Doing a degree in my 30s, finding ways to eat on the cheap
£1.25 is about my average dinner budget atm, but you could cut the chicken and cheese and get it down to something like 50p a meal, and it'd still be banging
Makes ~8 good sized meals, takes about 45 mins
Ingredients:
900g Chicken Thighs (£5 in the Lidl by me)
2 fat Courgettes
1 Red Onion (on the bigger end, if you got small boys in that 95p tesco thing go for 2)
4-5 cloves of Garlic – could happily use garlic powder if that's what you got
100g Pesto, half a jar
125g cheddar (or whatever cheese)
75g plain white flour
75g butter
1 Pint Milk (I used oat)
~750g Chunky Pasta
Roast your veg and meat:
Dice the chicken and courgette ~1" chunks, pop in a mixing bowl
Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic, add em in
Season with salt and pepper and toss in a tablespoon of oil – this is the only seasoning you'll add, except the salt in the pasta water, so don't skip it!
Spread everything out on a tray – it'll be cramped but it's fine
Roast for 40-45 mins @ 175C fan or 190C w/o (340 or 375F), turn half-way through
Chillout for maybe 15 mins
Pasta
Start boiling the pasta water around when you flip the veg – Pasta goes in as soon as it starts boiling, follow the instructions for whatever pasta you've got. This is gonna sit in your fridge in the sauce for several days so keep an eye and don't let it overcook!
Sauce:
Make a basic white sauce – I'm not going to go through this step here, it's not too hard to do but it's a bugger to explain in text, much easier to just watch Kenji smash it
Once the sauce has thickened, heat all the way down, crumble the cheese in and continue to whisk consistently while it melts
Once the cheese is melted make sure the heat is off, and whisk in that pesto
Put it all together:
Dump the roasted bits on top of the drained pasta, and stir it all in – don't be afraid to skim some of the chicken fat and garlicy veg juices from the roasting tray when you do this, it'll add some flavour but don't bosh it all in in case the sauce separates too much
Pour the cheesey green bechamel straight into the pot and stir that bad boy up
I scraped the rim of my pesto out to get that little dollop on top, but it's not necessary
Taste is a 10/10, not too much faff, plenty calories, plenty nutrients, good bit of protein
by MerryRain