proof or rise.

Barbecue Chicken Flatbread

This easy barbecue chicken flatbread uses a homemade flatbread made from 2 ingredient dough, but could use store-bought too if you need to save a little time.

Buffalo Chicken Pork Rind Nachos

Buffalo chicken pork rind nachos are a fun twist on nachos. Instead of tortilla chips, they use pork rinds as the base. It’s great to make if you have extra pork rinds after making the pork rind-crusted chicken above.

Mexican Street Corn Chicken Salad

If you like the flavors of street corn, but you want a dinner version of it, try this Mexican street corn chicken salad. You can serve it as a sandwich or with crackers.

Chicken & Sausage Bake

A few pantry staples combine to make this chicken and sausage bake. The best part about it is you cook everything in a skillet or a pan, so you only have two cooking vessels to clean after dinner.

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup With Chicken

This slow cooker split pea soup is a great way to use any leftover chicken. It’s also really good for anyone who loves split pea soup but isn’t a fan of ham, which it is traditionally made with.

Slow Cooker Barbeque Pulled Chicken Sandwich

Pulled pork is most common, but pulled chicken is a really good recipe if you don’t like pork. It’s great on a bun for an easy dinner.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken With Corn And Beans

One of my favorite recipes on this entire list is this slow cooker salsa chicken. The melty cheese and warm salsa on top of the chicken is so craveable.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

If you’re looking for an easy recipe to feed a crowd, these slow cooker BBQ chicken drumsticks are it. It combines a homemade spice rub with a bottled barbecue sauce to make tender, fall off the bone drumsticks.

Slow Cooker Taco Soup

This slow cooker taco soup has all the flavors of tacos, but in soup form. The best part about it is that it’s made in the slow cooker, making dinner so simple for you.

Slow Cooker Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a really good, frugal recipe. You can make it in bulk and freeze it for when you’re not feeling well and want some soup.

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

Curry is one of the foods I always eat when I visit Japan. It has flavorful stew-like broth and isn’t spicy like an Indian curry. If you want to try it but can’t get to Japan, you can easily make it at home in the slow cooker with packaged curry blocks.

Slow Cooker Ginger Marmalade Chicken

You can use your favorite jarred marmalade in this slow cooker ginger marmalade chicken recipe. The simplicity of it, plus the fact that it’s budget-friendly, will make it one of your family’s staples.

Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowl

If you want a burrito bowl, but not all the dishes that come with making it, make this slow cooker chicken burrito bowl. All the ingredients, besides the rice, are made in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Mushroom Soup Chicken

This slow cooker mushroom soup chicken is pretty much just mushroom soup and chicken, cooked in the slow cooker. It sounds so basic, but the taste is huge.

Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

Chicken teriyaki is a really popular mall food court choice. But you can make it at home for a fraction of what the food court charges.

Ground Chicken Crust Pizza

If you’re looking for a fun twist on pizza, try this ground chicken crust pizza. The crust is made from ground chicken, not dough.

Nashville Hot Chicken Burgers

Most Nashville hot chicken is made from fried chicken breast, but this is a burger version, which uses seasoned ground chicken to make patties. It’s easier to cook at home that way and you don’t have to worry about disposing of cooking oil.

Chicken Chili

Chili is traditionally made with ground beef and beans, but this chicken chili version uses chicken instead. It’s filled with canned ingredients, which really helps stretch your budget.

Grilled Chicken Teriyaki Wings

Grilled chicken wings are so much cheaper to make at home than when you buy them at a restaurant. And you can make your favorite flavors too. This version uses a homemade teriyaki sauce, which is a flavorful sweet, sticky sauce.

Yakitori (Japanese Grilled Chicken Skewers)

These simple, sweet grilled chicken skewers (known as Yakitori in Japan) are the perfect grilled dinner recipe. We prefer to use chicken breast in them, but in Japan, they use every part of the chicken to make yakitori (including the gizzards and cartilage).

Grilled Beer Can Chicken

If you’re looking for a recipe to feed a crowd this summer, go with grilled beer can chicken. It’s a crowd pleaser, and it’s pretty much a set it and forget it recipe.