Creole Chicken (Frugal Food Thursday)

Welcome to Frugal Food Thursday!  If you have a great frugal recipe, please link up below! 

This recipe is also listed at these wonderful linkup parties - thank you to all the hosts for allowing me to link up!

One well-known frugal tip is not to plan your meals and then shop for the ingredients, but the other way around.  Fill your stockpile with ingredients bought on sale and with coupons, then figure out what to make with what you have on hand at that moment.

But how do you do that?  One of my favorite things to do is to use Google as my cookbook!

I just type in a few ingredients along with the word "recipe" and voila! a list of possible dishes appears.  Then it's just a matter of looking through a few of them, seeing if I want to make it and if I have the other ingredients on hand.  Once I find a good recipe, it's time to start cooking!

For instance, one night I wanted to make something with chicken, green peppers, celery, and canned tomatoes.  I typed in these ingredients and out popped a recipe for Creole Chicken from BigOven.com.  It wasn't perfect; it had onions, which I didn't have.  But I found a bottle of Worcestershire sauce in the back of my stockpile, as well as a can of tomato paste, an ingredient I rarely use.

It was easy to make, and spicy but delicious!  I changed the proportions of the ingredients a little and used canned tomatoes with green chilis instead of two separate cans. I thought that the recipe is would be too spicy for my kids, so I sauteed the chicken first and put it aside for them to eat, then made the rest of the meal.

Here's the recipe!


CREOLE CHICKEN
(based on a recipe from BigOven.com)

2 tbsp canola oil
1 pound chicken breasts, diced
2 celery ribs, sliced
1 green peppers, diced
4 cloves garlic
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1-1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp oregano

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the canola oil.  Add the raw chicken and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes until the chicken is no longer pink inside.  Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add the celery, green peppers, and garlic to the pan and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until the vegetables are softened.   Return the chicken to the pan and add the rest of the ingredients.  Turn the heat to high until the sauce is boiling, then turn to medium-low, cover with a pot lid, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Serve over brown rice.

There are lots more easy and cheap recipes posted here at Frugal Follies.  Click here for the list!

Got a great frugal recipe?  Link below to your actual post, not your main page.  Please only link up recipes and other food-related posts. I'd appreciate it if you would link back to Frugal Food Thursday as well! If you have a linkup party that you'd like me to know about, please leave a comment below.





Want to find more places to link up your recipe or to find more great recipes? Please go to my Linkup Parties list and scroll down to Food Linkups. There are lots of great recipes on each blog and I'm sure you'll find some new favorites!

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