Broke College Meals: BBQ Chicken, Brown Rice, Gravy, Spinach, and Fried Rice

It’s been a while since I shared a broke college student meal for those looking for easier meals on the wallet, especially if you’re trying to save money on groceries. I like to keep recipes and cooking simple, with meals that don’t require much time or ingredients.

I made this meal in the middle of the week and took out a package of chicken. The night before, I labeled one side of the chicken BBQ and the other half fried rice, then cooked them accordingly. I added BBQ sauce to two of the pieces and only seasoned the other two pieces of chicken for the fried rice.

I made a batch of brown rice, as it had been a while since we had some in our diet. White rice is fine too. I used under half of the rice for the BBQ chicken meal and saved the rest for the fried rice.

I also had a jar of brown gravy, which you can find in your local store, either store brand or name brand, for $2 to $3. If you can’t use up the whole jar after opening, then get a freezer bag and freeze it until you need it (an old Thanksgiving tip). I poured a bit of gravy on the brown rice for more flavor. I then opened up a can of Popeye spinach and halved it for the BBQ chicken meal. It was that simple.

For the fried rice, I added some olive oil into a pan—vegetable oil works fine too. I added some minced garlic (measure to your liking) and cooked the garlic for less than 60 seconds. Then, I added peas and carrots, a teaspoon of sugar, Accent seasoning, and low-sodium soy sauce.

After cooking the peas and carrots, I added the chicken, which I had cut up, along with green onion. I stirred it all together, then added the rice, a bit more soy sauce, and a little more sugar and Accent seasoning to taste. That was it. Fried rice is hard to mess up. As long as the rice is cooked well, the soy sauce isn’t poured on too heavily, and you cook it in steps, the flavor should be there.

This fried rice recipe is a spin-off from my childhood, taught to me by my mom, who learned it from her foster daughter, and later helped along by my sister’s memory after our mom passed. Normally, we use Spam, but this time I had chicken. My foster sisters are from Thailand, so we had a lot of Asian meals growing up.

Down the street lived my grandmother, Ing, a Chinese lady who babysat me before kindergarten. My foster sister Sue would pick me up, and along with her son, we’d go to the Asian market for some Pockys before kindergarten.

With that said, those are two frugal meals that should help your wallet—whether you’re a broke college student or just someone trying to save money on groceries.