Many people write me and ask for help lowering one's food bills. The easiest way to do this is to stop eating meat and go vegetarian, but many people would never do this. SO I suggest adding more veggie meals to your menues, and using cheaper cuts of meat. However, many people say cheap meat just doesn't taste good, or is tough. This is not accurate. You can have very tastey menues, made with the cheapest cuts available. The secret is marinaides.

A marinaide is an acid base with various flavoring ingredients in which the meat is soaked. The longer you soak it the more tender it gets, and the more flavors the it picks up from the herbs and spices. Many ethinic cusines use this technique to make use of cheap, or tough cuts of meat. These are not poor substitutes for "the good stuff." Marinaided meat tastes great by itself.

Boned Chicken Thighs and Drumsticks Marinaide

One way to make the dark meat of poultry taste like the white meat is to marinaide it over night before cooking.

Lemon or Vinegar Marinaide
1 part Lemon Juice or Vinegar
1 part water
Herbs to taste (I use lemon balm and mint because they grow all over my yard)

Directions
Bone the thighs and drum sticks which are generally sold in big discount packs at very low prices (one store near me only charges 29 cents a pound!). Remove skin if desired. Place bones and skins in soup pot, and cook immeadiately. Lots of left over meat wil fall of the bones for soup and stew. Take the boned meat and place over night in the Lemon or Vinegar Marinaide. The next day you can cook the boned meat. Try the recipes below. This also works well with Turkey and other poultry.

Grilled Boned Chicken
Place boned marinaided meat on grill and cook over medium heat being careful not to dry out. Baste with marinaide at it cooks. Amazing!

Breaded Fried Chicken

Bread the marinaided boned pieces or just coat in corn starch and fry in a small amount of oil. Use with a sauce, or just eat as a plain cutlet.

Stir Fry Marinaide
Chop the marinaided boned meat into bite size chunks and stir fry. Add to any recipe calling for stir fry.

You can follow this same process with the cheaper cuts of beef like chuck steak or chuck roast. Cut into small strips and marinaide overnight. Stir fry, or grill. Use in any ethinic cusines, or just eat plain from the grill as the meat course.