16 Cheap Recipes To Feed A Crowd That Are Perfect For Parties & Family Gatherings

Let’s say it’s a couple days after Thanksgiving and you’re still swimming in leftover turkey and houseguests. Princess Pinky Girl’s turkey biscuit stew is an easy and affordable way to reuse your cooked turkey but make it into a simple pot pie style that tastes new.

I love a good chicken thigh recipe, especially because they’re on sale so often at the grocery stores where I live. These red curry chicken thighs from All The Healthy Things only require a few seasonings to dress them up, and she serves them with a simple garlic rice and spicy cucumber salad.

If you need a vat of pulled chicken for tacos, enchiladas, or rice bowls, Princess Pinky Girl’s recipe will get the job done for you. All you need is a slow cooker, two pounds of chicken breasts or tenders, taco seasoning, two cups of salsa, and the juice of one lime (but even that is kind of optional).

Tilapia is the most affordable fish, especially if you buy the frozen filets (I lived on them when I was single). Damn Delicious’ sheet pan recipe calls for simple roast veggie sides to pair with them, so all in all this meal feels a lil’ fancy but is budget-friendly.

Ground beef is one of those things most families keep in the fridge, which means spaghetti, tacos, or burgers are evergreen options. If you want to change it up just a little, you could make All The Healthy Things’ burger bowls, which give you the same classic flavor combos of a burger but over greens instead of on a bun.

Damn Delicious’ spaghetti aglio e olio is cheap cheap — a super-affordable 30-minute meal of pasta topped with breadcrumbs, garlic, Parmesan, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Serve it with a salad and you’re golden, I say.

The heartier version of spaghetti looks like this: Tessie’s Table’s baked spaghetti, which yields a baking dish full of cheesy, meat-saucy pasta that will satisfy many a hungry house guest. The ingredients are all affordable and there aren’t many of them, but the meal you get out of them is so good.

Listen, most food websites will tell you the only salads worth serving guests have like 18 ingredients, and most of them are exotic stone fruits you can’t find at a Walmart. But let’s be real — there’s a reason people love the simplicity of, say, Olive Garden’s endless salad. Princess Pinky Girl’s lemon parm salad kind of recreates that magic. You need precious few ingredients, and it will go with quite literally anything you choose to serve alongside it.

Think a Hamburger Helper-like meal, but with a tortilla chip crunch — that’s Damn Delicious’ one-pot nacho beef skillet for you. The ingredient list looks a little long but it’s mostly seasonings you likely have anyway, and you could definitely buy just one type of cheese instead of two.

Boneless skinless chicken tenders, Hawaiian rolls, a jar of marinara — the ingredients list in Fresh Apron’s recipe is short and all on the affordable side. But what you get is an entire slab of little mini chicken parm sandwiches with all the saucy, cheesy goodness you expect.

Averie Cooks’ barbecue chicken skillet is so incredibly simple, it only takes 15 minutes to turn a handful of ingredients into a proper meal. Serve this over mac and cheese, alongside some roasted potatoes and green beans, or in a wrap.

This one-skillet recipe from Averie Cooks has a very short ingredient list and only takes 20 minutes to make. This recipe yields four servings, so you may want to double it up for your crowd — they’ll definitely want seconds of this spicy, sweet combo.

There’s arguably no better affordable dish than beans and rice. It’s got protein, fiber, carbs — it’s a complete meal, nutritionally speaking. It’s great if you need a base for chicken or beef, a side for a crowd, or all on its own, and this recipe from Tessie’s Table will help you make it flavorful and fork-tender.

Ground turkey is usually a lot cheaper than ground beef, probably because it tends to dry out easily while cooking. But when you put it in a dish like chili, well, that takes care of that problem. Fresh Apron’s turkey and bean chili is a cheap crowd-pleaser, and people love filing down the counter in a line choosing their toppings.

Everyone likes baked potatoes, and they are blessedly cheap. Make everyone their own potato and lay out the butter, cheese, bacon bits, and whatever other toppings you like so everyone can DIY their dinner. Princess Pinky Girl’s recipe explains how to do it in the air fryer.

Sheet pan nachos, like these from My Casual Pantry, are so fun to serve and just let everyone dig in. If you want to use up leftover chicken, you can shred it and toss it on, or use any cut of chicken you can find on sale really. How fancy or elaborate you get with the toppings is entirely up to you and your budget.