8 Better-Than-Takeout Recipes That'll Save You $100+ This Month
We've all been there. It's 6 PM, you're tired, and the thought of cooking feels impossible. So you open your delivery app, add a few items to your cart, and watch the total climb from $15 to $32 before you even hit checkout. Between delivery fees, service charges, and tips, what should be a simple dinner becomes a $30+ expense—and that's just for one person.
Next time you are thinking about ordering in, try one of these instead!
But here's the thing: most takeout favorites are way easier to make at home than you think. And I'm not talking about complicated, all-day cooking projects. These recipes come together in 25-40 minutes with ingredients you can grab at any grocery store. No fancy equipment. No culinary degree required.
The best part? You'll save serious money. If you made all eight of these recipes at home instead of ordering delivery, you'd spend around $97 total versus $232 for the same meals delivered. That's $135 back in your pocket—and you'd have 28 servings of delicious, restaurant-quality food.
Let me show you exactly how to make your favorite takeout dishes at home, why they're worth it, and how much you'll actually save.
💰 Cost: $3.75 per serving homemade vs. $29 delivered — Save $25
Korean Bulgogi Marinated Beef
Why You'll Love It
Korean bulgogi is one of those dishes that sounds fancy but is shockingly simple. Thinly sliced beef gets marinated in a sweet-savory mix of soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and garlic, then seared until caramelized and gorgeous. The actual cooking time? Just 10 minutes. The marinade does all the heavy lifting while you're in the shower or scrolling your phone.
Key Features:
⏱️ 10-minute cook time — Fastest on this list
🥩 Works with any beef cut — Whatever's on sale works great
🍱 Meal prep champion — Makes amazing leftovers for rice bowls all week
🔥 Beginner-friendly — If you can stir ingredients in a bowl, you can make this
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
Restaurant bulgogi often arrives lukewarm with the beef swimming in excess sauce. When you make it at home, you control the marinade intensity and get that fresh-off-the-grill caramelization that doesn't survive a 30-minute delivery trip. Plus, you can serve it exactly how you want—over rice, in lettuce wraps, or with a pile of sautéed vegetables.
The marinade is flexible too. Out of rice vinegar? Use regular vinegar or even a squeeze of lemon. Want it spicier? Add gochujang or red pepper flakes. This recipe works with your pantry, not against it.
2. Beef Fried Rice
💰 Cost: $2.88 per serving homemade vs. $26 delivered — Save $23
Beef Fried Rice
Why You'll Love It
This is the fried rice that tastes like those giant takeout containers from childhood—the kind where every bite had crispy rice bits, fluffy scrambled egg, and just the right amount of soy sauce. It's comfort food at its finest, and it's the perfect way to use up leftover rice that's been sitting in your fridge.
Key Features:
🍚 Uses leftover rice — Turn yesterday's rice into tonight's dinner
⏱️ 35 minutes total — Most of that is just cooking the rice if you don't have leftovers
🥡 Tastes like nostalgia — Seriously, this is what takeout fried rice dreams of being
🔄 Endlessly adaptable — Use chicken, shrimp, tofu, or just veggies
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
The secret to great fried rice is day-old rice and high heat. Delivery fried rice often arrives mushy because it sits in a container steaming itself. When you make it at home, you get those crispy, slightly charred bits that make fried rice irresistible. Plus, you control the vegetable-to-rice ratio (no more mystery peas and carrots).
And here's a pro tip: cook everything separately before tossing it together at the end. It keeps the eggs fluffy, the vegetables crisp, and the rice from getting gummy. Your delivery app can't do that.
3. Better-Than-Takeout Shrimp Pad Thai
💰 Cost: $5.83 per serving homemade vs. $28 delivered — Save $22
Better-Than-Takeout Shrimp Pad Thai
Why You'll Love It
Pad Thai has this reputation for being complicated, but it's actually incredibly straightforward once you understand the formula: rice noodles + protein + sweet-tangy sauce + toppings. This version uses ingredients you can find at any regular grocery store—no hunting through specialty shops required.
Key Features:
🦐 Restaurant-quality shrimp — Golden, plump, and perfectly cooked
⏱️ 40 minutes start to finish — Including prep time
🛒 Grocery store ingredients — Tamarind concentrate is usually near the Asian sauces
📝 Step-by-step guidance — Every technique explained so you can't mess it up
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
Here's the truth about delivery pad thai: the noodles often arrive clumped together or, worse, broken and mushy. The sauce pools at the bottom of the container. The peanuts get soggy. When you make it fresh, those rice noodles are perfectly slippery and saucy, the shrimp has an actual sear on it, and everything stays bright and fresh.
The recipe teaches you the trick of soaking (not boiling) the rice noodles so they stay tender without turning to mush. And you'll learn how to get that gorgeous golden crust on shrimp by leaving them alone in the hot pan—something most home cooks skip but makes all the difference.
4. Dan Dan Noodles
💰 Cost: $3.50 per serving homemade vs. $27 delivered — Save $23.50
Dan Dan Noodles
Why You'll Love It
If you've ever had Dan Dan noodles at a Szechuan restaurant and thought, "I wish I could make this without a specialty market run," this is your recipe. It uses regular spaghetti, ground pork, peanut butter, and pantry staples to create those signature spicy, nutty, intensely savory noodles that make you want to slurp directly from the bowl.
Key Features:
🍝 Regular spaghetti works perfectly — No need to hunt down specialty noodles
⏱️ 35 minutes total — Quick weeknight dinner territory
🥜 Pantry-friendly — Peanut butter stands in for sesame paste brilliantly
🌶️ Customizable heat — Make it mild or face-meltingly spicy
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
Restaurant Dan Dan noodles can be hit-or-miss with the spice level—sometimes too mild, sometimes so hot you can't taste anything else. Making it at home means you're in complete control. Start with less chili oil and add more as you go.
The texture is better too. Delivery noodles often arrive over-sauced and clumpy. Fresh Dan Dan noodles have this perfect silky coating where every strand is glossy but not drowning. And that crispy pork on top? It stays crispy when you make it yourself, not steamed-soft from sitting in a container.
5. Crispy Garlic Butter Fried Rice
💰 Cost: $1.25 per serving homemade vs. $24 delivered — Save $22.75
Crispy Garlic Butter Fried Rice
Why You'll Love It
This is hands-down the easiest recipe on this entire list. Six ingredients. One pan. 25 minutes. And it costs a dollar and a quarter per serving to make. The butter adds this incredible richness that regular fried rice doesn't have, and the garlic gets toasty and fragrant in a way that makes your entire kitchen smell like a restaurant.
Key Features:
💵 Costs $1.25 per serving — Literally the best value for your money
🍳 One pan only — Minimal cleanup
⏱️ 25 minutes — Faster than waiting for delivery
🧈 Butter makes everything better — Trust me on this
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
Here's what you're really paying for with this recipe: those crispy, golden-brown bits of rice that form when you let it sit undisturbed in the hot pan. Delivery fried rice is steamed and soft. This version has texture—crispy edges, fluffy interior, and little pockets of buttery, garlicky goodness.
It's so simple that it's almost embarrassing to order the delivery version once you realize how easy it is. Leftover rice, butter, garlic, soy sauce, eggs. That's it. You probably already have everything you need in your kitchen right now.
6. Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry
💰 Cost: $4.13 per serving homemade vs. $28 delivered — Save $24
Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry
Why You'll Love It
Beef and broccoli is one of those classic takeout dishes everyone loves, but it's also one that's incredibly easy to make at home. Tender strips of beef, crisp-bright broccoli, and a glossy sauce that coats everything perfectly. This version is even Paleo-friendly if you use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce.
Key Features:
⏱️ 30 minutes total — Dinner done in half an hour
🥦 Actually healthy — Real broccoli, lean beef, simple sauce
🥘 Paleo-friendly option — Use coconut aminos and you're good to go
💪 High protein — 370 calories, filling and satisfying
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
Delivery beef and broccoli is notorious for arriving with grey, overcooked beef and sad, mushy broccoli swimming in too much cornstarch-heavy sauce. When you make it at home, you control the doneness of your beef (medium-rare to medium is perfect) and your broccoli stays bright green and crisp-tender.
The recipe also teaches you the restaurant trick of freezing your steak for 15 minutes before slicing—it makes cutting thin, even strips so much easier. And by cooking the beef and broccoli separately before combining them with the sauce, everything stays perfectly cooked instead of stewed.
7. Better-Than-Takeout Orange Chicken
💰 Cost: $4 per serving homemade vs. $26 delivered — Save $22
Better-Than-Takeout Orange Chicken
Why You'll Love It
Orange chicken is peak takeout comfort food—crispy battered chicken in a sweet-tangy orange sauce. But delivery versions are often either too sweet, not crispy enough, or both. This homemade version uses fresh orange juice and zest for real citrus flavor, and the chicken stays crispy because you're not letting it sit in sauce for 30 minutes during delivery.
Key Features:
🍊 Fresh orange juice — Real citrus flavor, not artificial
⏱️ Under 40 minutes — Faster than you'd think
🍗 Actually crispy coating — And it stays that way
✈️ Air fryer option — Skip the frying if you want a lighter version
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
The biggest complaint about delivery orange chicken is that the crispy coating turns soggy by the time it arrives. When you make it fresh, you get that shatteringly crisp exterior with tender, juicy chicken inside. The sauce is glossy and clings to every piece instead of pooling at the bottom.
Plus, you're using fresh orange juice and zest, which gives the sauce a bright, natural citrus flavor instead of that artificial, cough-syrup sweetness some restaurants use. You can also control the sweetness level—add more or less honey depending on your taste.
8. Spicy Sesame Garlic Noodles
💰 Cost: $2.25 per serving homemade vs. $25 delivered — Save $22.75
Spicy Sesame Garlic Noodles
Why You'll Love It
These noodles are exactly what you crave when you want something indulgent but don't want to put on real pants to answer the door. They're spicy, garlicky, nutty, and coated in this glossy sauce that makes every strand completely slurpable. And they use regular fettuccine—no specialty noodles required.
Key Features:
💵 Costs $2.25 per serving — Cheapest recipe on this list
⏱️ 25 minutes — Perfect for lazy weeknights
🍝 Regular pasta works — Fettuccine or linguine are perfect
🌶️ Customize the heat — Make it as mild or spicy as you want
What Makes This Better Than Delivery
Delivery noodles arrive in a clumpy, sauce-separated mess. These stay perfectly glossy and coated because you're tossing them with the sauce while everything's hot. The texture is silky and the flavors are bright—toasted sesame oil, garlic, chili crisp, and that hint of sweetness that balances everything out.
This recipe is also incredibly flexible. No chili crisp? Use extra red pepper flakes. Out of rice vinegar? Squeeze in some lime juice. Want to bulk it up? Add whatever protein or vegetables you have on hand. It's the kind of recipe you'll make over and over because it works with what you already have.
The Bottom Line: Your Wallet Will Thank You
Let's do the math one more time:
If you ordered all 8 dishes delivered: $197-232
If you made all 8 dishes at home: $97
Total servings: 28 meals
Cost per meal: $3.46
You save: $100-135
And that's just from making these recipes once. If you rotate through these weekly, you're looking at serious savings over the course of a month. Plus, you're eating fresher food, controlling exactly what goes into your meals, and picking up cooking skills along the way.
The best part? None of these recipes require fancy equipment or hard-to-find ingredients. They're all designed to work with what you can find at a regular grocery store, using techniques that work in any kitchen. You don't need to be a chef. You just need to be willing to spend 25-40 minutes making something that tastes better and costs less than delivery.
So the next time you're about to open that delivery app, bookmark this post instead. Your taste buds—and your bank account—will thank you.
Ready to get started? Pick one recipe to try this week. I recommend starting with the Crispy Garlic Butter Fried Rice or Korean Bulgogi—they're both incredibly easy and will give you the confidence to tackle the rest. Drop a comment below and let me know which one you're making first!
Don't forget to tag me on Instagram @chompionsblog and use the hashtag #chompions when you make these. I love seeing your creations!
