These little bargain beauties routinely come in 10-pound bags for a fabulous price. Here are ten things you can do with them to help stretch your family's grocery budget.

  1. Soft Tacos - Chop up left over, de-boned chicken and heat up in a frying pan with 8 ounces or so of tomato sauce and some taco seasoning. Serve with all of the usual taco items such as chopped lettuce, shredded cheese, black olives, etc.
  2. Chicken Pot Pie - This down home, frugal family favorite is very inexpensive and uses thrifty vegetable choices as well such as carrots, onions and celery. Very affordable!
  3. Soup - There are more recipe options for this than I could possibly list in one posting. Besides, if you are trying to carve out every extra penny, it's probably more thrifty to use whatever you have on hand, right?
  4. Chicken, Cheese and Pesto Calzones - OK, the pesto isn't exactly a penny pinching item if you don't make and can your own. But this recipe idea is a way to put a little pizazz into your family's weekly menu without completely breaking the bank.
  5. Burritos - Mix in that left over chopped chicken with some refried beans and use to fill a tortilla. Accent with your favorite Mexican style toppings.
  6. Pizza - What are some of the yummy gourmet pizza ideas you've seen using chicken? Try them out at home! BBQ sauce instead of the traditional Italian red? Alfredo? Pesto? Get creative!
  7. Go Greek - Mix with some yogurt and your favorite Greek style seasoning mix and serve in a pita bread.
  8. Salad Power - Use with black beans and corn to give a Mexican feel to your green salad, try your hand at a homemade chicken Ceasar, or go traditional with a basic chef's salad.
  9. Fried Rice - This is a dirt cheap way to have an ethnic meal for dinner for around 15 cents per serving.
  10. Your Basic Lunch Sandwich - Pair up your sliced chicken with some crisp greens and pre-cooked bacon for a yummy club sandwich. You'll be brown bagging it in style.

A tip for using the large bags of chicken legs? Pre-cook them. You can either bake up the whole batch at once and de-bone after they've cooled, or bake up a few for a more traditional meat and potato dinner and just put in 2-3 extra legs for use throughout the week. If you really want to squeeze a penny until it cries, boil instead of bake the chicken when you pre-cook. You'll have chicken stock ready to go!

Photo by Kochtopf