With the rising cost of meat, this 5 Meal Chicken Challenge seemed like a great idea for our family to try! And maybe your family will benefit from it too. My friend Leslie introduced me to it and who doesn’t like a good challenge?
In the 5 Meal Chicken Challenge, you are challenged to make a whole chicken feed your family of 4-6 for 5 meals! We were able to get 6 meals out of our 6.5lb chicken, and I am going to walk you through how to do it!
Meal 1
Roast the chicken with potatoes and veggies (potatoes and carrots) Save carcass and chunk and shred the remaining chicken
Meal 2
Stir fry some of the shredded chicken with veggies and rice
Meal 3
Use shredded chicken, beans, and corn to make enchiladas
(We had leftover mix and used it to make nachos for lunch the following day making it 6 meals for us)
Meal 4
Use chunked chicken to make chicken parmesan casserole
Meal 5
Use remaining chicken and carcass to make chicken soup
All different flavor profiles so it wont feel like you’re eating the same thing everyday!
Ready to do it yourself? Download your shopping list and recipes now!
I bought the majority of the items that I needed at Aldi’s. The rest I filled in on my Walmart run.
Here’s what you need:
- Whole Chicken (I got 6.5 lbs and found that to be adequate for my family)
- Baby Carrots bag
- Onion (1)
- Celery (if desired; I skipped it)
- Potatoes (3 lbs)
- Frozen Stir Fry (The Teriyaki is amazing)
- Enchilada Sauce
- Corn or Flour Tortillas (Small size 24ct)
- Panko Bread Crumbs
- 24 oz Marinara Sauce
- 8 oz Penne Pasta
- Rice (4-6 servings)
- Canned Parmesan Cheese
- Canned or Frozen Corn (if you want to add this to Enchiladas)
- Canned Black Beans (if you want to add this to Enchiladas)
- Tortilla chips (if you want to make nachos with leftover enchilada mix)
- 12 oz Mexican Cheese (Shredded without seasoning)
- 8 oz Mozzarella Cheese
- Garlic Bread or Knots
My total cost for my family of 5 was $39.48 for 5 meals!
Here is my cost at Aldi/Walmart in Central Florida:
6.25 Whole Chicken
1.19 Baby Carrots bag
1.00 Onion (1)
3.00 Potatoes (3 lbs)
3.59 Frozen Stir Fry
0.98 Enchilada Sauce
1.75 Corn or Flour Tortillas (Small size 24ct)
1.75 Panko Bread Crumbs
2.15 24 oz Marinara Sauce
0.98 8 oz Penne Pasta
1.62 Rice (4-6 servings)
2.89 Canned Parmesan Cheese
0.98 Canned or Frozen Corn
0.77 Canned Black Beans
1.85 Tortilla chips
2.89 12 oz Mexican Cheese
2.89 8 oz Mozzarella Cheese
2.95 Garlic Bread or Knots
What I have learned through this challenge (I’ve done it twice now)
- The size of the chicken matters. The first one was 6.5 pounds from Kroger and I had no trouble stretching the chicken. The second one was 3.75 lbs from Aldi. It did not make it 5 meals…. we only got 3 out of it. So if you plan to get the smaller bird, you might want to do 2 for this challenge. Just do recipe #1-#3 on the first bird and #1, #4, #5 on the second bird. You’ll just have to get a little more potatoes and baby carrots to do this.
- The family does not even notice. They thought it was delicious that I was trying all these different recipes.
- It is nice knowing you already have everything ready to go for dinner. No thinking on the spot.
Ready to do it yourself? Download your shopping list and recipes now!
So here’s how I did it….
On the first day, I cooked the whole chicken in the Instant Pot. The family LOVED it and after it cooled, it was easy to shred. The 6.5 pound chicken made quite a bit of meat. I saved the Carcass in a separate bowl to use for soup on meal #5
For dinner that night we had the chicken with these delicious potatoes and carrots. I tossed them with Rosemary Garlic seasoning. So good!
Meal #1 got a thumbs up from the family.
For meal #2, I made chicken stir fry over rice. Aldi has a delicious bagged teriyaki stir fry and one bag was enough for us. I cooked the bag according to package directions and added in some chicken and served over rice which I tossed with some extra teriyaki sauce from the cabinet.
Meal #3 was chicken enchiladas. It was my first time EVER making it and we had enough of the stuffing leftover to have nachos for lunch the next day. Making this 2 meals!
Meal #4 was the one the family was most excited about. Once I pulled out the bag of Garlic Knots, they were asking when dinner was ready. Thumbs way up from the family.
And Meal #5 was a chicken soup. The only negative is digging out all the chicken bones. But I got all of them and told the family to be very aware of what they were eating just in case there was a bone leftover (there wasn’t). It is delicious, but just be careful.
The family really enjoyed the 5 Meal Chicken Challenge so much that we did it a second time before I was able to get this post ready. I am on the hunt for recipes to make another round.
Ready to do it yourself? Download your shopping list and recipes now!