Ontario Cheap Dinner Recipes: Stir-Fry at $6.74

Key Facts

• Chicken Stir-Fry costs $26.97 total and $6.74 per serving in Ontario. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Boneless skinless chicken thighs are priced at $10.57 at Foodbasics. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Broccoli is priced at $4.49 at Fortinos for the Ontario stir-fry basket. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Baby carrots are priced at $5.99 at Foodbasics in the Ontario recipe data. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Garlic powder is priced at $1.54 and dark brown sugar at $0.39 at Fortinos. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• The featured Chicken Stir-Fry serves 4 and has a 30-minute prep time. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction

Chicken Stir-Fry is the cheapest featured full chicken dinner in this Ontario recipe-costing guide at $6.74 per serving. The total basket is $26.97 for 4 servings, using Fortinos for broccoli, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar, and Foodbasics for baby carrots and boneless skinless chicken thighs. If you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $7 in Ontario, this is the benchmark recipe because it includes a protein, vegetables, seasoning, and cooking fat within one clearly priced basket.

For your weekly meal planning, the important takeaway is that the protein drives the cost. Boneless skinless chicken thighs account for $10.57 of the $26.97 Chicken Stir-Fry basket, or just over one-third of the total ingredient cost. You can keep the serving cost below $7 by pairing that chicken with lower-priced flavour builders such as $1.54 garlic powder and $0.39 dark brown sugar at Fortinos. That combination makes the recipe practical for Ontario households comparing budget meals at Fortinos, Foodbasics, No Frills, Walmart, FreshCo, Loblaws, Metro, Real Canadian Superstore, Sobeys, Zehrs, and other active grocery banners in the province.

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

Chicken Stir-Fry costs $26.97 total, serves 4, and comes to $6.74 per serving in Ontario. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. This is the strongest all-around option in the article because it gives you chicken, two vegetables, cooking fat, seasoning, and a sweet-savoury sauce component without pushing the per-serving price above $7.

The recipe works as a practical weeknight dinner because the ingredients are simple and the prep time is listed at 30 minutes. You start with boneless skinless chicken thighs from Foodbasics, then build the vegetable base with broccoli from Fortinos and baby carrots from Foodbasics. Margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar from Fortinos round out the cooking and flavour base. For your budget, the key is that every ingredient has a specific tracked Ontario price rather than an estimated pantry cost.

Ingredients with Prices

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

The arithmetic matters when you are comparing cheap dinner recipes. The Chicken Stir-Fry basket adds up as $4.49 for broccoli, $5.99 for baby carrots, $3.99 for margarine, $1.54 for garlic powder, $0.39 for dark brown sugar, and $10.57 for chicken thighs. That equals $26.97, and dividing by 4 servings gives you $6.74 per serving when rounded to the nearest cent.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this recipe, your cheapest tracked store mix is Fortinos plus Foodbasics. You would buy broccoli, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar at Fortinos, while buying baby carrots and boneless skinless chicken thighs at Foodbasics. That split matters because the chicken thighs alone are $10.57, and the recipe’s cost per serving depends on keeping the protein purchase disciplined.

You should treat this recipe as a two-store basket if your goal is the lowest tracked cost from the available Ontario ingredient prices. Fortinos supplies four of the six priced ingredients, including the two lowest-cost flavour items: garlic powder at $1.54 and dark brown sugar at $0.39. Foodbasics supplies the two largest Foodbasics-listed items: baby carrots at $5.99 and chicken thighs at $10.57. If you are already passing both stores during your weekly shop, this basket is a practical example of how budget meals in Ontario can be built from specific store-level prices instead of general grocery assumptions.

Recipe 2: Garlic Broccoli and Carrot Skillet — $4.10 per serving

Garlic Broccoli and Carrot Skillet costs $16.40 total, serves 4, and comes to $4.10 per serving using the tracked Ontario ingredient prices. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. This is the cheapest recipe in the guide because it removes the chicken and uses broccoli, baby carrots, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar as a vegetable-forward dinner base.

This recipe is best for nights when you want a low-cost side-dish-style dinner, a lighter meal, or a vegetable base to serve with leftovers you already have at home. You are not adding unpriced rice, pasta, eggs, or meat to the cost calculation; the $4.10 per serving figure is based only on the ingredients with real Ontario prices in the data. If you are trying to keep your dinner spending low before a larger grocery run, this kind of vegetable skillet gives you a clear, controlled basket.

Ingredients with Prices

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

The cost calculation is straightforward. Broccoli at $4.49, baby carrots at $5.99, margarine at $3.99, garlic powder at $1.54, and dark brown sugar at $0.39 add up to $16.40. Dividing that total by 4 gives you $4.10 per serving. That makes it one of the cheapest recipes in this Ontario comparison, especially if your goal is to build dinner around vegetables instead of meat.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this skillet, you would buy broccoli, margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar at Fortinos, then buy baby carrots at Foodbasics. Fortinos carries the majority of the tracked ingredients in this recipe, including the lowest individual item in the full dataset: dark brown sugar at $0.39. Foodbasics contributes the baby carrots at $5.99, which are the largest single cost in this vegetable-only basket.

This recipe also shows why small flavour items can help you stretch a budget dinner. Garlic powder at $1.54 and dark brown sugar at $0.39 add a combined $1.93 to the total, but they help turn plain vegetables into a more complete skillet. If you are comparing cheap dinner recipes under $5 per serving, your best strategy is to keep the main basket simple and use low-priced seasoning items to create variety.

Recipe 3: Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken Thighs with Carrots — $5.62 per serving

Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken Thighs with Carrots costs $22.48 total, serves 4, and comes to $5.62 per serving in Ontario. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. This recipe is less expensive than the full Chicken Stir-Fry because it removes the broccoli, but it still keeps boneless skinless chicken thighs as the main protein.

For your dinner plan, this recipe is the middle option between the $4.10 vegetable skillet and the $6.74 Chicken Stir-Fry. You still get chicken thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics, baby carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics, and a simple Fortinos flavour base made with margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar. The basket is especially useful if you want a chicken dinner under $6 per serving and you do not need a second vegetable in the same meal.

Ingredients with Prices

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

The basket math is $10.57 for chicken thighs, $5.99 for baby carrots, $3.99 for margarine, $1.54 for garlic powder, and $0.39 for dark brown sugar. That equals $22.48, and when you divide it across 4 servings, the result is $5.62 per serving. If you are looking for budget meals in Ontario that still include chicken, this recipe gives you a clear price advantage over the fuller stir-fry while preserving the main protein.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Your best tracked store split for this recipe is Foodbasics for the chicken thighs and baby carrots, and Fortinos for margarine, garlic powder, and dark brown sugar. Foodbasics accounts for $16.56 of the recipe total through chicken and carrots, while Fortinos accounts for $5.92 through the cooking fat and flavour ingredients. That split shows you where your money is going: most of the spending is concentrated in the protein and vegetable, not the seasonings.

You can use this recipe when you want a lower-cost chicken dinner without building a larger vegetable basket. Compared with the $26.97 Chicken Stir-Fry, this $22.48 chicken-and-carrot version removes the $4.49 broccoli line item. The per-serving cost falls from $6.74 to $5.62, which is useful if you are trying to keep several dinners under a fixed weekly food budget.

Ontario Basket Index: Ingredient Prices Behind the Recipes

The Ontario recipe basket is led by boneless skinless chicken thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics, while the lowest-priced ingredient is dark brown sugar at $0.39 from Fortinos. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. If you want to understand why these recipes land between $4.10 and $6.74 per serving, the basket index below shows the ingredient-level prices that drive the calculations.

This is not a theoretical grocery list. Each line below comes from the same Ontario recipe-costing data used for the three dinners in this article. You can use it to decide which ingredient is most important to compare before you shop. In this basket, chicken thighs and baby carrots have the largest effect on your final dinner cost, while garlic powder and dark brown sugar have the smallest effect.

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

The basket index also helps you decide where comparison shopping matters most. If you only have time to check one or two prices, you should focus on the higher-cost items first because they influence the total more than the smaller seasoning lines. In this dataset, chicken thighs at $10.57 and baby carrots at $5.99 together account for $16.56 of the full $26.97 Chicken Stir-Fry basket. By contrast, garlic powder and dark brown sugar together account for $1.93.

Top Tracked Ingredient Deals for These Ontario Recipes

The lowest tracked ingredient in these Ontario budget recipes is dark brown sugar at $0.39 at Fortinos, followed by garlic powder at $1.54 at Fortinos. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. For the table below, the regular/reference price is the same as the tracked current price because no separate regular price was provided in the recipe data; therefore, the listed savings percentage is 0.0% for each item.

Even without a separate sale discount, this table is useful because it ranks the ingredients by their current cost. When you are building cheap dinner recipes, the lowest-cost flavour items can be disproportionately helpful. A $0.39 brown sugar line and a $1.54 garlic powder line let you create a glaze or stir-fry seasoning without changing the basket as much as adding another protein would.

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

For your shopping list, this ranking shows the difference between flavour management and protein management. Fortinos has the lowest-priced individual items in the recipe data, including $0.39 dark brown sugar and $1.54 garlic powder. Foodbasics has the chicken thighs at $10.57 and baby carrots at $5.99, which are essential to the two chicken-based recipes. If you are trying to make the cheapest recipes from this basket, your first decision is whether tonight’s dinner needs chicken or whether the $4.10 vegetable skillet is enough.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

The cheapest recipe in this Ontario comparison is Garlic Broccoli and Carrot Skillet at $4.10 per serving, while the featured Chicken Stir-Fry costs $6.74 per serving. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. The table below compares the three recipe baskets using the same ingredient prices, the same 4-serving assumption, and the same Ontario store data.

This comparison is useful because the recipes are built from overlapping ingredients. The difference between the $6.74 Chicken Stir-Fry and the $5.62 Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken Thighs with Carrots is the $4.49 broccoli line. The difference between the $5.62 chicken-and-carrot recipe and the $4.10 vegetable skillet is the inclusion of $10.57 chicken thighs and the exclusion of $4.49 broccoli. Seeing those substitutions side by side helps you decide whether you want the lowest possible price or the most complete dinner.

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

If you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $7, all three recipes qualify on a per-serving basis. Your best choice depends on what you need the meal to do. Choose the $4.10 vegetable skillet when price is the top priority, the $5.62 chicken-and-carrot dinner when you want protein under $6 per serving, and the $6.74 Chicken Stir-Fry when you want the most complete basket with chicken and two vegetables.

How to Shop These Budget Meals in Ontario

Your most efficient strategy is to shop the higher-cost ingredients first: chicken thighs at $10.57 from Foodbasics and baby carrots at $5.99 from Foodbasics. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026. Once those items are in your basket, the Fortinos ingredients — broccoli at $4.49, margarine at $3.99, garlic powder at $1.54, and dark brown sugar at $0.39 — determine which version of dinner you prepare.

For a single dinner, you may not want to visit two stores unless they fit naturally into your route. However, the data shows why store-splitting can matter for Ontario grocery planning. The full Chicken Stir-Fry uses Foodbasics for $16.56 of ingredients and Fortinos for $10.41 of ingredients. If you already shop both banners, separating the list this way gives you a cleaner path to the $26.97 total.

You should also think in terms of flexible recipe paths. If you buy all six ingredients, you can make the full Chicken Stir-Fry at $6.74 per serving. If you leave out the broccoli, you have the Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken Thighs with Carrots at $5.62 per serving. If you leave out the chicken, you have the Garlic Broccoli and Carrot Skillet at $4.10 per serving. That flexibility is valuable when your grocery budget changes midweek or when you want to stretch ingredients across multiple dinners.