Quebec Cheap Dinner Recipes: $4.26 Chicken Meal

Key Facts

• Chicken a La Jules costs $17.06 for 4 servings. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Cost per serving is $4.26 in Quebec. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Chicken pie is $2.50 at Maxi. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Spinach is $5.29 at Costco. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Mushrooms are $5.99 at Metro; lemon juice is $1.29 at IGA. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction

Chicken a La Jules is the featured cheap dinner recipe for Quebec because it comes in at $4.26 per serving, based on a $17.06 basket for four servings. The lowest-priced ingredient in the basket is Meat Pies, Chicken Pie at $2.50 from Maxi, while the largest single cost is Crimini Mushrooms at $5.99 from Metro. If you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $5, this recipe is the strongest fully priced option in the Quebec data because it stays below the $5-per-serving threshold while using five tracked grocery items.

For your May 2026 grocery planning, the most practical takeaway is that one low-cost prepared chicken component can anchor several budget meals Quebec households can adapt. Maxi offers Meat Pies, Chicken Pie at $2.50, while Costco offers Spinach at $5.29, Metro offers Garlic at $1.99 and Crimini Mushrooms at $5.99, and IGA offers Lemon Juice at $1.29. Those prices allow you to build the original Chicken a La Jules recipe, or adjust the basket to create two cheaper variations that use the same real Quebec ingredient prices.

Recipe 1: Chicken a La Jules — $4.26 per serving

Chicken a La Jules costs $17.06 for four servings, or $4.26 per serving, making it a practical Quebec dinner under $5 per portion. The recipe uses Meat Pies, Chicken Pie from Maxi at $2.50, Spinach from Costco at $5.29, Crimini Mushrooms from Metro at $5.99, Garlic from Metro at $1.99, and Lemon Juice from IGA at $1.29. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This recipe works as a budget dinner because the chicken component is inexpensive and already portioned, while the spinach and mushrooms add volume and vegetables without pushing the meal above $5 per person. You can treat the chicken pie as the protein base, then use the spinach, mushrooms, garlic and lemon juice to create a warmer, brighter plate than a plain prepared pie. For your grocery trip, the key is not to buy every ingredient at one store if the listed cheapest prices are spread across Maxi, Costco, Metro and IGA.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Your cheapest route for Chicken a La Jules is a split-store basket: buy the Meat Pies, Chicken Pie at Maxi for $2.50, Spinach at Costco for $5.29, Crimini Mushrooms at Metro for $5.99, Garlic at Metro for $1.99, and Lemon Juice at IGA for $1.29. Maxi offers Meat Pies, Chicken Pie at $2.50, while Metro charges $5.99 for Crimini Mushrooms — a $3.49 difference between two separate recipe components rather than a direct product comparison. The important point for your budget is that the lowest documented price for each ingredient sits at a specific Quebec banner, not necessarily one single store.

If you are trying to minimize travel, Metro is the only store in the priced list that supplies two ingredients: Crimini Mushrooms at $5.99 and Garlic at $1.99. That makes Metro useful for consolidating part of your shop, while Maxi remains the key stop for the $2.50 chicken pie. You should compare your local route before splitting the trip, because a $1.29 lemon juice purchase at IGA is valuable only if you can pick it up without adding unnecessary transportation cost.

Recipe 2: Chicken Pie with Spinach and Mushrooms — $3.94 per serving

Chicken Pie with Spinach and Mushrooms costs $15.77 for four servings, or $3.94 per serving, when you use the same Quebec prices and omit the $1.29 lemon juice. The basket includes Meat Pies, Chicken Pie at Maxi for $2.50, Spinach at Costco for $5.29, Crimini Mushrooms at Metro for $5.99, and Garlic at Metro for $1.99. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This version is a slightly cheaper dinner because it keeps the two vegetables and garlic but removes the finishing acid. You still get the main structure of Chicken a La Jules: a low-cost chicken pie base, cooked spinach, sautéed mushrooms and garlic. If you are building budget meals Quebec families can repeat, this version is useful because it keeps the filling ingredients while trimming the basket by $1.29.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this recipe, your cheapest documented ingredient path is Maxi for the $2.50 Meat Pies, Chicken Pie, Costco for $5.29 Spinach, and Metro for both $5.99 Crimini Mushrooms and $1.99 Garlic. Compared with the original Chicken a La Jules basket at $17.06, this version costs $15.77 because you remove the $1.29 Lemon Juice from IGA. On a per-serving basis, that brings your meal from $4.26 down to $3.94, a difference of $0.32 per serving after rounding.

This is the strongest variation if you want a full vegetable-forward dinner without the extra stop for lemon juice. You keep the mushrooms, which are the most expensive ingredient in the original basket at $5.99, but they also provide much of the savoury volume. If you want the meal to feel more complete while remaining under $4 per serving, this version gives you a more substantial plate than the leaner spinach-and-garlic variation.

Recipe 3: Lemon-Garlic Chicken Pie with Spinach — $2.77 per serving

Lemon-Garlic Chicken Pie with Spinach costs $11.07 for four servings, or $2.77 per serving, when you use the same Quebec ingredient prices and omit the $5.99 Crimini Mushrooms. The basket includes Meat Pies, Chicken Pie from Maxi at $2.50, Spinach from Costco at $5.29, Garlic from Metro at $1.99, and Lemon Juice from IGA at $1.29. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This is the cheapest recipe variation in the article because it removes the highest-priced ingredient from the original Chicken a La Jules basket. Crimini Mushrooms at Metro cost $5.99, so leaving them out reduces the total recipe cost from $17.06 to $11.07. If your priority is finding the cheapest recipes rather than recreating the full original dish, this $2.77-per-serving version gives you the clearest cost reduction.

You still get a balanced flavour profile because the garlic and lemon juice carry the seasoning work. The spinach provides most of the vegetable volume, while the chicken pie remains the protein anchor. For your weekly meal plan, this version is especially useful when you want a low-cost dinner that stays comfortably below $3 per serving without introducing unpriced ingredients.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Your cheapest documented path for this recipe is Maxi for the $2.50 chicken pie, Costco for the $5.29 spinach, Metro for the $1.99 garlic, and IGA for the $1.29 lemon juice. The main savings come from skipping Metro’s $5.99 Crimini Mushrooms, not from changing the price of any other ingredient. Compared with Chicken a La Jules at $17.06, this version lowers the total basket by exactly $5.99.

This recipe is also the easiest to justify if you are trying to keep your dinner cost low without losing the main protein. You are still buying four ingredients, and every ingredient has a defined role: protein, greens, aromatics and acidity. If you shop along routes that already pass Maxi, Costco, Metro and IGA, you can use this recipe as a low-cost dinner template for May 2026 grocery planning.

Quebec Basket Index: Ingredient Prices by Store

The Quebec basket index shows that the Chicken a La Jules ingredients are spread across Maxi, Costco, Metro and IGA, with the lowest individual price being $1.29 for Lemon Juice at IGA and the highest being $5.99 for Crimini Mushrooms at Metro. The original five-ingredient basket totals $17.06, and each listed price is tied to a specific store in the May 2026 dataset. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

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

For your shopping strategy, this basket index matters because the lowest recipe cost depends on buying the right item at the right banner. Maxi contributes the lowest-priced chicken component at $2.50, while Metro contributes two separate ingredients that together account for $7.98 of the original basket. Costco’s $5.29 spinach is a significant part of the total, so you should avoid casually substituting a different spinach price unless you verify it first.

The table also shows why mixed-store meal costing is more precise than assuming one banner is always cheapest. In this basket, Maxi is essential for the chicken pie, Metro is essential for mushrooms and garlic, IGA is cheapest for lemon juice, and Costco supplies the spinach price used in the calculation. If you are comparing grocery lists in Quebec, you should treat each ingredient as its own price decision rather than assuming your whole dinner is cheapest at one store.

Top Price Points for These Budget Recipes

The strongest price point in these Quebec budget recipes is the $2.50 Meat Pies, Chicken Pie at Maxi, because it anchors all three dinners and keeps every recipe under $5 per serving. Lemon Juice at IGA is the lowest individual price at $1.29, while Crimini Mushrooms at Metro are the highest individual price at $5.99 and therefore have the biggest impact when you remove them from Recipe 3. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

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

The savings percentage is listed as 0.0% because the provided ingredient dataset contains current tracked prices rather than separate sale and former-price fields. That does not reduce the usefulness of the table for your dinner planning, because the main decision is still clear: the $5.99 mushrooms are the largest lever in the recipe cost, while the $2.50 chicken pie is the reason each version stays inexpensive. When you want cheap dinner recipes under $5, the most valuable price is often the anchor protein, not the smallest item in the basket.

You can use this table as a ranking tool before you shop. If your grocery budget is tight, protect the $2.50 Maxi chicken pie purchase first because it appears in all three meals. Then decide whether the $5.99 mushrooms fit your weekly budget, because that single choice separates the $4.26 original recipe from the $2.77 leaner version.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

The cheapest recipe variation is Lemon-Garlic Chicken Pie with Spinach at $2.77 per serving, while the full Chicken a La Jules recipe costs $4.26 per serving. The difference is driven by the $5.99 Crimini Mushrooms at Metro, which are included in the original recipe and omitted from the cheapest variation. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

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

For your meal plan, the table gives you three useful budget levels. If you want the full recipe with mushrooms, lemon, spinach and garlic, plan for $17.06 total. If you want to stay below $4 per serving, choose the mushroom-and-spinach version without lemon juice at $15.77 total. If you want the cheapest dinner, choose the lemon-garlic spinach version at $11.07 total.

The practical lesson is that cheap recipes do not always require entirely different meals. You can often start with one priced recipe and make cost-aware adjustments based on the most expensive ingredient. In this case, removing the mushrooms lowers the total by $5.99, while removing lemon juice lowers the total by $1.29. That gives you a clear way to adjust dinner cost without guessing.

How to Shop These Quebec Recipes Without Overspending

The best way to shop these recipes is to decide your target cost per serving before you enter the store: $4.26 for the full Chicken a La Jules basket, $3.94 for the no-lemon version, or $2.77 for the no-mushroom version. Once you choose the version, your most important store decision is Maxi for the $2.50 Meat Pies, Chicken Pie because that ingredient appears in every recipe. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

You should also think about your route. If you already shop at Metro, buying both Crimini Mushrooms at $5.99 and Garlic at $1.99 can reduce the number of stops for the full and mushroom-based versions. If you rarely visit IGA, the $1.29 lemon juice is inexpensive, but it may not justify a separate trip unless you are already buying other groceries there.

For Quebec households comparing banners such as Maxi, Costco, Metro, IGA, Super C, Provigo and Walmart, the main strategy is to compare by ingredient, not just by banner reputation. eezly’s AI-powered grocery price comparison is useful here because the platform’s real-time price tracking connects the ingredient list to current store prices across 27 Canadian grocery banners. When you build budget meals Quebec families can repeat, that ingredient-level comparison is what helps you avoid paying more for a dinner that should stay under $5 per serving.

Why These Recipes Fit Cheap Dinner Searches Under $5

All three recipe versions qualify as cheap dinner recipes under $5 because the highest cost per serving is $4.26 and the lowest is $2.77. The original Chicken a La Jules recipe costs $17.06 for four servings, while the two variations cost $15.77 and $11.07 respectively. Source: eezly real-time price tracking.

This matters because many budget recipe lists use estimated pantry prices, but the figures here are tied to specific Quebec store names and ingredient prices. You know the chicken pie is $2.50 at Maxi, spinach is $5.29 at Costco, mushrooms are $5.99 at Metro, garlic is $1.99 at Metro, and lemon juice is $1.29 at IGA. That makes the meal cost easier to verify and easier to adapt.

If your goal is to lower your weekly grocery bill, start by choosing the lowest version that still feels like dinner to you. The $2.77 lemon-garlic spinach version is the cheapest, but the $3.94 mushroom-and-spinach version may feel more substantial. The $4.26 Chicken a La Jules version gives you the full ingredient set while still staying below the $5 threshold, which is why it works as the hero recipe for this Quebec price guide.