Here's how you make £10 stretch to a full Christmas dinner for everyone.
Christmas dinner on a student budget can be hard, but it isn't impossible.
This awesome recipe from Student Eats makes for a student friendly Christmas meal that's easy and simple to cook and won't cost a fortune.
The ingredients cost less than £10 from Asda (at the time of writing) and will still give you a full plate of lovely grub.
So before you head home for the holidays for the real thing, here's the student version.
Ingredients
You'll need to acquire the following:
- 1 large whole chicken
- 5 Potatoes
- 5 Carrots
- 5 Parsnips
- 2 tablespoons of softened butter
- Chipolata sausages 2-3 per person
- Bacon One slice for every two sausages
- Stuffing mix
- Stock cube
Cook a budget Christmas dinner
Now here's how to cook it all, and it really is straight forward.
1. Start by preparing the veg by peeling the carrots, parsnips and potatoes. Cut each into 2-3 large chunks. You could also use (or add) sweet potatoes.
2. Boil the potato chunks in a saucepan over the hob. Cook for 10 or so minutes until soft then drain.
3. Meanwhile, rub one knob of the softened butter between the skin and chicken meat. Rub the other over the top of the chicken skin.
4. Place the chicken in the centre of a large baking dish and surround it by the root veg.
4. Drizzle everything with oil and mix the veg to make sure they're evenly coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Roast for 20 minutes at 220C/200C fan.
6. After twenty minutes, give the veg a mix. You can add other veg here if you like, such as brussel sprouts.
7. Turn the heat down to 200 degrees/200 fan and roast for a further 25 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, create the pigs and blankets and stuffing balls. Start by making up the packet stuffing by mixing with boiling water per instructions and put aside.
9. While that cools, cut the slices of bacon into two, lengthways. Wrap them around the sausages.
10. Use your hands to form the now-cooled stuffing mix into balls.
11. Add these to the chicken and veg and cook everything for a final 25 minutes.
12. Finally, for the gravy. You can make this from granules if you wish. Alternatively, to create your own: Add 1 pint of boiling water to the stock cube. Add in a couple of teaspoons of flour (more or less, to thicken) together with the juices from the bottom of the baking tray, and whisk everything together.
13. Enjoy!