Quebec Chicken Stir-Fry: $7.60 Budget Dinner

Key Facts

• Chicken Stir-Fry costs $30.41 for 4 servings, or $7.60/serving. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Chicken breast is $15.24 at Maxi. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Sesame oil is $4.79 at Maxi. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Soy sauce is $2.39 at Maxi. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix is $7.99 at Metro. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)

For source context, 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. In Quebec, the relevant banners in this pricing set include Maxi and Metro, with broader provincial grocery options including IGA, Super C, Provigo, Walmart, Costco, Metro Plus, Wholesale Club, and Valu-mart.

Introduction: The cheapest Quebec dinner here is Chicken Stir-Fry at $7.60 per serving

Chicken Stir-Fry is the lowest complete priced dinner in this Quebec recipe-costing set at $30.41 total, or $7.60 per serving for four servings. The priced basket uses $15.24 boneless skinless chicken breast at Maxi, $4.79 sesame oil at Maxi, $2.39 soy sauce at Maxi, and $7.99 Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at Metro. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

If you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $8, this is the clearest actionable option from the current Quebec data because every ingredient has a real store price attached. You are not relying on vague pantry assumptions or national averages; you are working from actual Quebec banner pricing at Maxi and Metro. That matters because a recipe that looks inexpensive on paper can become much more expensive if the meat, sauce, or vegetable component is priced too high at your local banner.

This article treats Chicken Stir-Fry as the core budget basket and shows you three practical dinner formats using the same priced ingredients. The reason is straightforward: the available Quebec recipe data provides one fully priced ingredient set, so the safest way to compare budget recipes without inventing prices is to show different ways you can prepare and serve the same costed basket. Each version stays anchored to the same $30.41 total and $7.60 per serving figure, which keeps the costing clean and verifiable.

For your shopping plan, the main takeaway is that you should buy the chicken breast, sesame oil, and soy sauce at Maxi, while the priced Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix is at Metro. That split-store approach is common in Quebec grocery budgeting: one store may carry the better price on protein and pantry sauce, while another store may price the vegetable component more competitively. When you are planning budget meals in Quebec, your strongest savings habit is comparing the whole recipe basket rather than judging the meal by one headline ingredient.

Recipe 1: Chicken Stir-Fry — $7.60 per serving

Chicken Stir-Fry costs $30.41 total and $7.60 per serving for four servings in Quebec. The ingredient prices are $15.24 for boneless skinless chicken breast at Maxi, $4.79 for sesame oil at Maxi, $2.39 for soy sauce at Maxi, and $7.99 for Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at Metro. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

This is the classic version of the recipe and the best starting point if you want a fast, protein-forward dinner that still fits a budget. The prep time in the recipe data is 5 minutes, which makes it especially useful for weeknights when you want a lower-cost dinner without building a long shopping list. You can cook the chicken breast in sesame oil, add the stir-fry vegetables, and finish with soy sauce for a simple dinner that uses every priced item in the basket.

The $7.60 per-serving cost is driven mainly by the chicken breast, which accounts for $15.24 of the $30.41 recipe total. That means your most important store decision is where you buy the chicken, and in this dataset the chicken price is attached to Maxi. The second-largest priced component is the Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at $7.99 at Metro, so your vegetable choice is also meaningful when you are trying to keep dinner below $8 per person.

Ingredients with Prices

The complete priced ingredient list for Recipe 1 is short, which is one reason this meal works well as a budget dinner. You only need one protein, one vegetable mix, and two flavour-building sauce ingredients. If you already have some pantry items at home, your out-of-pocket cost on the day you shop may be lower, but the full recipe costing below uses the actual listed prices so you can compare the basket honestly.

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

For your meal plan, the ingredient mix is efficient because the lower-priced soy sauce at $2.39 adds flavour without meaningfully increasing the per-serving cost. Sesame oil at $4.79 is more expensive than soy sauce, but it supports the stir-fry profile and can be stretched across multiple meals if you do not use the full bottle in one recipe. The data prices the recipe as a basket, so the $30.41 total is the cleanest number to use when you are comparing this meal with other dinner options.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For Recipe 1, you should shop Maxi for the $15.24 boneless skinless chicken breast, $4.79 sesame oil, and $2.39 soy sauce, then use Metro for the $7.99 Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

The store split is important because it shows that the cheapest recipe basket is not always a one-store basket. Maxi carries three of the four priced ingredients in this dataset, including the protein and both sauce components. Metro carries the priced Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix, which means your most accurate version of the $30.41 recipe total uses both banners.

If you are deciding whether a second stop is worthwhile, look at how your own shopping trip is structured. If you already pass both Maxi and Metro, following the priced basket exactly gives you the cleanest under-$8 dinner. If you are only visiting one store, the chicken, sesame oil, and soy sauce prices at Maxi are still the backbone of this recipe, and you can use eezly’s AI-powered grocery price comparison tools to check the current vegetable price before you leave.

Recipe 2: Sesame Soy Chicken and Vegetables — $7.60 per serving

Sesame Soy Chicken and Vegetables uses the same Quebec priced basket as the Chicken Stir-Fry and remains $30.41 total, or $7.60 per serving for four servings. The basket is anchored by $15.24 chicken breast at Maxi and $7.99 Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at Metro. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

This version emphasizes the sauce ingredients more directly. Instead of treating soy sauce as a finishing splash, you can use it as the main seasoning profile with sesame oil as the cooking base. You are still buying the same four priced items, so your dinner cost remains auditable: $15.24 for chicken, $4.79 for sesame oil, $2.39 for soy sauce, and $7.99 for vegetables.

For you, the value of this version is flexibility. If your household prefers a stronger sauce flavour, this meal feels different from a standard stir-fry even though the grocery basket is identical. That is one of the most useful strategies in budget cooking: you can change the cooking method and flavour balance without adding a new priced ingredient to the cart.

Ingredients with Prices

The ingredient prices for this version are unchanged because the costed basket is the same. That is intentional. When you are building budget meals in Quebec, repeating a proven low-cost basket in multiple ways can be more useful than searching for an entirely new recipe every night.

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

Because soy sauce is only $2.39 at Maxi in this pricing set, it is the most cost-efficient flavour component in the recipe. The chicken still drives the total cost, but the sauce helps the meal taste complete without adding another grocery item. If you are trying to stay under $8 per serving, that balance between protein cost and seasoning cost matters.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For Sesame Soy Chicken and Vegetables, Maxi is the cheapest listed store for the chicken breast, sesame oil, and soy sauce, while Metro is the listed store for the Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

You should think of this as a two-banner recipe basket rather than a single-store recipe. Maxi provides the $15.24 protein and the two sauce items at $4.79 and $2.39, which together form the core of the dish. Metro supplies the vegetable component at $7.99, completing the basket at $30.41.

This kind of comparison is where real-time price tracking is useful. If you simply search for “cheapest recipes” without store-level prices, you may find a recipe that looks cheap but does not reflect your Quebec checkout total. When you compare the actual stores attached to each ingredient, you can plan the route that keeps your cost per serving at $7.60.

Recipe 3: Vegetable-Forward Chicken Stir-Fry — $7.60 per serving

Vegetable-Forward Chicken Stir-Fry also costs $30.41 total and $7.60 per serving because it uses the same fully priced Quebec basket. The $7.99 Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at Metro is the key ingredient for making this version feel larger without adding any unpriced grocery items. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

This version is useful when you want the meal to feel lighter and more vegetable-heavy while still including chicken. You can cut the chicken into smaller pieces and distribute it through the vegetable mix, which changes the way the dinner eats without changing the ingredient list. You still get the same protein, vegetable, and sauce structure, but the plate feels less meat-centred.

For your grocery budget, this version highlights why vegetable mix pricing matters. At $7.99, the Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix is the second-largest priced item in the recipe after the chicken breast. If that price moves at your local Metro or another Quebec banner, your total dinner cost will change, so checking the vegetable component is almost as important as checking the chicken.

Ingredients with Prices

The Vegetable-Forward version uses the same four priced ingredients, but the cooking approach changes. You use the Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix as the visual and volume centre of the meal, with chicken pieces distributed throughout. This lets you serve a balanced dinner while keeping the cost at the verified $7.60 per serving level.

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

The most important budget point is that the Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix gives the recipe structure without requiring separate purchases of multiple vegetables. Separate fresh vegetables can be economical in some weeks, but this data only gives a real price for the prepared mix at Metro. Using the priced mix keeps the recipe calculation clean and avoids adding unsupported costs.

Where to Buy Cheapest

For this vegetable-forward version, the cheapest listed buying plan remains Maxi for chicken breast, sesame oil, and soy sauce, plus Metro for Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

You should prioritize the Metro vegetable mix if your goal is to reproduce the exact $30.41 total. The vegetable component is not just a side item; it is a major part of the recipe’s value because it helps turn the chicken and sauce into a full dinner. If you skip the vegetable comparison and buy the mix wherever you happen to be, you may lose the benefit of this priced basket.

This version also shows why “budget meals Quebec” searches should be evaluated by serving cost, not only total bill. A $30.41 grocery basket may seem higher than a single prepared meal, but it produces four servings at $7.60 each. If you are feeding multiple people, the per-serving number is the more useful way to compare dinner options.

Quebec Recipe Basket Index: ingredient prices by store

The Chicken Stir-Fry basket totals $30.41 across four priced ingredients, with three items at Maxi and one item at Metro. The basket’s highest-cost item is the $15.24 boneless skinless chicken breast at Maxi, while the lowest-cost item is the $2.39 soy sauce at Maxi. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

A recipe basket index helps you see which ingredients are doing the most work in your grocery bill. In this case, chicken is the main cost driver, followed by the vegetable mix, sesame oil, and soy sauce. You should use this table as a shopping checklist if you want to reproduce the $7.60 per-serving result.

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

The table shows why your first comparison should be the chicken breast price. At $15.24, it is nearly half of the full $30.41 basket. The Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at $7.99 is also significant, so your best practical move is to compare both the protein and the vegetable mix before you commit to a store.

This is also where eezly’s real-time price tracking can help with day-to-day grocery planning. If you are already browsing recipes at https://eezly.com/recipes or comparing current grocery deals at https://eezly.com/deals, you can check whether the ingredients you need are still aligned with the best listed store. For a recipe this simple, one price change on chicken or vegetables can affect the whole per-serving calculation.

Top priced items in this Quebec dinner basket

The best-priced items in this Quebec dinner basket are the ingredients with real store-level prices: soy sauce at $2.39 at Maxi, sesame oil at $4.79 at Maxi, Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at $7.99 at Metro, and chicken breast at $15.24 at Maxi. Regular-price and savings-percentage fields are not used here because the provided live data gives current prices, not separate regular prices. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

For practical grocery decisions, this table is still useful because it ranks the items you actually need to buy. You can quickly see that soy sauce is the lowest-cost item and chicken breast is the highest-cost item. If you are trying to reduce your checkout bill, you should focus your comparison energy on the chicken and vegetables before worrying about the lower-cost sauce item.

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

You should read this table as a current-price deal screen rather than a flyer markdown table. The data supports current prices at named stores, but it does not provide separate regular prices, so no savings percentage is calculated. That is the correct way to keep the recipe costing accurate while still giving you an actionable shopping list.

The strongest budget insight is that a low-cost seasoning item can make a basic protein-and-vegetable dinner feel complete. Soy sauce at $2.39 at Maxi has a small impact on the total recipe cost, while chicken breast at $15.24 has a large impact. If you have time to compare only one or two items before shopping, compare the chicken breast and vegetable mix first.

Price Comparison Table: all three budget dinner versions side by side

All three dinner versions cost $30.41 total and $7.60 per serving because they use the same complete Quebec ingredient basket. This is the safest comparison when you want cheap dinner recipes under $8 without adding unpriced ingredients or unsupported assumptions. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

The table below is best understood as a meal-planning comparison rather than a different-ingredient comparison. You are choosing the cooking style that fits your household while keeping the same verified cost. If you want more variety, you can adjust the cut size of the chicken, the amount of sauce used in the pan, and the ratio of vegetables to chicken on the plate.

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

This comparison is useful if you are planning several dinners from one shopping trip. You can buy the same four-item basket and prepare it in different ways depending on the night. That is a realistic budget strategy because you are not forcing yourself to buy a new set of ingredients for every recipe.

For Quebec households, the key is to keep your cost per serving visible. A recipe can feel affordable because it has only a few ingredients, but the actual store prices determine whether it belongs in your weekly meal plan. At $7.60 per serving, this basket gives you a clear threshold for comparing other chicken dinners, stir-fries, and quick weeknight meals.

How to use AI-powered grocery price comparison for budget meals in Quebec

AI-powered grocery price comparison helps you reduce guesswork by matching your recipe ingredients to current store-level prices, and this Chicken Stir-Fry example shows why that matters. The same basket uses Maxi for $15.24 chicken breast, $4.79 sesame oil, and $2.39 soy sauce, while Metro supplies the $7.99 Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

When you build a meal plan, you should start with the recipe you actually want to cook and then compare the individual ingredients. That is more effective than choosing a store first and hoping every item is well-priced there. In this case, your best listed basket crosses two stores, which is exactly the kind of pattern that can be missed if you only check one flyer.

You can also use recipe planning to control impulse spending. If your dinner plan is Chicken Stir-Fry at $7.60 per serving, your shopping list is clear before you enter the store: chicken breast, sesame oil, soy sauce, and Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix. A short, priced list makes it easier for you to avoid adding extra ingredients that push the meal above your target.

For ongoing planning, you can compare recipes at https://eezly.com/meal-plans, browse store-specific pricing at https://eezly.com/stores/maxi, and review broader grocery coverage at https://eezly.com/blog. Those links are most useful when you are trying to decide whether a recipe should stay in your weekly rotation. The more often you compare the basket before shopping, the easier it is to keep your dinner costs predictable.

Buying notes for Quebec shoppers using Maxi and Metro

For this Quebec recipe basket, Maxi is the listed store for three priced items and Metro is the listed store for one priced item. The Maxi items are chicken breast at $15.24, sesame oil at $4.79, and soy sauce at $2.39, while Metro has Vegetable Stir-Fry Mix at $7.99. Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026.

If you normally shop at one store, this basket shows you where the cost pressure sits. Maxi is central to the recipe because it carries the protein and both sauce components in the priced data. Metro matters because the vegetable mix is a meaningful $7.99 portion of the total basket.

You should also consider the real cost of your time. If Metro is not convenient, you may decide to check your nearest banner for vegetables before making a separate trip. But if your usual route already includes both Maxi and Metro, following the listed store split gives you the most precise path to the $30.41 total.

The broader Quebec grocery landscape includes banners such as IGA, Super C, Provigo, Walmart, Costco, Metro Plus, Wholesale Club, and Valu-mart. However, this specific recipe costing is tied to the store names with concrete ingredient prices in the data: Maxi and Metro. That distinction matters because accurate recipe costing depends on the exact store attached to each item, not a general assumption about which banner is usually cheapest.