The $25 Dinner: Filipino Chicken Adobo With Coconut Rice
We’re excited to announce a new monthly series: The $25 Dinner. Once a month, our beloved friend and cookbook author Casey Elsass will make hearty, satisfying dinners that serve four people (or two, with very good leftovers), all for $25 or less. Here’s his first installment…
Says Casey:
Hi everyone! Here are my personal ground rules:
* No assumptions. Oil, salt, pepper, and water are the freebies; everything else I will add to the shopping tally. You might have other pantry staples hiding in your kitchen, but I want to put these dinners through a worst-case-scenario test and shop completely from scratch.
* No sneaky math. If I need two cups of rice, I’m not going to tell you it costs $1 from a larger bag. The entire package has to go toward my $25 total.
* No discounts. I’m shopping at my regular mid-priced Brooklyn grocery store. Could I do this for less at Aldi or Trader Joe’s? One trillion percent, and you definitely should! But I want to know you can walk into a regular store with $25 and come out with dinner.
* No hiding. You get to see the receipts. I’ll show you exactly what I bought and what everything cost, plus any shopping decisions I made along the way.
First up is one of my all-time favorite things to cook: Filipino chicken adobo with coconut rice. I’m a firm believer that the best way to learn how to cook something is directly from a mom, and I’m the luckiest boy in the world because my friend Robbie’s mom, Sol Guevarra, wrote down her adobo recipe for me:
As you can see, Sol’s recipe is for pork adobo, but chicken adobo is also common in Filipino cooking — and, very important for this column, it was way cheaper at my grocery store. The only other change I made was using rice vinegar since cane vinegar can be harder to track down. I also did some strategic small-package shopping: a five-ounce bottle of soy sauce, a can of chicken broth instead of a carton, and a one-pound bag of rice. You may already have some of these at home, which means your dinner could be even cheaper than mine.
My grand total: $24.15. Eighty-five cents to spare!
For those unfamiliar with adobo, walk with me, would you? In this version, chicken simmers until it’s very tender in a tangy, savory sauce of soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, and vinegar. People in the Philippines have been cooking meat in vinegar for centuries, partly because it helped preserve food in the tropical climate. (The genius of pre-refrigeration culinary arts is a topic I could discuss all day.) When Spanish colonizers arrived in the 1500s, they called it adobo, the Spanish word for marinade. Over time, soy sauce became common in many versions; some regional styles added coconut milk; maybe a diced onion found its way into the pot. Like all great home cooking, there isn’t one single “correct” adobo — there’s just the way you grew up loving it.
Two quick notes before we get cooking: Sol insists that you do not stir the vinegar when you add it to the pot. She says it makes the flavor aggressively sour, and I fully trust her expertise. The brown sugar, on the other hand, isn’t sacred: Sol will use honey, regular sugar, mirin, anything sweet. I happen to like the molasses flavor of dark brown sugar, but we have her permission to use whatever is already in the pantry. Ok, enough yapping, let’s get cooking!
Filipino Chicken Adobo With Coconut Rice
Serves 4
Chicken Adobo
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil or any neutral oil
1 (14.5-oz) can chicken broth
3 dried bay leaves
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Coconut Rice
2 cups long-grain white rice
1 (13.5-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Get ahead: Combine the chicken, soy sauce, and garlic in a large zip-top bag. Seal and give everything a good shake to coat the chicken. Refrigerate for at least three hours or up to 24 hours.
Make the adobo: Remove the chicken from the bag, but save that marinade! We’re coming back for it in a moment. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven, high-sided sauté pan, or braiser over medium-high heat. Arrange the chicken skin-side down and cook until deeply browned, about five minutes. Work in batches if you need to — crowding the chicken will not get you anywhere good. Flip and lightly brown the other side, about three minutes more. If you worked in batches, now you can crowd all your nicely browned chicken into the pot.
Pour in the reserved marinade with the chicken broth, then add the bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until the chicken is beautifully tender, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the coconut rice: Put the rice in a medium bowl, cover with plenty of cold water, and swish it around with your hand to release the excess starch. Drain through a fine-mesh strainer, return the rice to the bowl, and repeat until the water is mostly clear, usually three or four rinses. Drain well.
Combine the rice, coconut milk, salt, and 1.5 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Give it a quick stir with a fork and set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stir again, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit, still covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with the fork.
Now back to the adobo! Uncover the pot and pour in the vinegar. Don’t stir it! Let it bubble away, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add the brown sugar and salt, and now you can stir. Simmer for another two to five minutes, until the sauce has reduced slightly and tastes salty, tangy, savory, and a little sweet.
Divide the coconut rice among bowls, top with a few pieces of chicken, and spoon that gorgeous adobo sauce all over the top. As our dear Sol says, “Serve hot and enjoy.”
Thank you, Casey! Can’t wait for more.
Casey Elsass is a food writer, recipe developer, and cookbook author based in Brooklyn. He is the author of the bestselling cookbook What Can I Bring?: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life and has co-authored more than 30 cookbooks. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Bon Appétit, NPR, Food52, and, of course, Cup of Jo.
P.S. Five-ingredient dinners, including dumpling salad and weeknight niçoise.
(Portrait of Casey Elsass by Taylor Miller. Food photos by Pacifico Silano.)
Tags: $25 Dinner
Comments
128 commentsMy 2.5 year old recently discovered the joy of picking up a drumstick and going back for more and more bites and flavor. I understand why chicken drumsticks, sauce/gravy, and rice are such a formative meal in so many cultures. Will be trying this over the weekend. Casey’s new columns are all such gems- they are curious, thoughtful, and provocative (literally inspiring important dialogue). Like Jenny and so many of the other food writers and contributors for CoJ, I look forward to considering how the recipes and ideas fit in my world.
I made this last night and already had all the ingredients at home. It fed 4 adults, 2 toddlers, and had plenty of leftovers. We also added some TJ edamame on the side. Loved the recipe and will make again! I also think this series could be really great for food to make on vacation where your condo/air bnb may not have all your pantry staples already!
Made this, whole family loved it, plenty of leftovers. Cant wait for the next installment of this series! Those who are mad about the concept- direct that anger towards the polls and mobilizing to upend the institutions that have us paying so much to be alive.
I’m trying this right now!! Subbing with tofu which is looking great after marinading:) Can you please confirm that it’s really only that much broth? The photo makes it look like there’s a lot more liquid than the recipe says. Thank you!
I can confirm that this is what mine looked like with the amount of broth specified in the recipe! Tofu might look Different because it soaks/wont give off the fat that the chicken does…
Love this new column and plan to make this recipe!
Great dinner idea! I can’t wait to try it.
I need to know how you got 3 pounds of chickens for five dollars!
Perf my husband, because it’s Bone-in and not skinless. Requires the least amount of butchering.
Per*
Can we all go on a field trip to Casey’s Brooklyn grocery store for the next recipe list? I love how friendly and inviting this post was. Count me in.
I’m really looking forward to this series, Jo and Casey! I tracked my grocery and eating out spending for the past three weeks and oof. 😂 $25 for a dinner for four will definitely help bring down my average, so thank you so much!! Glad you’re here, Casey! Great idea, Jo and team!
Ohmygoodness, Casey you sound absolutely delightful & I loooove the ground rules, I love the recipe, and I’m SO EXCITED for this new series!! Thanks so much xoxo
Oh, this is going to be a great series! I’ve been on the hunt for some new-to-me recipes to try! Thanks for sharing!
Yummmm! Am definitely making this. Great column.
Sounds yummy! Is there any way to add a print button so my laptop screen doesn’t get covered in adobo?
What a genius new series! Casey, you seem like such a gem. I also really love the no assumptions rule. This is perfect* for vacation cooking, when you get to your Airbnb and realize…there’s nothing. Such a great way to have an easy home-cooked meal without breaking the bank. Thank you!
I’m on vacation now and literally decided to make this for my family while we’re here haha
Deep breaths, friends. I think the issues are with our government’s take on money and cultural identity – not CoJ’s and Casey’s. Looks delicious and I love your voice, Casey. Keep ’em coming!
Hahahaha yes this thank you
I love this series and can’t wait to try it with the tofu swap! Thanks, Casey and COJ!
Love this! I can also make this today for $0 with pork ribs I have on hand and I already have everything else stocked. I really like the idea of this recipe and I think the author and COJ were putting forth more of a fun experiment and concept than actually suggesting that people spend $25 on an at home dinner for four on a regular basis. I may make this tomorrow and will likely add some chopped kale I also have in my fridge that needs to be used asap!
I’ve been itching for more recipe posts. Thank you!
Woohoo! I have had many reliables and new favorites come from CoJ cooking posts over the years and could definitely use some new ideas for my repertoire! I grew up in community with many Filipino folks and chicken pancit is another go-to favorite of mine good for a crowd
Immediate new favorite series!! Both me and my partner are between incomes right now, so this meal was going to be a splurge at $25, but actually, with the ingredients we have on-hand in our Asian kitchen, it would cost a little over $7 for the meal. Thank you, I can’t wait to try this!
What a wonderful recipe! I can tell already this new addition to the Cup of Joe line up will be one of my favorites!!
Good grief! The amount of salty comments in here is shocking. I see Casey’s column as a delightful and timely thought experiment in response to our rising food costs and subsequent concerns. I’m shocked by how many people took his guidelines so literally. I hope this column will continue despite the silly and slightly stressful commentary! I’m looking forward to the next one and will add this to my meal rotation for my family of 6!
I would respectfully push back on your assessment of those comments as “salty” and “silly”. I think those responses are likely rooted in fear and stress, whether or not they came across that way. My partner and I both have advanced degrees and are employed full time, and still pinching pennies every month to ensure there’s enough money for daycare, groceries, and rent. I get that this new series doesn’t need to be taken literally, and there is a lot of flexibility, but as someone on a very tight budget I understand where people are coming from. I think that while exceedingly lovely, a lot about CupOfJo feels increasingly out of touch and out of reach for some of us long time readers, and the $25 suggestion probably struck a chord there. There is no reality in which I can purchase any one of the $250 sweaters that are regularly advertised here (or whatever the item is). I absolutely understand cost per wear, quality of fabric, ethics of the process, etc. but that is simply not my reality, nor will I imagine it really ever being my reality. Not every career path’s salary has kept up with the rising costs of everything, and many of us make hard decisions every day/week/month to prevent financial decline. Maybe I’m wrong, and I typed out this whole diatribe for nothing, but anyway, I mostly think any criticism is coming from real concerns, not just trying to be contrary.
Thank you for such a balanced and thoughtful response, RLL! I’m with you on this one!
I just read through the comments and saw like 3-4 total salty comments, which for the most part weren’t even that salty.
Made this for dinner today and it’s a keeper
This looks delicious and I adore your writing style, Casey! My husband is the peri-peri chicken master in our house so I’m excited to make this for him as something different. Also love the budget and guidance, so good. Looking forward to this weekly column!
I’m so excited that Casey is going to do a regular feature. I always find his writing uplifting and energetic. He feels like a wonderful friend I’ve known for ages.
really excited for this series. what a great first post. i’m not rich but under $25 seems doable to me.
Can’t wait to make this and to read this feature every week!
For a vegetarian version, try cauliflower adobo! The cauliflower absorbs the flavors of the bay leaves and vinegar so well. We use the NYT Cooking recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019927-cauliflower-adobo
As a vegetarian, thank you so much for this!
Ooh can’t wait to try this option, thank you! I made it with tofu last night and it was delicious but this would be a fun alternative!
Casey, is everyone really washing their rice? I find it so fussy and I always end up losing rice down the drain and stuck to my strainer. Like others I was taken aback at $25 for an at-home dinner but more as a reflection on the times we live in, nothing against COJ. I like the ratio of chit-chat to actual recipe, and the many clear photos. Maybe you can add ideas for accompaniments at the end – I bet this would be good with chopped bell peppers for those looking to add a veg!
Yes, you should wash your rice. It has to do with the conditions in which it is stored before being packaged (is my understanding).
Rinsing helps get the extra starch off the rice in addition to stuff from when it was stored so that the rice isn’t as gooey when finished. I never use a strainer, I wash directly in the pot/rice cooker pot I am using. Add your water, stir a gently with your fingers as Casey said, and let the grains settle for a second. Usually almost all of them sink and you can pour most of the water off of the top and then repeat a few times.
Yes, everyone is literally washing their rice. Super quick and easy.
LK, I’m with you, I do it like once a year and regret it. Will have to try Casey’s/commenters’ method!
Besides being sanitary, you should also watch your rice because it takes a lot of the starch out and lowers the glycemic level tremendously. The taste is better too. But to each their own, if you find it fussy, no need to wash!
Wow, Casey just writes in a way that makes it sound doable, huh? What a treat! I’m in a cooking slump, but I just picked up the 2 ingredients I didn’t already have, and the chicken is marinating in the fridge! Also love that the “no sneaky math” rule means that I get to feel extra brilliant for only spending $10 on this!
oooooh so excited to try this! Love his writing voice, too. I feel like a friend is telling me how to make dinner <3
Such great news! Casey is a treasure ❤️
Wow some tough comments here! It’s very clear this recipe (and the column in general) can be used as starting point to make budget-friendly meals. As others have noted, many of the ingredients are packaged in quantities large enough to use for multiple meals. I hope Casey feels welcome here because I found some of the reception to be quite harsh. While I welcome open dialogue and love that this is generally a friendly forum for that, sometimes it seems like it is impossible for people not to make controversy out of everything.
Sigh….what’s for dinner tonight? Adobo chicken! Thank you Casey! Love love love this!
Great idea for a new series, thank you!!
This is fantastic! I already have everything this receipe needs except the chicken!! I can’t wait for more of these recipes. Thank you!!
Excited to see more in this series! And the writing was so fun and easy, I immediately went to my kitchen to cut up some tofu and marinade it! While I appreciate where the (mostly respectful and kindly voiced I will add) naysayers are coming from, I’m excited to see more in this series especially if the recipes are using so many pantry staples. One of the reasons I went immediately to my kitchen is that I was excited to already have everything needed for the recipe.
Wow I love the sheer amount of effort that went into this! It almost feels like you are taking care of readers by removing the mental step of figuring out their dinner budget. I really appreciate this approach. Also, I am surprised by the negative comments! Casey isn’t suggesting that every dinner for four be $25, nor that all the dinners will not have a vegetable component. This is just one meal in a week.
I love seeing another person out there who recognizes and values the effort that people put into their work! Casey, I really really appreciate the detail, the thought process, the writing, the photos, all of it. It’s so easy to pad writing with filler and it was nice to see how you served up rock solid content. I’m looking forward to this series.
Everything about this is delightful.
PS- I just checked, and for me, the only ingredient I would need to buy in order to make this recipe is chicken. I bet many of you are the same! So even if the $25 shop concept doesn’t apply to us, we can still enjoy the recipe ;)
Very well-written post and makes me excited to cook (and I am not usually comfortable in the kitchen). Thank you for the new series, and I look forward to more recipes from Casey!
No where in this post did Casey make a claim that spending $25 for every dinner, let alone every meal, is the goal or point of this. He simply is going to share recipes that CAN be bought for >$25 or less. He didn’t claim it was “budget-friendly”. I think this is an interesting series and off to a great start! I would certainly be interested in trying this recipe in lieu of going out one night.
Yes, I think the cool thing here that people are missing is that MOST people will have some or all of these pantry staples. Casey has challenged himself to come up with meals that can cost $25 even if you don’t have ANY of the staples. (Many or most budget recipes do assume that you do.) But almost all of us already have rice, soy sauce, sugar, etc laying around.
Love this new series! First recipe looks so fire and I’m excited for what’s to come. For those saying it’s not practical to shop this way, I think we can take it with a grain of salt. Our family also shops in bulk- more eco friendly, cheaper, and helps my sanity to have fewer shopping trips. We can still enjoy these recipes! They’ll be even cheaper for those of us who have pantries full of staples:)
I LOVE this series! My mouth is watering at this recipe. My “lazy but attempt to be healthy” self might add some chopped spinach and cilantro into the rice for veggies. Thank you for sharing!
$25 for 4 servings is high; it’s out of reach for so many families in this country. I work in a public library in the urban core of a large city; I see the poverty everyday. And it doesn’t include vegetables, so it’s not a balanced meal. This is not a diss to Casey, I can see how much thought and care he put into this post and the dish looks very tasty. It’s simply revealing that we will have to overthrow the oligarchs.
Not discounting what you’re saying about oligarchs and overthrow but there are, to my count, maybe only two items on that $25 grocery list that are single use. The ‘cost per use’ on all the other items brings the cost of this and other dishes made with those ingredients down.
DOSE1, you’re right and this is only one recipe suggestion. I just wanted to point out that we can’t budget our way out of massive wealth inequality (or straight up theft from the American people, which is happening more and more). It got me thinking and I hope we all continue to think about actual, substantial change that is needed.
Let’s overthrow the oligarchs (yes!) AND make the delicious chicken
Can’t it just be a good recipe that will give someone another idea what to make for dinner? It’s just chicken and rice. Not everything has to be so deep.
Merli, this was a recipe for chicken, not for overthrowing oligarchs.
Good point about the oligarchs and I would you say you have as much or even more responsibility than Casey to offer solutions to that problem, considering your actual constituents are members of the community. Did you consider how this dish could be adjusted for the current issues you see: cost and lack of vegetables? Maybe a simple reframe would help you approach this differently: Hi reader, Here are the ingredients for Filipino Chicken Adobo. First, take 5 minutes to find what you have available. Great reduce those costs from the total cost on the receipt. Now go buy what’s missing, knowing you will likely have some items from that purchase to use for another meal. What’s your final number? $5? Incredible! Now, roast whatever frozen veggies you have on the side, or make a salad, or mix in some cauliflower with your coconut rice. For Casey to make $25 the worst case scenario and allow us to do the critical thinking of what the actual cost for our family might be is a great, flexible approach that maintains the joy in feeding our families, intuitive eating and cooking, and of course sharing a wonderful, heirloom recipe. I guest what I’m saying: you, or any of us readers, could equally be a great resource in making this recipe even more budget-friendly for different families.
I cook almost daily for a family of 4 and I am not sure the concept of this column makes much sense. I understand that it is set up as a “worst case scenario” but buying tiny packages of food is actually incredibly wasteful and it would really add up over time. In fact spending $25 per dinner x 7 nights a week would cost $175 of groceries a week for just dinners – no breakfast, lunch, snacks, fruit and vegetables (which were not included in this dinner I would add). It is so much more economical to maintain a pantry and buy staples in larger quantities. This is nothing at all against the writer or the recipe but it is hard for me to appreciate this as an economical way to cook, or a convincing demonstration of affordable cooking (again for someone with a family who cooks all the time). I would be completely lost (and broke) if I cooked in this day-to-day when. Perhaps it makes sense for some people but if you can approach groceries from say a monthly food budget perspective I think you can make money stretch a lot farther.
In my opinion it is a great economical example of a weeknight family dinner. I have everything in my pantry at the moment and even have chicken in the freezer that I bought on sale. I could make this meal without having to leave my house. It’s not like he’d have to buy a full bottle of soy sauce every time he made it. Thanks for a great recipe
Hi Katie! My guess is that Casey put these rules into place because Robert F Kennedy Jr recently started a youtube cooking show where he said that he could make healthy dinners for $5/person ($20 for the meal). But then a few news outlets tried to replicate his recipe and ended up spending $70 out of pocket, because RFK calculated the per-portion price of, for example, 1 tbsp of mayonnaise, but obviously you can’t buy just 1 tbsp of mayo at the store! So if you were actually starting from nothing, the meal RFK planned would require a lot of up-front spending. So I think Casey was giving himself a different set of parameters — what can you actually make for dinner if you walk into a grocery store with $25 in your pocket and nothing in your kitchen. I agree that it’s kind of an artificial limitation (other than, like, moving day, who doesn’t have any food in their kitchen but DOES own a colander and Dutch oven?) but I think it’s a fun way to challenge yourself.
“Perhaps it makes sense for some people”— well, yes. That’s how things work. There will never be a (insert literally anything) that fits *everyone’s* budgets. Similarly, not everyone can afford to buy in bulk, as you suggest, not everyone has a living situation that affords them ample pantry/ storage space and on and on. We can “whatabout” and bean soup this til the end of time. Or, we can enjoy a yummy recipe for what it is and appreciate that actually this probably would work for very many people, even if we aren’t included in that very many.
I understand the concerns and yes, well maintained pantry is definitely a big goal. It can also be unrealistic or wasteful, depending on the household’s ability to home cook a majority of meals. That’s also not in the realm of possibility for many people depending on what’s going on in their life at the moment- dealing with medical issues, taking care of a sick family member, founding a start-up, going back to work after a baby, etc. I think it’s important to assume that a lot of other people also budget for their households, but maybe allocate their budgets differently. For some people, a Costco/bulk stocked pantry can lead to lots of waste in food and money. For example, I currently have no childcare, preschool, daycare, or extra-curricular activity costs because I homeschool a medically complex child and my younger child. But because I homeschool and run my household, I cannot possibly cook a fresh dinner every day and sometimes need to just get out of the house, so we pick up some prepared foods and have picnics at the playground. Other times, we bring our kids sandwiches and little charcuterie boards to local breweries. We budget for this because it is important to us. Daycare/babysitter/soccer/swimming/martial arts/piano/art./my gym… whatever it is comes out to 1000s/month for 2 kids. When we eliminate those things it opens our budget. I wouldn’t judge how folks choose to feed their families. The other piece is that Casey’s column is not literal- he directly stated that he didn’t want any hidden funny business, so $25 was the absolute goal with all new ingredients, but the hope is that we have some lying around and can rollover leftover rice, seasoning, etc into future meals, which can reduce the total cost of the meal. Not sure why it’s easier to jump to conclusions and assume the worst, or assume that everyone is the same.
I really really love this new column and am going to try the vegetarian version mentioned in the comments! Thank you Casey and Sol!
Excited for both this new series and this dinner!
Welcome to the family, Casey! I’m off to order your cookbook and learn how to be a better dinner guest!
Proud Filipina American and longtime CoJ reader here. Audibly GASPED when I saw Filipino + Adobo in the title. Adobo is practically our national dish so I am delighted to see the enthusiasm from fellow readers!
Learned to make it years ago from a Filipina friend and it is soooooo good
Just a note to all who are facing rising food costs at the market – check out BudgetBytes.com for affordable, easy, usually delicious recipes. Read comments for suggestions on subs and adds for recipes. Many have moved into our regular rotation.
completely charmed by handwritten recipes! love it.
Love this concept and your writing! My kids are a hard no on chicken unless it’s chicken breast. Worth trying to sub them here? Any adjustments you’d recommend?
The original recipe from his friend’s mom is for pork, so if anything the pork may end up being even better than the chicken (though, a bit pricier)!
Sadly pork is an even harder no for them than chicken 🫠 we are working with a very narrow window here!
I think you could totally sub chicken breast! I’m assuming boneless skinless? I would cube it up and follow the directions from there. You might need to just the step where browning it and add more oil as needed since you won’t have the skin. Good luck!
Just marinate the chicken breasts as the recipe says, and cook it however your kids like it. Then add to the sauce and the rice to simmer when it all comes together in the pot. It may take longer, but you can make it work.
LOVE this series and absolutely adored the story behind this! (plus the entire thing was just perfection, photos, the receipt, and small notes makes me feel like I can actually create something close to this!) Food feels stressful right now and this really helped pull me back into the joy of cooking and how we can pass on so much goodness in sharing food with others! So helpful!
Congrats on having a new food writer join the team! It’s wonderful to have a professional recipe developer/food writer back on Wednesdays! I still love Jenny and follow her on Substack. She continues to do excellent work!
I loved reading this! And I equally love that the four servings call for 2 cups of rice, not 1 cup as many recipes would, since “1/4 cup” is considered “on serving” of rice….for whom, a rabbit?! I used to be a Blue Apron subscriber, and they would send 1/2 cup of rice for two servings. I always had to supplement with additional rice for my husband and me! I find many recipes don’t make enough food for hungry eaters, and this one seems like it would ;)
Danggg $6 for that whole package of chicken drumsticks?? I need to stop buying organic/“natural” everything 😂😂
Seriously! I don’t know if I can drop the organic chicken- but seeing the prices it makes me think.
The 10lb ground beef log from Costco saved my life.
Imagine incubating an egg, hatching, sorting, raising / feeding / housing, then plucking and butchering and packaging and shipping and selling! — I don’t know how chicken can be so cheap. Meat shouldn’t be cheap! Keep up the good work buying organic!
This is such a fantastic idea!! Casey & Jo: is it possible to have a note about slow cooker instructions for recipes if applicable? Thanks!!
Oh. my. gosh. This is perfect! I love love the image of the handwritten recipe. I took a screen shot and am printing it, making me feel like I have a Filipina mom who share her secret recipe with me. <3 I have only ever had a loose recipe from a friend of a friend and it was super simple, vinegar, water, bay leaf and white meat of choice. No measurements, no extra flavors to deepen the profile… it served me well but always felt lacking. I can't wait to make this for my family.
This is approachable and fun; I like the concept and the style of the post. But… vegetables? The requests to make it vegetarian are beside the point, because there literally aren’t even any vegetables. Whatever happened to “eat plants?” Where is the rest of the meal?
If there’s no vegetables, it’s not dinner, it’s a hearty snack.
Maybe this recipe just isn’t for vegetarians then.
So add some vegetables or eat a side salad. Geez.
Is this the only meal you’re having that day? If you’ve had breakfast, lunch or snacks, you’d have had the chance to get your veggies and fruits in. Scurvy doesn’t set in after one missed opportunity to have vitamin c :)
Love this feature, food is so expensive right now. This motivates me even more to get involved in midterms, we are in this situation because republicans and this current regime are more interested in spending money on wars and lining their pockets then helping families. You can check your voter registration at Vote.gov and early voting dates here : https://ballotpedia.org/Early_voting_dates,_2026
Yes yes yes !!! Vote early ! On Oct 17 No Kings, the whole emphasis is getting people to vote and vote early !!!! Thank you for including this link.
STANDING OVATION!! Love this recipe and series! Thank you!!
This looks delicious, but I did roll my eyes at the notion that a $25 dinner for four made at home is cheap. Compared to eating out, yes, but not to other home meals. Reading on, I did see the no sneaky math note which I appreciate, but $25 x 30 days in a month = as much as $750 for dinners alone! That’s more than my family’s food budget for all our meals + once weekly restaurant outing. I know this is a lifestyle blog and not most people’s real life, but I’m just curious what folks spend on food for their families each month (grocery store, takeout, restaurants, etc. all included). I’m in Portland, Oregon, and my omnivorous house of 4 have averaged $630 per month this year.
I’m in the Portland area and we source from a lot of different places, including food pantries. I’m a single mom of three boys and I was shocked by how much a family should allot for food. The USDA offers a calculator for figuring out averages. For example, for my 3 boys only (not me), eating a moderate healthy diet (not organic) the minimum total amount I should consider budgeting for groceries (not eating out) is over $1000/mo. Just for my boys.
Oh lordie we are spending near 2k/month for a family of 3 in New England. We do eat a lot of organic “fancy” grocery store food, but we don’t eat out.
I’m in Portland, OR and I get where you’re coming from; he’s not offering to make your monthly food budget at home, or insinuating you should pay $25 per dinner in your home to be economical- he’s just saying this recipe costs $25 at the grocery store total. That means in general- it’s a fairly cheap meal. This recipe will cost most people less than $25- I know I already have vinegar, brown sugar, rice, etc at home. It’ll probably be more like $10 for me for just the chicken. It’s just a fun post about inexpensive recipes and you totally misunderstood it. Your eye-roll deserves an eye-roll.
I live right outside of Portland and my family of four allocates $1000/month on groceries and dining out.
Disclaimer – I really like this column and recipe. But since you are collecting info – We’re a family of 4 in South Florida. We currently budget $1200/month for groceries. Two years ago it was more like $800-900. (PLEASE VOTE!!!). We also order pizza one night a week ($60) and eat out at mid-level restaurants ($150 for 4) twice a month. We used to eat out once a week. So total food budget right now is about $1700/month. This amounts to just about 10% of our household income.
Oh this is interesting. I have 5 boys, ages 12 down to two. We eat a lot of food! We live in north east Montana. I would say our monthly food budget is between 1200-1500. I shop at Costco and our small grocery store. We are a gluten free family (for dinner anyway, so my husband can eat whatever I make.) I do make pretty much everything from scratch, and I make bread and jam. I do buy gluten free bread since my gf bread recipes haven’t been the best yet. We eat pretty simple meals and I meal plan- so if I buy hamburger from Costco I plan meals with hamburger. If I want to make a recipe with something that is out of the ordinary, I try to find other recipes to incorporate that ingredient as well to save money. I grocery shop once a week and hit Costco every two weeks. Maybe once a month we order pizza.
I spend about $1,500 a month to feed my family of 5. No dining out. We are on an extremely tight budget at the moment and have cut out nearly all discretionary spending, but grocery costs are something I really struggle to reign in. Vegetarians, lots of scratch-made meals, small city in the Southeast.
Colorado based family of two adults and one teen daughter at home full time; plus college age kids around sometimes and we host lots of family parties. Probably $600-800 monthly. I lump grocery and household (like laundry soap, TP, toiletries etc in one budget so around $1000 monthly averaged out over the year) Dining is separate and we have cut back significantly with the cost of living going up
You and all the other readers complaining about cost are assuming he said, “Make this every day!” Nowhere did he say you need to spend $25 per day. Make this a few times whenever you feel like it. You’re all acting like he took your personal budget and forced you to spend your entire bank account. And, as with anything, this might not be a good fit for your family, and you can seek budget meals on another blog.
Also, make sure your vote aligns with your inflation concerns :) We can turn this around!
This is a great series!!! One of the OG cooking blogs I love is budget bytes!! They also have great recipes that focus on stretching the dollar!! Love to see the mix of frugality and luxury on COJ!
yes! also love Budget Bytes
I really like the idea of this column! I love looking at recipes or watching cooking shows for inspiration but many times, when I think about how much it would cost to make a meal, it is not worth it at all! For example, recipes that rely on expensive prepared additions like prepared pesto or that require a lot of butter, parmesan, or beef, which are all expensive ingredients. It is great to see how you can make a great, simple family meal without breaking the bank.
I’m a vegetarian but I LOVE this series idea and will probably try this with tempeh!
Oh hello! I am new to tempeh, any ideas for easiest, yummiest way to start?
I am not into cooking. I am intimidated by cooking. I dislike cookbook writers as a rule and internally combust when “fleur de sel” is specified. My husband does all the food stuff in our household for our two young kids. But Casey makes this seem understandable and, dare I say, doable?! I loved reading this because it felt like hanging with a supportive friend. Maybe cooking is my next thing?
I love this so much! Cooking is definitely your next thing.
Doesn’t have to be intimidating if you learn a few grandma recipes from different cultures you and fam will be so happy :) like this, pasta e ceci, simple roast chicken you will be on a roll
There’s a quote from Julia Child and other culinary people: “If you can read, you can cook.” While cooking is intimidating, you can take it one step at a time! Prep all your ingredients so you have them ready (including chopping veggies, opening cans, laying out all your spices). Then, take the recipe one line at a time, setting timers if you need to while chicken cooks or broth simmers. You can do it!
My best friend’s husband is Filipino and his chichen adobo is something I DREAM about. The pop of the peppercorns!
I dream about it too, it’s the best.
This recipe and detailed instructions are so well written! I love the idea of trying this recipe as many of my neighbors are Filipino – I live in Va Beach, VA. Budget friendly is my jam as well; great concept. This is going be my new favorite column, huzzah!
As a proud Filipina and avid Cup of Jo reader, the way my heart just *fluttered* when I saw this post and one of my go to dishes. 😍🤩 Bethany – I grew up in the Hampton Roads area and love how many Filipino restaurants there were in the area. I no longer live in the area, but recommend Kainan off of Indian River Rd. (if it’s still there)!
Casey! You did it! You had me reading every word of writing prior to getting to the recipe (a feat, haha) I adore this series and can’t wait for more!
That is truly the best compliment I could imagine!