I love budget recipes, and I tend to collect them and save them and sometimes I even make them. This Chicken and Brown Rice with Veggies and Mushrooms dish is extremely budget friendly, but also just an extremely easy dish to make!
When I saw I love budget recipes, I go to an extreme to find them.
This is one of them.
I originally found this through Cooking Light, but as is usual, in my kitchen, I had to change it up a bunch, because well, that’s what I do.
This week’s theme is budget recipes and there is a whole slew of them begin brought your way (see the bottom of the post).
This recipe is surprisingly simple and extremely low cost.
The original site dubbed it under $10 for 4, but I can assure you that this recipe fed 7 of us with no problem. And the price was under $10.
The most expensive part was the chicken. We bought 5lbs for around $9 and only used half of it and froze the rest for another dinner.
The brown rice was $2 for 1 bag and we made almost all of it (8 cups) – 2 cups are left for another meal.
The frozen veggies were $1.00, we used them all.
The cremini mushrooms were $3 for a quart, pre-sliced.
I already had olive oil, garlic, onion & paprika.
My thyme is growing wonderfully, so I just snipped off a sprig, but buying it at the store would have been inexpensive and could have been used for a lot of meals.
I happened to have some half and half I wanted to use up, so I chose that but you could use milk instead or even heavy cream if that’s what you have. Half and half is about $2.50 at our store for a quart, so that would go long way.
Definitely under $10 for 4, but we stretched this meal to fit 7 people. I call that budget friendly!
More Budget Meals
- Mushroom and Artichoke Quiche with Red Pepper Puree
- Pasta Puttanesca
- Cheesy Ravioli Casserole
- Turkey and Acini Di Pepe Skillet
- Air Fryer Grilled Cheese Hot Dogs
- Roasted Honey Mustard Chicken
- Southern-style Black-eyed Peas
- Cheesy Rigatoni Bake
Chicken and Brown Rice with Veggies and Mushrooms Recipe
Chicken and Brown Rice with Veggies and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 1 Tablespoons garlic minced
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breasts boneless, skinless – cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¾ cup onion chopped
- 4 cups cremini mushrooms sliced
- ¼ cup half and half or milk
- 4 cups brown basmati rice uncooked
- 2 cups vegetables thawed
- 1 Tablespoons fresh thyme chopped
Instructions
- In a large pot, prepare the brown rice as directed on the packaging. Brown rice takes about 45 minutes to cook through, so be sure to start it early.
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and coat the pan. Drop in the garlic.
- Sprinkle the paprika over the chicken. Salt and Pepper to taste.
- Add the chicken to the olive oil and saute with the garlic for 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the pan.
- Place the pan back over medium high heat and add the other tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.
- Add the onion and the cremini mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste.
- Saute the mushrooms for about 4 minutes. Add the half and half and stir.
- Stir the vegetables, chicken and the chopped fresh thyme into the mushrooms.Heat until everything is hot and ready to go.
- Serve the the rice on the bottom and everything else over the top.
- The perfect, hearty meal for not a lot of cash.
I just can’t imagine your budget for feeding a family of 7. You really must have become a pro at stretching a food dollar. Nicely done with this recipe. It sounds both filling and delicious.
I love that you could really use any frozen vegetable in this and that you used 1 1/2 lbs of chicken for 7 people, dishes like this are great for getting a smaller amount of meat to go a long way
Yeah…saw these teaser photos on FB and KNEW I would love this. Just…yum!
I love that you used frozen vegetables in your dish, it looks amazing!!
Like you… being a family of 6, I am loving this week’s recipe! Love this dish.
Oh, love it…sounds like a fantastic dish that will not break the bank 🙂 Thank you so much, Nicole.
Love all the vegetables you added to this dish. It sounds wonderful.
Great recipe… love that it has fresh ingredients, but also makes it simpler and more cost effective using frozen veggies. The fresh thyme was a great touch too- yum!!! 😉
What a beautiful meal, Nicole! I’d love to make this simple, cost effective recipe!
This is just how I love to eat during the work week: healthy, quick to make, and economical! I do high-low shopping…I splurge on a few things, but compensate by going bulk/budget in other areas. It all sort of evens up that way. When my Sprouts has boneless breasts or tenders on sale for 1.99 lb. I buy 2-3 lbs. and portion them in freezer bags for several meals.
Quick and easy, great choices Nicole!
I love the colours of this dish. It is so simple and since I got some free chickens from my mother-in-law, she raised some last year and gave us 5 birds, in the freezer this is a great cheap idea for our meals.
Even though the vegs are frozen the meal looks SO fresh and bright! Perfect for Spring and cheap too!
What a nice simple, but filly dish. Perfect!
Quite impressive for a family of 7 and what a lovely dish too!
This is a lovely recipe! LOVE it!!