Dinner on a Dime

I have a few hard and fast rules when it comes to cooking—buy the best ingredients, buy fresh, and cook often. Lately, however, my trips to the grocery store are guided by another rule: STICK TO A BUDGET. The cost of food is crazy right now, so I’m paying extra attention to dinners that don’t break the budget, still allow my “hard and fast” rules to remain in play, and don’t involve pasta 7 nights a week.

Meal planning does help you stick to a budget (only buy what you need), and cooking what’s in season generally is more cost effective, but when your grocery store bill skyrockets across the board, it’s time to get creative. Here’s a meal that can feed a family of six for under $25 and doesn’t taste like a budget meal. I marinate chicken drumsticks in seasoned buttermilk, coat them with panko, cheese, and chives, and bake until golden and crispy (see recipe below). Add a simple salad (use the leftover the buttermilk to make your own dressing), and a bag of sweet potato fries and you’ve got dinner. And change.

• 2 packages of natural chicken drumsticks: $8

• 1 pint buttermilk: $1

• 1 onion and a few cloves of garlic: $1.50

• Panko breadcrumbs (store brand): $1.70

• Grated parmesan cheese (store brand): $2.75

• Chives: $1

• Sweet potato fries (store brand): $3.50

• Fresh salad ingredients (green leaf lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumber): $5

PANKO CRUSTED CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

SERVES: 6

PREP TIME: 15 minutes plus marinade time COOK TIME: 40 minutes

TOTAL TIME: about 1 hour

WHAT YOU NEED:

·         2 packages chicken drumsticks (about 10 drumsticks)

·         1 cup buttermilk

·         1 cup plain panko breadcrumbs

·         2 large cloves of garlic

·         1 small onion

·         Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

·         1/4 - 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

·         Small bunch of chives, finely minced

·         Cooking spray (I like to use avocado oil spray)

WHAT YOU DO:

Remove the skin from the drumsticks using kitchen shears. Cut 3 small slits in the thickest part of the chicken (this will allow the marinade to better penetrate the meat) and place in a baking dish, large non-reactive bowl or zip-top bag.

Peel your onion and grate on a box grater (you should get about 2-3 tablespoons of grated onion. Mince or grate your garlic (you need about 1 tablespoon). Add grated onion and garlic to chicken that add buttermilk. Make sure everything is well combined, then cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 425°F and place a wire rack on a sheet pan; coat the rack with cooking spray (you can line the sheet pan with parchment or foil for easy clean up if you’d like). Remove the drumsticks from the buttermilk marinade; discard the marinade. Season the drumsticks well with salt and pepper. Combine panko, cheese, and chives in a shallow dish. Dredge each drumstick in panko mixture. Arrange drumsticks in a single layer on the rack and coat drumsticks lightly with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes or until juices run clear and chicken is cooked through.