18 Best Cheap Dinner Ideas
on Nov 19, 2022
A bag of rice, a piece of lap cheong, and some leftover veggies. That’s a 10-dollar dinner that tastes like something you’d order out. I’ve been cooking on a tight grocery budget since before it was trendy, and the truth is Asian pantry staples are some of the most cost-effective, flavour-packed ingredients you can buy.
These 18 dinners all come in well under $20 for a family of four. Some are stir fries that take less time than delivery would.
There’s no pasta bake with a can of cream of mushroom soup here. Just dinners that are actually good.
Asian Stir Fries & Noodles
Stir fry is the most efficient format for cheap dinner: one pan, fast cook, great flavour. These are the ones I come back to.
Tender sliced beef in a savory stir-fry sauce, ready in under 20 minutes. Flank steak or sirloin are both great here. The sauce does the heavy lifting, so you don’t need an expensive cut. This is the stir fry I make when the fridge looks bare but dinner needs to happen.
Ten minutes. Garlic, oyster sauce, and Chinese broccoli (gai lan). This is one of those vegetables that tastes expensive even though it costs almost nothing at any Asian grocery store. And it’s ready before your rice cooker finishes. Which is the timing you actually want.
Thai Wide Rice Noodles Pad See Ew
Wide rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, egg, and your choice of protein. The key is a hot pan and not stirring too much. The slightly charred edges are the whole point.
Glass noodles cook in minutes and absorb any sauce you throw at them. This is the budget noodle dish that looks like you put in effort you didn’t put in. A bag of bean thread noodles costs less than $5 and this is one of the better things I make.
Chicken thighs in homemade teriyaki sauce over rice. The kind of bowl that looks like a lot of work and takes 15 minutes. Make the sauce in bulk and you’ve got dinner prepared for 3 nights. Teriyaki is also one of the cheapest sauces to make from scratch: soy sauce, mirin, sugar, that’s it.
Budget Rice Dishes
Rice is the cheapest staple in most kitchens, and these dishes prove it doesn’t have to be boring.
Lap cheong (Chinese sausage) has a sweet, slightly caramelized flavour that transforms plain fried rice into something special. A single sausage goes a long way. This is my No.1 use for leftover rice. I make it at least twice a month.
Your rice cooker makes fried rice. No wok, no high heat, no drama. I know this sounds wrong and I promise it works. The rice cooker steams and fries in one step and you can walk away while it happens. This is the kind of cooking shortcut that actually delivers.
Coconut rice feels luxurious and costs almost nothing extra. Just swap the water in your rice cooker for coconut milk. I started making this as a side and started eating it as a main with a fried egg on top. The slight sweetness makes even plain protein taste more interesting.
Goya pink beans simmered in sofrito and tomato sauce until thick and saucy. This is the dish that made me realize how much flavour you can build with inexpensive ingredients when you give them enough time and a good sofrito base. About 30 minutes and under two dollars per serving.
Flank steak, bell peppers, and a savoury sauce over rice. This is the cheap cut cooked right. Flank steak sliced thin and cooked fast stays tender, and the bell peppers add sweetness that rounds out the sauce.
Cheap Protein Done Right
Chicken thighs, ground beef, ribs. Cheap proteins get a lot better when you know what you’re doing with them.
The thigh comes out with that silky, never-rubbery texture you can’t get from a hot pan — the fat renders through instead of seizing up. The water bath does all the work. If you have a sous vide circulator and haven’t tried it on cheap thighs yet, this is the place to start.
Chicken thigh soup with noodles. Cheap, filling, and comforting. Thighs give you a richer, more flavourful broth than breast meat, and they don’t dry out if the soup sits on the stove longer than planned. This feeds four for about $10 total.
Juicy ground beef patties in mushroom gravy. This is the comfort food anchor on the cheap protein list. Ground beef is one of the cheapest proteins, and this mushroom gravy makes it taste like something from an expensive diner. My family clears the pan every time.
Pork ribs are one of the most underrated budget proteins. They’re cheap, feed a crowd, and fall off the bone when you give them time.
Szechuan-style tofu with tongue-tingling heat from Sichuan peppercorn. Tofu absorbs the sauce completely. Every bite has that electric numbing heat that Szechuan cooking does better than anything.
Make Vegetables the Main Event
These are for the nights when you don’t want meat, or when you’re stretching your grocery budget further. Not sad meatless meals. Actually good ones.
Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole
Rice, broccoli, and cheese baked until the top is golden. This is the casserole that feeds the whole family, reheats perfectly, and costs almost nothing to make. It’s not trying to be fancy and it doesn’t need to be. It’s just really good.
Eggplant roasted until caramelized on the outside and silky inside, served with chimichurri. Done in 20 minutes. Eggplant is one of the cheapest vegetables at most grocery stores and this recipe is proof that roasting it properly makes it taste completely different from any sad stir-fried version.
This is more than a dip. It’s a cheap, filling side or light main with rice. Fresh, herby, and done in five minutes. I keep a version of this in the fridge almost permanently during summer, but honestly it works any time of year with a bag of frozen corn.
Tips for Cheap Dinners That Actually Taste Good
Cheap proteins need the right technique. Flank steak sliced thin, chicken thighs braised or sous vide, pork ribs cooked low and slow. The cut matters less than what you do with it. Don’t cook cheap cuts the way you’d cook expensive ones.
Build a small Asian pantry. Soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, mirin. These 4 ingredients unlock basically everything in the stir fry and rice sections. A bottle of each costs about $20 total and lasts months. That investment makes every cheap dinner taste better.
Leftover rice is worth protecting. Day-old rice makes better fried rice than fresh rice. The texture is drier and crisper. If you’re making a big pot of rice for dinner, save half for tomorrow’s fried rice. This one habit saves money and makes better food at the same time.
Which one are you making this week? Let me know! Tag me @izzycookingofficial — I genuinely want to see your budget dinners. — Izzy x
I made this and put the crockpot on low for 3 hours and itโs not close to being done. I am thinking maybe that was a typo and should have said high?
Hi Audra, it’s supposed to be 3 hours on low, otherwise, it’ll get overcooked.
I never follow the cooking instructions for the crock pot. I cook on high for about 5 hours. I have a picky partner so if the meat is dry that’s fine by us. Usually the veggies take longer to cook than the meat or poultry so we finish the cook when the veggies are done. Ie. Potatoes etc.
I cant wait to make tonight!!