This baked chicken recipe with corn and watermelon is your new go-to summer dinner. It has fresh flavors, minimal prep, and maximum crowd appeal!

Even better, bone-in chicken can be such an economical dinner choice! I wait until it goes on sale and then stock up. I can often get chicken legs or chicken quarters for $0.99 a pound (or less), and it takes about 4 pounds to feed my family of 6.

Baked chicken leg quarters are also so easy, and require just a few simple spices to create a yummy flavor! If you prefer, you can grill or air fry the chicken instead of baking it — but it’s crowd-pleasing no matter what. You can leave the skin on the chicken if you like it better that way, but it bakes up crispy on the outside either way.

I served this chicken with fresh corn on the cob and sweet watermelon, which are just coming in season here, and I look forward to both of them all year long. I love summer food!

Another side I often serve with chicken is air fryer roasted potatoes, but I chose to go with corn instead this time since it was on sale this week.

This post is part of our $10 Dinner Ideas series, brought to you by Brigette on our team! Each week, she shares easy, delicious, and affordable family-friendly dinner ideas that cost less than $10 to make, use everyday ingredients, and are super quick meals.

Baked Chicken Menu:

• Baked Chicken
• Air Fryer Roasted Corn
• Watermelon

Ingredients for Baked Chicken:

• 4-5 lbs chicken legs or quarters (Aldi – $0.99/lb) — $5
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil (not pictured – Aldi – $7.25 for 33 tablespoons) — $0.88
• 1 Tablespoon garlic salt, 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon pepper, cayenne pepper to taste

Total for Baked Chicken: $5.88 (serves 6)

Ingredients for Sides:

• 6 ears corn on the cob (Harris Teeter) — $2
• Olive oil, salt, pepper
• Watermelon (Harris Teeter – $3.99) — $2

Total for Sides: $4 (serves 6)

Total Cost for Dinner: $9.88 (plus cost of seasonings) (makes 6 servings)

How to Make Baked Chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut chicken into individual pieces (if using chicken leg quarters) and remove skin if desired. Place chicken pieces on the baking sheet and pat dry with a paper towel.

2. In a bowl, mix together the 4 Tablespoons of olive oil, 1 Tablespoon garlic salt, 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste.

3. Brush the pieces with the olive oil marinade and bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

4. While chicken is baking, husk and wash the corn. Pat pieces dry with a paper towel and place in a single layer in the air fryer. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

5. Cut the watermelon into chunks and serve alongside the roasted corn and baked chicken.

Print

Baked Chicken ($10 Family Dinner)

This easy baked chicken recipe with corn and watermelon is your go-to summer dinner — fresh flavors, minimal prep, maximum crowd appeal.

Course dinner, Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword chicken, easy dinner, easy side dish, family favorite, high protein, weeknight dinner

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 756kcal

Author Brigette

Cost $9.88

Ingredients

Ingredients for Baked Chicken:

• 4-5 lbs chicken legs or quarters Aldi – $0.99/lb — $5
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil not pictured – Aldi – $7.25 for 33 tablespoons — $0.88
• 1 Tablespoon garlic salt
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• Cayenne pepper to taste

Ingredients for Sides:

• 6 ears corn on the cob Harris Teeter — $2
• Olive oil salt, pepper
• Watermelon Harris Teeter – $3.99 — $2

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut chicken into individual pieces (if using chicken leg quarters) and remove skin if desired. Place chicken pieces on the baking sheet and pat dry with a paper towel.
• In a bowl, mix together the 4 Tablespoons of olive oil, 1 Tablespoon garlic salt, 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste.
• Brush the pieces with the olive oil marinade and bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
• While chicken is baking, husk and wash the corn. Pat pieces dry with a paper towel and place in a single layer in the air fryer. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes.
• Cut the watermelon into chunks and serve alongside the roasted corn and baked chicken.

Nutrition

Calories: 756kcal | Carbohydrates: 74g | Protein: 36g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 19g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 160mg | Sodium: 1329mg | Potassium: 1453mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 52g | Vitamin A: 4925IU | Vitamin C: 67mg | Calcium: 74mg | Iron: 4mg

More Ideas for Family Dinners Under $10:

• Biscuits and Gravy
• Quick & Easy Mini Calzones
• Mexican Lasagna
• Easy Cheesy Kielbasa Pasta Skillet
• Chicken Alfredo Pizza
• Chicken Burgers and Baked Fries
• Spaghetti Pizza
• Cheesy Potato Soup and Bread Machine Dinner Rolls
• Homemade Chipotle Chicken Bowls
• Crustless Spinach Quiche and Whole Wheat Bread
• Easy Chicken Pot Pie
• Baked Chicken Chimichangas and Cilantro Rice

And, be sure to check out all our easy dinner recipes here!

If you make this easy Baked Chicken recipe, we’d love for you to leave a review and let us know how it turned out!

FREE One Week Menu Plan!

Done-For-You Dinner Recipes With Simple Ingredients and a Grocery Shopping List!

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Amazon Prime Days has officially been announced for June 23rd through 26th! Want to know how to get the best deals? In this post, we share our best tips for saving money and scoring great deals on Amazon Prime Days!

Amazon Prime Days 2026

Amazon Prime Days 2026 starts June 23 at 12:01 a.m. PDT and will run through June 26, 2026. That means we get four whole days of deals! If this is anything like last year’s Prime Days sale, we will see deals that are as good as or even better than Black Friday deals! In addition, many other online retailers are planning to offer really fantastic prices and deals this week.

Amazon says this about Prime Days 2026:

Members can save on top brands, trending products, and items exclusive to Amazon, plus fresh groceries, summer essentials, and back-to-school must-haves—all with fast, free delivery.

“Prime Day is the biggest shopping event of the year exclusively for members, whether they’re looking for deals on the latest electronics, getting ahead on back-to-school shopping, or saving on fresh groceries and household essentials,” said Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime. “The incomparable value of Prime keeps growing, and this year is no exception.”

Other retailers will likely join in, too!

Because of how popular Prime Days is, other major retailers usually have HUGE sales that week, too. We will keep you posted as soon as we hear of any major retailers joining this sale.

And this is just the major retailers! We’ll see ALL kinds of great sales that week from online retailers — small and big!

How to Get The Best Deals on Prime Days

We predict that starting June 23rd (or even earlier — from other online retailers), we’ll see a flurry of deals similar to what we usually see on Black Friday week.

We love that so many other companies will be competing with the deals Amazon is offering because that means more deals and more savings! Because of this, we want to help you prepare accordingly so you can save the most money.

We’ll be here all day that week!

Our team will be hard at work all day long each day scouring the deals and posting the best ones we find!

So be sure to tune in here at MoneySavingMom.com for all the BEST discounts on Prime Days 2026! We’ll be posting all of the best deals all day of the days!

You can also follow us on Facebook or Instagram, join our Facebook group, Facebook Channel, and sign up for our HOT deals newsletter. Following us multiple ways gives you the best chance of catching all the deals as they pop up quickly!

5 Tips For Preparing For Amazon Prime Days

To help you prepare well to maximize your savings for Amazon Prime Days, here are 5 strategies we suggest:

1. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to Amazon Prime.

Not an Amazon Prime member? No worries, now is the perfect time to sign up for a FREE 30-day trial.

This way, you’ll get all of the benefits of Prime and be able to take advantage of the deals, but you won’t have to pay for a Prime subscription. At the end of the 30 days, just be sure to go into your account and cancel your subscription and you won’t be charged!

Psst! If you’re between the ages of 18-24, you can sign up for a FREE 6-month Amazon Prime trial!

2. Subscribe to our Hot Deals email newsletter.

Have you signed up for our Hot Deals Email Newsletter yet? If not, be sure to do so before Prime Days!

When you sign up, we’ll send you no more than 1-2 emails each day featuring the hottest and best deals hand-picked by us as soon as they become available.

This way, you won’t have to wait for the daily enewsletter to go out in the afternoon; you can jump on the hottest deals right away!

We’ll be sending out two email newsletters each day during Prime Days featuring only the BEST deals that are our top picks.

Sign up for this newsletter here.

3. Follow us on Instagram.

You can find us on two different Instagram accounts on Prime Days:

:: Crystal’s personal Instagram: Be sure to head over there and hit the follow button. She loves personally sharing the deals she’s most excited about on IG Stories. (Plus, you’ll see a lot of behind-the-scenes content including day-to-day life, grocery shopping hauls, and a lot of other fun stuff that doesn’t get shared anywhere else!)

:: Money Saving Mom Deals Instagram: You’ll also want to go follow our Instagram account that is solely dedicated to posting the top deals each day! If you follow us there, you’ll see deals pop up not only on IG Stories but also in your feed throughout the day. You’ll also get to know some of the rest of the team here, as we often show our faces on video in IG Stories!

On Prime Days, we’ll be hopping onto IG stories on both accounts multiple times throughout the day telling you about the best deals that we’re most excited about! So be sure to follow both accounts HERE and HERE so you don’t miss anything!

4. Follow our Facebook Page

We’ll be posting all the deals all day long on our Facebook Page, and it’s one of the easiest ways to make sure you don’t miss any HOT deals! Just bookmark this page and refresh it throughout both days to keep up to date with the latest and greatest deals.

Plus, you might see some live videos and FB Stories throughout the day from different team members talking about some of our favorite deals!

5. Make a List & Budget

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to make a list of the items you are most interested in buying, as well as the budget you have to spend. This way, you don’t just jump on a good deal because it’s “such a good deal”, when it’s not something you need or can afford.

How to Earn Free Gift Cards For Prime Days

Want to stretch your dollars even further? Now is the time to cash out your free Amazon gift cards or spend some time over the next couple weeks earning some extra Amazon gift cards.

Here are just a few ways to earn some extra cash to spend on Prime Day:

• Sign up for Swagbucks — It’s also easy to earn enough swagbucks to trade in for a $5 gift card! You have plenty of time before Prime Day, even without referrals. I just spent an hour or two this week doing a few activities and already have enough for a $10 gift card! Go here to get started with Swagbucks.
• Sign up for Fetch Rewards — It’s so simple to earn points for scanning your receipts with Fetch Rewards. (Gretchen here! I signed for Fetch years ago and I’ve now earned hundreds of dollars in gift cards. It’s super easy. Also, your first couple scans will be worth enough to quickly get you over the 5000 points mark to trade in for an Amazon $5 gift card!)

Psst! Find more ways to earn Amazon gift cards here.

Are you ready for Prime Days? Let us know what deals you’re looking for in the comments!

Never miss a HOT deal again!

Sign up below and I’ll only email you when I find a really fantastic deal!

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Looking for some frugal fun for the kiddos this summer? Be sure to check out this round-up of all the best discounts on summer movies for kids!

{Looking for other fun summer deals? Don’t miss our round-up of the best Summer Reading Programs! Plus, kids can bowl for free and skate for free at many participating locations this summer!}

Where to see Free Kids Movies (Premiere Cinemas, Phoenix Theatres)

If you’re looking for a great way to have some frugal fun with your kids this summer, then be sure to check out this list of discounts on kids’ movies! And don’t forget to check your local theater offerings, too!

Premiere Cinemas— Watch kid’s films for FREE at 10 a.m or 11 a.m. every Wednesday and Thursday morning! Valid June 10 – August 6, 2026.

Phoenix Theatres — See a free movie each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 10 a.m.. Doors open at 9 a.m. and all age groups are welcome.

 Where to Find Discount Movie Tickets

Regal Cinemas — Each Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m., participating Regal Cinemas are offering moviegoers of all ages a selection of G or PG-rated films for just $1! Valid from June 1 to August 13, 2026.

AMC Theaters – Enjoy family favorite movies back with our Summer Movie Camp. Starting June 22nd, get tickets for as low as $3 plus tax throughout the summer.

Cinemark Theaters — Participating Cinemark theaters are offering an 10-Week Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse promotion. Tickets are just $1.75 per movie! Valid from June 1 – August 6, 2026.

Classic Cinemas – Score $2 movies on Wednesday mornings 10am! Doors open at 9 AM for entertainment and games. Valid June 3rd – August 6th.

Studio Movie Grille — Escape the summer heat and watch screenings of recent, popular, children films from May 26th through August 13th. Tickets are $6 and include a small popcorn and small drink.

Harkins Theaters — Kids can enjoy a movie each week for 8 weeks, for just $1 per film for members. Valid through June 1 – July 24, 2026.

Landmark Theaters — Cool down this summer with $2 movies every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday at 11am! Valid June 20th through August 12th.

Do you know of any other discounts on summer movies for kids? Let us know if we missed any!

FREE Summer Bucket List!!

100 Creative Ideas for Frugal Fun with Kids!

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