Making food is a love language, a way of expressing affection and care for the people around us. Whether you’re preparing for a holiday, an anniversary, or just a random weeknight, dinner is a time to gather together and decompress, to share stories over delicious food.
The high cost of groceries doesn’t seem to be coming down anytime soon, but one woman on TikTok shared her true method to combat how expensive food has become.
The mom revealed how she feeds 25 people for less than $70 and makes it look catered.
Kris Hughes shared her tips and tricks for feeding a crowd on a budget, taking her followers on a journey through her kitchen as she prepared a meal for 25 people.
The mom bought five rotisserie chickens, explaining that buying from a big box store, like Sam’s Club or Costco, is an effective way to save money on a premade item.
She also got 12 cans of black beans for $12 and five pounds of rice, along with lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
She bought Hawaiian rolls and steam pans, which she noted were optional but “really make a difference in presentation.”
“All of this cost $66 and we have leftovers,” the thrifty mom declared.
She made two salads using the vegetables she bought, making it easier on herself by buying precut, bagged lettuce, so the only salad labor she had to endure was slicing cucumbers and tomatoes.
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She then revealed her technique for making canned beans feel fancy, saying, “It’s super easy to doctor up canned black beans by just adding in some onions and sautéing that, and then rinse and drain the black beans.”
“For the seasonings, I just added some garlic powder, cumin, oregano, and salt and pepper, as well as 4 cups of beef broth,” Hughes continued, capturing the essence of what it means to work with what you have.
She let the beans simmer for around three to four hours while she prepped the rest of the meal, which “Just added to the richness of the flavor.”
“I always get compliments on these black beans even though it’s crazy easy,” she said, which goes to show that the simplest things are often the most special.
“This meal as a whole is so easy,” she said. “It comes together quickly. It’s really very little prep; it’s kind of a semi-homemade thing.”
The mom’s approach to making a meal for a crowd shows that budgeting can be a joyful and nourishing process.
As she carved the chicken, she revealed that she found that part of the process to be “The most unpleasant part of the meal.”
“I’m not gonna cut these up on camera because I know I’m not doing it right, and I know you all will tell me what I’m doing wrong,” she quipped.
Hughes offered up another pro tip on how to up the semi-store-bought meal, saying, “The secret to making this rotisserie chicken a little better is to actually bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour at 350, and then when you transfer it to the steam pan, make sure to pour all those juices over, and it really doesn’t dry out the meat at all, it just kind of enhances the flavor.”
She posted a follow-up for her “super budget-friendly way to feed a bunch of people and to do it so you’re not having to cook all day long.”
“Rice is a great side when you’re feeding a bunch of people because it is so inexpensive,” she said. She cooked the rice in her InstantPot, an appliance that streamlines the cooking process for most foods, especially grains.
“Two pans of each of these dishes will easily feed 20 to 25 people,” Hughes declared, showing off her finished culinary masterpiece.
The total cost of the meal broke down to $2.65 a person.
“You obviously couldn’t get it catered for that much,” she said. “You can’t even order pizza or go to McDonald’s for this much.”
Hughes raised a solid point, which is that the price of food that once was easily accessible no longer is. It’s no surprise that more people are cooking at home, trying to cut corners where they can just to make ends meet.
Yet, as Hughes shows, eating on a tight budget doesn’t mean you can’t eat well. Everyone deserves nourishing, healthy, delicious meals, no matter how much they can afford to spend on them.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango’s news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.
