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
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!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
- 1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¾ cup chopped onion
- 4 cups of cremini mushrooms, sliced
- ¼ cup of half and half, or milk
- 4 cups uncooked brown basmati rice
- 2 cups frozen vegetables, thawed
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
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.
Megan
Saturday 13th of April 2013
This is a lovely recipe! LOVE it!!
Susan
Monday 8th of April 2013
Quite impressive for a family of 7 and what a lovely dish too!
Conni @FoodieArmyWife
Monday 8th of April 2013
What a nice simple, but filly dish. Perfect!
Sarah Reid, RHNC (@jo_jo_ba)
Monday 8th of April 2013
Even though the vegs are frozen the meal looks SO fresh and bright! Perfect for Spring and cheap too!
Laura | Small Wallet, Big Appetite
Monday 8th of April 2013
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.