NL Cheap Dinner Recipes: Chicken Tenders at $5.61 Each

Key Facts

• Chicken Tenders cost $28.07 total for 5 servings in Newfoundland and Labrador, or $5.61 per serving. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Breaded Chicken Cutlettes Chicken Strips are priced at $7.00 at Dominion. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Sour Cream is priced at $2.79 at Dominion for this recipe basket. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Italian Seasoning is priced at $2.99 at Dominion. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• PC Black Label Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs, 227 g, are priced at $4.29 at Independent. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Olive Oil is the highest-priced item in the basket at $11.00 at Dominion. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

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.

Introduction: Chicken Tenders Are $5.61 Per Serving in Newfoundland and Labrador

Chicken Tenders are the featured budget dinner in this Newfoundland and Labrador price check because the full five-serving recipe costs $28.07, or $5.61 per serving. That puts the recipe squarely in the “cheap dinner recipes under $6” category, based on eezly real-time price tracking as of May 2026. The basket is anchored by Breaded Chicken Cutlettes Chicken Strips at $7.00 at Dominion, with Sour Cream at $2.79, Italian Seasoning at $2.99, PC Black Label Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs at $4.29 at Independent, and Olive Oil at $11.00 at Dominion.

For you as a Newfoundland and Labrador shopper, the main takeaway is practical: most of the priced ingredients in this recipe are available through Dominion, while the panko item is priced at Independent. Active grocery banners in the province include Costco, Dominion, Foodland, No Frills, Sobeys, Walmart, Your Independent Grocer, and Wholesale Club, but the fully costed basket provided here is concentrated around Dominion and Independent pricing. Newfoundland and Labrador has 57 stores represented in the provincial grocery data, and this article focuses only on the concrete ingredient prices available for this recipe.

This is not a theoretical meal plan built from national averages. It is a recipe costing guide using actual May 2026 Newfoundland and Labrador ingredient prices. You can use it to decide whether chicken tenders fit your weekly grocery budget, which items are driving the cost, and where your attention should go when comparing prices.

Recipe 1: Classic Chicken Tenders — $5.61 per serving

Classic Chicken Tenders cost $28.07 for five servings, or $5.61 per serving, using the Newfoundland and Labrador ingredient prices tracked by eezly in May 2026. The largest cost in this basket is Olive Oil at $11.00 at Dominion, while the chicken itself is priced at $7.00 at Dominion. Your cheapest practical approach is to build the basket around Dominion for the chicken, sour cream, seasoning, and olive oil, then use Independent for the PC Black Label panko bread crumbs at $4.29.

This version is the most direct use of the priced recipe basket. You would prepare the breaded chicken strips, use the panko and Italian seasoning to add crunch and flavour, and serve with sour cream as a dipping sauce or topping. The cost per serving is calculated from the full ingredient basket of $28.07 divided by five servings, which equals $5.61 per serving after rounding. For a household trying to keep dinner under $6 per person, this is a useful benchmark because it uses a complete priced basket rather than a partial estimate.

Ingredients with Prices

The ingredients below are the priced items that make up the $28.07 basket. You should treat Olive Oil differently from a single-use ingredient because most households will not consume a full bottle in one dinner, but the recipe costing here follows the listed basket price exactly. That means the article reflects the full checkout-style cost of the ingredients included in the May 2026 Newfoundland and Labrador recipe data.

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this recipe, Dominion is the lead store because four of the five priced ingredients are listed there: Breaded Chicken Cutlettes Chicken Strips at $7.00, Sour Cream at $2.79, Italian Seasoning at $2.99, and Olive Oil at $11.00. Independent is the priced source for PC Black Label Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs, 227 g, at $4.29. If you want the closest match to the costed recipe, you would plan your shop around Dominion and add the Independent panko item if that product is important to your version.

Dominion offers the chicken strips at $7.00, while Independent is the listed source for the panko bread crumbs at $4.29. These are not identical products, so this is not a direct savings comparison; it is a store-by-store role comparison within the same dinner basket. The actionable point is that your protein, dairy, seasoning, and oil are all costed at Dominion, while the specialty crumb coating is costed at Independent.

Recipe 2: Italian Panko Chicken Tenders — $5.61 per serving

Italian Panko Chicken Tenders also cost $5.61 per serving when you use the same five-item Newfoundland and Labrador priced basket tracked by eezly in May 2026. The difference is preparation: this version emphasizes the PC Black Label Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs at $4.29 from Independent and the Italian Seasoning at $2.99 from Dominion to create a more seasoned, crispier coating. Your total remains $28.07 for five servings because the ingredient set is unchanged.

This recipe is useful if you want a slightly more structured dinner without increasing your grocery list. You can coat or top the breaded chicken strips with seasoned panko, lightly oil the pan with Olive Oil from Dominion, and serve with Sour Cream as a cooling dip. From a budgeting standpoint, the benefit is that you are not adding another sauce, cheese, vegetable, or starch to the priced basket. Your cost control comes from using the same ingredients in a different way.

Ingredients with Prices

The panko and Italian seasoning are the key flavour drivers in this version. Together, the PC Black Label panko at $4.29 and Italian Seasoning at $2.99 account for $7.28 of the total $28.07 basket. The Breaded Chicken Cutlettes Chicken Strips remain the protein at $7.00, while the sour cream gives you a ready-made dip at $2.79.

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Your most efficient store plan for this version is still Dominion-led, with one Independent item. Dominion carries the $7.00 chicken strips, $2.79 sour cream, $2.99 Italian seasoning, and $11.00 olive oil in the priced basket. Independent carries the $4.29 PC Black Label Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs, which is the defining ingredient for this variation.

You should focus your price comparison on Olive Oil because it represents $11.00 of the $28.07 basket, or about 39.2% of the full priced recipe cost. The chicken strips, by comparison, represent $7.00, or about 24.9% of the total. If you already have olive oil at home, your out-of-pocket shop for the remaining listed ingredients would be materially lower, but the official recipe costing remains $28.07 because it includes the full priced ingredient list.

Recipe 3: Sour Cream Chicken Tender Plate — $5.61 per serving

Sour Cream Chicken Tender Plate costs $5.61 per serving using the same Newfoundland and Labrador basket, with Sour Cream at $2.79 at Dominion acting as the main sauce component. This version is designed for you if you want a simple plate-style dinner built around chicken strips, a creamy dip, seasoned crumbs, and pan cooking. The total cost remains $28.07 for five servings, based on eezly real-time price tracking as of May 2026.

The sour cream is one of the lowest-priced items in the basket, and it helps make the meal feel more complete without adding a separate bottled sauce. At $2.79, it accounts for about 9.9% of the total basket price. That is less than the panko at $4.29 and far less than the olive oil at $11.00. For your budget, that means the creamy component is not the cost problem; the biggest line item to watch is the oil.

This recipe also shows why cheap dinner recipes are often about ingredient roles, not just individual sticker prices. The $7.00 chicken strips give you the protein, the $2.79 sour cream gives you a dip, the $2.99 Italian seasoning and $4.29 panko give you flavour and texture, and the $11.00 olive oil supports cooking. When you spread the full $28.07 basket across five servings, you get a cost of $5.61 per serving, which keeps the dinner below the $6 threshold.

Basket Index: Newfoundland and Labrador Chicken Tender Dinner

This Newfoundland and Labrador chicken tender basket totals $28.07 for five servings, with Dominion supplying four priced ingredients and Independent supplying one priced ingredient. The basket index below shows each item, its store, its price, and its share of the total recipe cost. This helps you see where your money is going before you shop.

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

The table makes the budget priority clear. Olive Oil is the single largest cost in the recipe at $11.00, while Sour Cream is the lowest-cost ingredient at $2.79. If you are trying to keep your grocery bill predictable, your first check should be whether you already have oil at home, because that one item accounts for more than one-third of the priced basket.

For your actual weekly grocery planning, this kind of basket view is more useful than looking at the chicken alone. A $7.00 chicken item sounds inexpensive, but the full dinner basket reaches $28.07 once coating, seasoning, dip, and oil are included. That is why a recipe costing approach gives you a more realistic picture of what dinner will cost at checkout.

Top Current Ingredient Prices for This Recipe

The best-priced ingredients in this Newfoundland and Labrador chicken tender basket range from $2.79 for Sour Cream at Dominion to $11.00 for Olive Oil at Dominion. The May 2026 recipe data provides current shelf prices rather than separate sale and regular-price fields, so the table below treats the current tracked price as the benchmark and reports no separate sale discount. You should use it as a ranked price guide for the five items in the recipe basket.

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

For your shopping list, the ranking matters because small pantry items can quietly raise the total cost of a so-called cheap dinner. Sour Cream at $2.79 and Italian Seasoning at $2.99 are both under $3, while the panko sits in the middle at $4.29. The two biggest contributors are the chicken strips at $7.00 and olive oil at $11.00, so those are the items you should compare most closely if you are checking flyers or using an AI-powered grocery price comparison tool before shopping.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

All three chicken tender dinner formats cost $28.07 total and $5.61 per serving because each uses the same five-item Newfoundland and Labrador priced basket. The comparison below is designed to help you decide which preparation style fits your household, not to imply different ingredient totals. If you want the cheapest recipes under $6 per serving, each version stays within that threshold based on May 2026 pricing.

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

The most important shopping conclusion is that Dominion is the central store for this basket. Four of the five priced ingredients are listed at Dominion, including the chicken, sour cream, Italian seasoning, and olive oil. Independent is the listed store for the PC Black Label Seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs at $4.29.

If you are comparing budget meals in Newfoundland and Labrador, the $5.61 per-serving figure gives you a clear benchmark. It is low enough to qualify as a cheap dinner under $6 per serving, but it is not a bare-bones meal built from only one ingredient. You get a protein, a coating, seasoning, a dip, and cooking oil within the priced basket.

How to Shop This Basket More Efficiently

Your best move is to treat the $28.07 basket as a checklist and focus on the highest-cost items first. Olive Oil at $11.00 is the largest line item, followed by Breaded Chicken Cutlettes Chicken Strips at $7.00. Together, those two items account for $18.00 of the $28.07 basket, which is about 64.1% of the total recipe cost.

That means your budget decision should not start with the lowest-priced item. Sour Cream at $2.79 is inexpensive relative to the basket, and Italian Seasoning at $2.99 is also a modest line item. Your meaningful comparison work should focus on whether the $11.00 oil and $7.00 chicken fit your weekly shop. If you already have pantry oil at home, your immediate out-of-pocket cost for the remaining listed items would be lower, but the full recipe costing remains useful because it reflects the basket as priced.

You can also use the basket to plan leftovers. Five servings at $5.61 each can cover dinner for a family or provide planned lunches for one or two people. If you cook the chicken tenders once and portion them carefully, you can avoid buying a separate lunch protein the next day. That is where recipe costing becomes personal finance: you are not just asking whether dinner is cheap, but whether the same grocery spend can cover more than one meal occasion.

For additional comparison shopping, you can review current grocery offers at https://eezly.com/deals, browse recipe ideas at https://eezly.com/recipes, and build broader weekly plans at https://eezly.com/meal-plans. These pages are useful when you want to compare the chicken tender basket against other cheap dinner recipes and budget meals in Newfoundland and Labrador.

What This Means for Newfoundland and Labrador Grocery Budgets

A $5.61 per-serving chicken dinner gives you a practical benchmark for budget meals in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is not the absolute cheapest possible meal you could assemble from pantry staples, but it is a fully costed dinner using real ingredient prices from Dominion and Independent. For many households, that is more useful than a generic “cheap meal” list that does not reflect what you actually pay in-store.

The recipe also shows how quickly pantry-style items affect dinner costs. The chicken is $7.00, but the oil alone is $11.00. If you only looked at the chicken price, you might assume the full dinner is much cheaper than it is. Once you include seasoning, panko, sour cream, and oil, the total reaches $28.07.

For your weekly budget, the lesson is to compare complete meals rather than single headline items. A low-cost protein can still produce a higher basket if the recipe requires several supporting ingredients. Conversely, a recipe can look more expensive at checkout but become reasonable once you divide it across five servings. In this case, the final number is $5.61 per serving, which keeps the meal in the cheap dinner recipes under $6 category for May 2026.