New Brunswick Cheap Dinners Under $6: $2.59 Chicken

Key Facts

• Chicken Tenders cost $26.76 total, or $5.35 per serving for 5 servings. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Cajun Chicken Breast Roast is priced at $5.99 at Iga in New Brunswick. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Sour Cream is priced at $2.79 at Independent in New Brunswick. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Italian Seasoning is priced at $1.99 at Independent in New Brunswick. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• 4C Seasoned Bread Crumbs 425 g cost $4.99 at Co-op Beaubear. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Olive Oil is priced at $11.00 at Independent in New Brunswick. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction

Breaded Cajun Chicken Bites are the cheapest recipe in this New Brunswick dinner costing guide at $2.59 per serving. The recipe is built from three tracked ingredients: Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99 from Iga, 4C Seasoned Bread Crumbs 425 g at $4.99 from Co-op Beaubear, and Italian Seasoning at $1.99 from Independent. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

If you are looking for cheap dinner recipes under $6 in New Brunswick, the strongest value comes from building around the lower-priced chicken item and using shelf-stable pantry ingredients carefully. The full Chicken Tenders basket costs $26.76 for 5 servings, which works out to $5.35 per serving, while two simplified versions come in lower by using fewer tracked ingredients. You can use this guide as a practical grocery-costing template: compare the ingredient list, buy each item at the store where it is priced lowest in the dataset, and choose the recipe version that best fits your weekly budget.

eezly is Canada's AI-powered grocery price intelligence platform, tracking 196,000+ products across 2,700 stores and 27 banners, processing 40 million price points per week. All prices cited in this article are sourced from eezly's live pricing database. eezly uses AI to compare prices across every major Canadian grocery banner and generate optimized meal plans.

Recipe 1: Chicken Tenders — $5.35 per serving

Chicken Tenders cost $26.76 total for 5 servings in New Brunswick, or $5.35 per serving. The basket is anchored by Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99 from Iga, then rounded out with sour cream, Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, and olive oil from Independent and Co-op Beaubear. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

This is the most complete recipe in the guide because it includes the full tracked ingredient set. You get protein from the chicken, texture from the bread crumbs, flavour from the Italian seasoning, richness from sour cream, and cooking fat from olive oil. If you are planning a family dinner, the $5.35 per-serving figure is useful because it places the meal below the common “cheap dinner recipes under $6” search threshold while still relying on a recognizable chicken-tender format.

From a budgeting perspective, the largest cost driver is olive oil at $11.00 from Independent. That single item represents a substantial share of the $26.76 basket, so your actual consumed cost may be lower if you already have olive oil at home. For strict grocery-receipt costing, however, this guide counts the full shelf price because it reflects what you would pay if you had to buy every listed item in New Brunswick in May 2026.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

You should buy the chicken at Iga, where Cajun Chicken Breast Roast is priced at $5.99 in the New Brunswick dataset. You should buy sour cream and Italian seasoning at Independent, where the tracked prices are $2.79 and $1.99, respectively. You should buy the 4C Seasoned Bread Crumbs 425 g at Co-op Beaubear for $4.99, then decide whether the $11.00 olive oil at Independent is needed for your household basket.

The practical shopping strategy is to avoid assuming one store is cheapest for every ingredient. Iga offers the chicken at $5.99, while Independent offers Italian Seasoning at $1.99 and Sour Cream at $2.79 — a difference in category strength rather than a single-store win. Co-op Beaubear is the tracked source for the $4.99 bread crumbs, which makes it relevant if you want the classic breaded texture rather than a simplified chicken dinner.

Recipe 2: Cajun Chicken with Sour Cream Seasoning — $4.35 per serving

Cajun Chicken with Sour Cream Seasoning costs $21.77 for 5 servings, or $4.35 per serving, when priced with New Brunswick ingredients from Iga and Independent. The calculation uses Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99, Sour Cream at $2.79, Italian Seasoning at $1.99, and Olive Oil at $11.00. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

This version removes the bread crumbs and keeps the dish focused on seasoned chicken with a creamy finish. You still buy the full olive oil item, so this is not the absolute lowest-cost recipe in the guide, but it is cheaper than the full Chicken Tenders basket because it excludes the $4.99 bread crumbs. If you prefer sauced chicken over breaded chicken, this recipe gives you a lower receipt total while keeping the meal familiar and filling.

The cost per serving is calculated by dividing the $21.77 ingredient basket by 5 servings. That puts the recipe at $1.00 less per serving than the full Chicken Tenders recipe, which costs $5.35 per serving. For your weekly grocery planning, that difference matters: over 5 servings, the simplified sour-cream version reduces the basket by exactly $4.99, which is the price of the omitted bread crumbs.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

You should split this recipe between Iga and Independent. Iga is the tracked source for the $5.99 Cajun Chicken Breast Roast, while Independent is the tracked source for Sour Cream at $2.79, Italian Seasoning at $1.99, and Olive Oil at $11.00. That store split gives you a clear, item-by-item grocery route instead of relying on a single basket assumption.

Iga offers Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99, while Independent carries Sour Cream at $2.79 and Italian Seasoning at $1.99 — a practical division if you are already comparing stores for budget meals in New Brunswick. The recipe works best when you want a lower-cost chicken dinner but do not need the crisp breaded coating. If you already have olive oil at home, your incremental out-of-pocket trip would be lower, but the receipt-based costing remains $21.77 using the tracked prices.

Recipe 3: Breaded Cajun Chicken Bites — $2.59 per serving

Breaded Cajun Chicken Bites cost $12.97 for 5 servings, or $2.59 per serving, making this the cheapest recipe in the guide. The recipe uses Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99 from Iga, 4C Seasoned Bread Crumbs 425 g at $4.99 from Co-op Beaubear, and Italian Seasoning at $1.99 from Independent. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

This is the best fit if your priority is the lowest possible per-serving cost using the tracked New Brunswick ingredients. It keeps the chicken and seasoned coating but removes the sour cream and olive oil from the receipt calculation. The result is a more basic breaded chicken format that stays well under $3 per serving based on May 2026 prices.

For your meal planning, this recipe is useful because it shows how much the basket changes when you strip the ingredient list down to the essentials. Compared with the full Chicken Tenders recipe at $26.76, the Breaded Cajun Chicken Bites basket costs $12.97. That is a difference of $13.79 across the 5-serving basket, driven by excluding Sour Cream at $2.79 and Olive Oil at $11.00.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

You should buy the chicken at Iga, the bread crumbs at Co-op Beaubear, and the seasoning at Independent. That combination produces the lowest tracked basket in this article: $12.97 total and $2.59 per serving. If you are searching for the cheapest recipes in New Brunswick, this is the strongest price point in the dataset.

The trade-off is that the recipe is simpler than the full Chicken Tenders version. You do not get the sour cream dip or the olive oil item included in the receipt, so you may need to adapt the cooking method based on what you already have at home. Still, if the goal is a low-cost weeknight dinner using real May 2026 prices, the $2.59 per-serving figure is the most budget-friendly option in this comparison.

Basket Index: New Brunswick Ingredient Prices by Store

The New Brunswick chicken-tender basket totals $26.76 when each tracked ingredient is priced at its listed store. The basket includes 5 grocery items across Iga, Independent, and Co-op Beaubear, with prices ranging from $1.99 for Italian Seasoning to $11.00 for Olive Oil. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

This basket index is most useful if you want to understand which items are driving the final recipe cost. You can see that the core chicken item is not the most expensive part of the basket; the $11.00 olive oil item costs more than the $5.99 Cajun Chicken Breast Roast. That matters for your grocery budget because pantry staples can distort the first-shop cost of a recipe, especially when the ingredient is used across multiple meals.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Independent accounts for three of the five tracked items in this basket: Sour Cream at $2.79, Italian Seasoning at $1.99, and Olive Oil at $11.00. Iga is the source for the $5.99 chicken, while Co-op Beaubear is the source for the $4.99 bread crumbs. If you are deciding whether a multi-store trip is worth it, this table shows that your most important price checks are the chicken and olive oil first, then the coating and dairy items.

Top Tracked Ingredient Prices for These Cheap Dinner Recipes

The best low-cost building block in this New Brunswick recipe set is Italian Seasoning at $1.99 from Independent, while the key protein is Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99 from Iga. The tracked prices in this table are live ingredient prices used to cost the three dinner recipes above. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

Because the supplied May 2026 dataset contains live prices rather than flyer “regular price” fields, the table below avoids inventing savings percentages. You should read it as a ranked list of the best available tracked inputs for these recipes, not as a sale-versus-regular-price claim. That distinction protects your grocery plan from misleading discount math and keeps the article grounded in verifiable New Brunswick prices.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

For your shopping list, the ranking shows a clear pattern. The lowest-priced add-ons are seasoning and sour cream at Independent, while the protein should be checked at Iga. The bread crumbs at Co-op Beaubear sit in the middle of the basket, and the olive oil at Independent is the item most likely to make the first shop feel expensive if your pantry is empty.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

Breaded Cajun Chicken Bites are the lowest-cost dinner at $2.59 per serving, followed by Cajun Chicken with Sour Cream Seasoning at $4.35 per serving and Chicken Tenders at $5.35 per serving. All three recipes use real New Brunswick ingredient prices from Iga, Independent, and Co-op Beaubear. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

This side-by-side comparison is the simplest way to choose your dinner based on budget. If you want the cheapest possible recipe, choose the $12.97 Breaded Cajun Chicken Bites basket. If you want a creamier chicken dinner, choose the $21.77 Cajun Chicken with Sour Cream Seasoning basket. If you want the full recipe with coating, dip, seasoning, and cooking oil priced into the receipt, choose the $26.76 Chicken Tenders basket.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

For a five-serving dinner, all three options fall under $6 per serving, which is the key threshold for budget meals in New Brunswick. The lowest-cost recipe is less than half the per-serving cost of many prepared takeout meals, and the full Chicken Tenders version still stays within a controlled grocery budget. Your best choice depends on whether you value the lowest receipt total, the creamy sauce component, or the most complete tender-style ingredient list.

How to Shop These Recipes in New Brunswick

You should shop these recipes by ingredient, not by assuming a single banner has the best full basket. Iga has the tracked Cajun Chicken Breast Roast at $5.99, Independent has Sour Cream at $2.79, Italian Seasoning at $1.99, and Olive Oil at $11.00, and Co-op Beaubear has 4C Seasoned Bread Crumbs 425 g at $4.99. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

This matters because New Brunswick grocery prices can vary by banner and category. In this dataset, the chicken is at Iga, but several supporting ingredients are at Independent. If you are planning one grocery trip, you may decide convenience is worth more than a small price difference; if you are planning a weekly route, you can use the store split to keep your recipe basket closer to the calculated totals.

You can also use the recipe tiers strategically. Choose Recipe 3 when your budget is tight and you want the cheapest dinner at $2.59 per serving. Choose Recipe 2 when you want a sauced chicken dinner at $4.35 per serving. Choose Recipe 1 when you want the complete tender-style basket at $5.35 per serving and are comfortable buying the full olive oil item as part of the shop.

What These Prices Mean for Budget Meals in New Brunswick

A five-serving chicken dinner can be costed between $12.97 and $26.76 in New Brunswick using the tracked May 2026 ingredient prices. That puts the three featured recipes between $2.59 and $5.35 per serving, depending on whether you include the full tender basket or a simplified ingredient list. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.]

For your household, the biggest lesson is that the cheapest recipes are often created by controlling add-ons rather than eliminating protein. The chicken in this dataset costs $5.99, while olive oil costs $11.00, so the pantry item has a larger effect on the receipt than the main protein. If you already have olive oil at home, you can treat the full Chicken Tenders recipe as a lower incremental-cost meal, but the receipt-based price remains $26.76 when every listed item is purchased.

The second lesson is that recipe costing is more useful than relying on broad grocery averages. Instead of asking whether chicken is generally affordable, you can look at a specific New Brunswick basket, store by store, and decide which version fits your week. That is the practical value of using real-time price tracking for cheap dinner recipes under $6: you get a dinner plan tied to actual shelf prices, not a generic estimate.