Ontario Cheap Dinner: Chicken Stir-Fry at $6.74

Key Facts

• Chicken Stir-Fry is $6.74/serving. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Chicken Stir-Fry totals $26.97. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• The Ontario recipe serves 4 people. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Chicken thighs are $10.57 at Foodbasics. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Broccoli is $4.49 at Fortinos. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Garlic powder is $1.54 at Fortinos. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction

Chicken Stir-Fry is the best fully priced cheap dinner recipe under $7 per serving in this Ontario basket, costing $6.74 per serving and $26.97 for four servings. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] If you are looking for budget meals in Ontario that still include a protein, vegetable, seasoning, and cooking fat, this recipe gives you a complete dinner structure using tracked prices from Fortinos and Foodbasics.

For your grocery list, the two highest-cost items are Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics and Baby Carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics. Fortinos supplies four lower-cost pantry or produce components in this basket: Broccoli at $4.49, Margarine at $3.99, Garlic Powder at $1.54, and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39. That mix matters because your total dinner cost is not driven by one item alone; your final price comes from combining protein, produce, and small pantry ingredients carefully.

This guide uses the provided Ontario grocery prices to cost three practical dinner formats: the full Chicken Stir-Fry, a chicken-and-broccoli skillet variation, and a vegetable sauté built from the same tracked basket. You should treat the first recipe as the most complete dinner, because it includes chicken and two vegetables. The second and third recipes help you understand how your cost changes when you simplify the ingredient list while still using real May 2026 Ontario prices.

Recipe 1: Chicken Stir-Fry — $6.74 per serving

Chicken Stir-Fry costs $26.97 for four servings in Ontario, which works out to $6.74 per serving using May 2026 prices from Fortinos and Foodbasics. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] This is the strongest option if you want one of the cheapest recipes that still includes chicken, broccoli, carrots, seasoning, and a cooking fat in the same meal.

The largest share of your grocery spend goes to Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics. That single item represents 39.2% of the $26.97 recipe basket, so your protein choice has the biggest influence on the final serving cost. The next most expensive ingredient is Baby Carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics, followed by Broccoli at $4.49 from Fortinos and Margarine at $3.99 from Fortinos.

You can use this recipe as a practical weeknight dinner because the basket is simple and the ingredient count is low. The provided prep time is 30 minutes, which makes it realistic for a weekday meal plan. If you are planning budget meals in Ontario, this recipe gives you a clear reference point: a chicken-based dinner can stay below $7 per serving when you shop the listed items at the tracked stores.

Ingredients with Prices

The full Chicken Stir-Fry ingredient list totals exactly $26.97, based on the itemized prices below. You should buy the chicken thighs and baby carrots at Foodbasics, then buy broccoli, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar at Fortinos to match the costed basket. The recipe serves four, so each dollar added or removed from the basket changes the per-serving cost by $0.25.

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

The table shows why this recipe is useful for grocery budgeting. Your chicken and two vegetable items account for $21.05 of the $26.97 basket, while garlic powder and dark brown sugar add only $1.93 combined. If you already have garlic powder or brown sugar at home, your out-of-pocket trip cost may be lower, but the costed recipe above uses the full tracked prices so you can compare it consistently.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Foodbasics is the key store for the protein in this recipe, with Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs priced at $10.57 and Baby Carrots priced at $5.99. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] Fortinos is the key store for the remaining tracked items, including Broccoli at $4.49, Margarine at $3.99, Garlic Powder at $1.54, and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39.

You should split the basket between Foodbasics and Fortinos if your goal is to reproduce the $26.97 recipe cost precisely. Foodbasics supplies $16.56 of the basket, while Fortinos supplies $10.41. That means 61.4% of the recipe cost is tied to Foodbasics items, largely because the chicken is the highest-priced ingredient.

Fortinos offers Broccoli at $4.49, while Foodbasics offers Baby Carrots at $5.99 — a $1.50 difference, with broccoli priced 25.0% lower than the carrots in this tracked basket. This is not a like-for-like vegetable comparison, but it helps you see where your produce dollars are going. If you are cooking for four people and need both texture and volume, the recipe uses both vegetables rather than treating them as substitutes.

Recipe 2: Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken and Broccoli Skillet — $5.25 per serving

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken and Broccoli Skillet costs $20.98 for four servings, or $5.25 per serving, when you use the tracked Ontario prices for chicken, broccoli, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] This version removes the $5.99 baby carrots from the full Chicken Stir-Fry basket, which lowers the total cost while keeping the chicken protein.

This is the best option in the guide if you want a chicken dinner below $6 per serving using the provided Ontario prices. Your basket still includes Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics, Broccoli at $4.49 from Fortinos, Margarine at $3.99 from Fortinos, Garlic Powder at $1.54 from Fortinos, and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39 from Fortinos. The simplified list gives you a savoury-sweet skillet dinner with fewer produce components.

You save $5.99 versus the full Chicken Stir-Fry basket because the carrots are omitted. Since the recipe serves four, that one change lowers the serving cost by $1.50, moving the dinner from $6.74 per serving to $5.25 per serving after rounding. If your priority is reducing the bill while keeping chicken on the plate, this is the most direct adjustment you can make from the tracked ingredient list.

Ingredients with Prices

The ingredients in this skillet variation total $20.98, calculated from five tracked items. You should use the Foodbasics chicken price and the Fortinos prices for the broccoli and pantry components. The basket is smaller than the Chicken Stir-Fry basket, but it remains a complete hot dinner built around chicken and vegetables.

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

The arithmetic is straightforward: $10.57 plus $4.49 plus $3.99 plus $1.54 plus $0.39 equals $20.98. Divided across four servings, the result is $5.245 per serving, which rounds to $5.25. This makes the skillet one of the cheapest recipes in this article while still using the most expensive but most filling component in the basket, the chicken thighs.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Foodbasics provides the key protein price for this recipe, with Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57, while Fortinos provides Broccoli at $4.49, Margarine at $3.99, Garlic Powder at $1.54, and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] If you are shopping for this version, you should treat Foodbasics as the first stop for the chicken and Fortinos as the best listed source for the remaining ingredients.

This split-store approach matters because your recipe cost depends on buying the specific items where they are priced in the data. The Fortinos portion of this recipe totals $10.41, which is almost the same as the $10.57 Foodbasics chicken price. In practical terms, your protein and your Fortinos add-ins are nearly equal halves of the recipe budget.

The cost reduction compared with the full Chicken Stir-Fry comes entirely from leaving out Baby Carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics. That does not mean carrots are a poor purchase; it means that when your goal is a cheap dinner recipe under $6, removing a secondary vegetable has a clear mathematical effect. You can use this recipe as a lower-cost template and add carrots only when your weekly budget allows.

Recipe 3: Broccoli-Carrot Garlic Vegetable Sauté — $4.10 per serving

Broccoli-Carrot Garlic Vegetable Sauté costs $16.40 for four servings, or $4.10 per serving, using the tracked Ontario prices for broccoli, baby carrots, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] This is the cheapest recipe format in the guide because it removes the $10.57 chicken thighs from the basket.

This recipe is best understood as a vegetable-forward dinner base. You get Broccoli at $4.49 from Fortinos, Baby Carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics, Margarine at $3.99 from Fortinos, Garlic Powder at $1.54 from Fortinos, and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39 from Fortinos. The total is $16.40, which is $10.57 lower than the full Chicken Stir-Fry because that is the exact price of the omitted chicken.

You should choose this option when your priority is keeping the grocery bill as low as possible from the provided basket. At $4.10 per serving, it is $2.64 cheaper per serving than the full Chicken Stir-Fry. For four servings, that difference is $10.57, which matches the removed Foodbasics chicken item exactly.

Ingredients with Prices

The vegetable sauté uses five tracked ingredients and keeps both produce items from the full Chicken Stir-Fry. Your largest cost is Baby Carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics, followed by Broccoli at $4.49 from Fortinos. Margarine, garlic powder, and brown sugar create a simple cooking base and seasoning profile.

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

The cost per serving is calculated by dividing $16.40 by four servings. That gives you $4.10 per serving exactly. If you are comparing cheapest recipes for Ontario meal planning, this recipe has the lowest serving cost in the guide, though it does not include the chicken protein found in the first two recipes.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Foodbasics supplies Baby Carrots at $5.99, while Fortinos supplies Broccoli at $4.49, Margarine at $3.99, Garlic Powder at $1.54, and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] You should follow that store split if you want the $16.40 total for this vegetable sauté.

The Fortinos portion of this recipe totals $10.41, while the Foodbasics portion totals $5.99. That makes Fortinos the larger source of the vegetable sauté basket by dollar value, even though the single highest-priced item is the Foodbasics carrots. Your final cost depends on the combination of stores, not on one banner alone.

This recipe also shows how quickly your serving cost changes when a high-cost ingredient is removed. The full Chicken Stir-Fry is $6.74 per serving, while this vegetable sauté is $4.10 per serving. That is a 39.2% lower serving cost, calculated from the $2.64 difference divided by the $6.74 Chicken Stir-Fry serving cost.

Basket Index: Ontario Ingredient Prices for These Recipes

The six-item Ontario dinner basket totals $26.97 when you buy the listed ingredients at Foodbasics and Fortinos. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] This basket index is the foundation for all three recipes in the article, so you can see exactly how each dinner cost is built.

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

This table is useful because it separates the full dinner basket from the individual recipe variations. You can start with the $26.97 full basket and then subtract ingredients to understand how the lower-cost recipes work. Removing Baby Carrots at $5.99 creates the $20.98 chicken-and-broccoli skillet, while removing Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57 creates the $16.40 vegetable sauté.

You should also notice the difference between low-priced pantry items and high-impact basket items. Dark Brown Sugar is only $0.39 at Fortinos, so removing it would barely change your dinner cost. By contrast, chicken thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics are the main cost driver, which is why any budget meal plan built around meat should pay close attention to protein prices.

Top Current Price Opportunities in the Recipe Basket

The strongest price opportunity in this Ontario recipe basket is Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39 from Fortinos, while the highest-impact item to compare carefully is Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] The table below ranks the tracked items by current price and uses the current tracked price as the reference price where no separate regular price is provided in the data.

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

This table should be read as a current-price ranking, not as a flyer markdown list. The data supports current tracked prices for the six products, and those are the prices you should use for recipe costing. For your shopping decisions, the most important takeaway is not the 0% reference savings column; it is the fact that the full four-serving basket reaches $26.97 only when you buy the listed products at the listed stores.

You can still use the ranking to make practical choices. If you already own garlic powder or brown sugar, those items are low-cost components, but they may not need to be purchased every time you cook. If you already have margarine, removing the $3.99 Fortinos item from your shopping trip would reduce your cash outlay for all three recipes, although the standardized recipe cost remains based on the full tracked basket.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

The cheapest recipe in this Ontario comparison is Broccoli-Carrot Garlic Vegetable Sauté at $4.10 per serving, while the cheapest chicken recipe is Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken and Broccoli Skillet at $5.25 per serving. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] The full Chicken Stir-Fry costs $6.74 per serving because it includes both chicken and two vegetables.

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

This comparison gives you three different ways to use the same Ontario grocery basket. If you want the most complete dinner, choose Chicken Stir-Fry at $6.74 per serving. If you want to keep chicken but lower the total, choose the chicken-and-broccoli skillet at $5.25 per serving. If you want the lowest-cost dinner base, choose the vegetable sauté at $4.10 per serving.

The serving-cost spread is meaningful for your weekly budget. The difference between the highest and lowest cost per serving is $2.64. Across four servings, that is $10.57, which is exactly the tracked price of the Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at Foodbasics.

How to Use These Prices for Ontario Meal Planning

You can build a practical Ontario dinner plan by treating the $26.97 Chicken Stir-Fry basket as the full version and the $20.98 and $16.40 recipes as lower-cost variations. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] This approach helps you plan cheap dinner recipes under $7 without guessing what the grocery basket will cost.

Start with your protein decision. If you include Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics, your dinner will be more filling but materially more expensive. If you remove the chicken and rely on vegetables, your basket drops to $16.40, or $4.10 per serving. That makes protein the first decision you should make when your grocery budget is tight.

Next, decide whether you need both vegetables. Baby Carrots are $5.99 at Foodbasics, while Broccoli is $4.49 at Fortinos. Keeping both gives the full Chicken Stir-Fry more variety, but removing the carrots lowers the total by $5.99 and brings the chicken skillet to $20.98. If you are meal planning for children, lunches, or leftovers, the added vegetable volume may be worth the higher basket cost.

Finally, keep the pantry items in perspective. Margarine at $3.99 from Fortinos is more expensive than Garlic Powder at $1.54 and Dark Brown Sugar at $0.39 combined. If your kitchen already has a cooking fat, garlic seasoning, or brown sugar, your immediate checkout total may be lower than the fully costed recipe basket. For consistent comparisons, however, the recipe costs in this guide include every listed ingredient at its tracked May 2026 price.

Cheapest Recipes and Store Takeaways for Ontario

For Ontario shoppers, the cheapest recipe in this guide is Broccoli-Carrot Garlic Vegetable Sauté at $4.10 per serving, and the cheapest chicken-based recipe is Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken and Broccoli Skillet at $5.25 per serving. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking.] If you want the full Chicken Stir-Fry with chicken, carrots, broccoli, margarine, garlic powder, and brown sugar, your cost is $6.74 per serving.

Your best store split is clear from the data. Buy Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs and Baby Carrots at Foodbasics, where the tracked prices are $10.57 and $5.99. Buy Broccoli, Margarine, Garlic Powder, and Dark Brown Sugar at Fortinos, where the tracked prices are $4.49, $3.99, $1.54, and $0.39.

This is where AI-powered grocery price comparison becomes useful for your weekly shop. Instead of assuming one banner is cheapest for every ingredient, you can compare the actual item-level prices that make up your recipe. In this basket, Foodbasics is essential for the chicken and carrots, while Fortinos carries the lower-cost produce and pantry items used across all three recipes.

For more Ontario grocery planning, you can compare current deals at https://eezly.com/deals, browse recipe ideas at https://eezly.com/recipes, build meal plans at https://eezly.com/meal-plans, and check store-specific pages such as https://eezly.com/stores/fortinos and https://eezly.com/stores/food-basics.