About a year ago I was introduced to dump chicken and could not wait to share the recipe with you. After sharing, loads of positive feedback confirmed that many of you are fans, too.

I must admit that I was originally somewhat put off by the name. "Dump chicken" doesn't exactly bring to mind an easy, ingenious and flat-out delicious meal. But it should, because it is!

You "dump" chicken pieces into a freezer bag with your choice of sauce and stick the bag in the freezer. When you're ready to eat it, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, and then dump it into a pan and bake it. That's it.

The genius aspect of this recipe is the variations. In the original post, I gave you Russian chicken, teriyaki chicken, spiced citrus chicken, sweet-and-spicy glazed chicken, sticky chicken, honey sesame chicken and pepper lime chicken. And in a minute I'm going to give you even more variations.

I usually set aside an hour on the weekend to set up a factory line on my kitchen counter. I prefer organic boneless, skinless chicken tenders or breasts from Costco. They're not the cheapest, but you won't waste any meat, and I like to know that my meat wasn't shot up with hormones and other suspicious ingredients.

Buy some 1-gallon freezer bags and just go to work, labeling and dating each bag with the contents — since you won't be able to figure out what's in there once it's frozen. A freezer full of dump chicken makes my life so much easier. I can put a bag in the refrigerator in the morning and know that it will be thawed sufficiently by the time I get home at night — when I'm exhausted and not wanting to cook dinner.

My stash of dump chicken, along with my trusty Zojirushi rice cooker (I swear that thing has a brain), preserves my sanity and my wallet. I can't tell you how many times dump chicken has bailed me out when dinner guests appear out of nowhere. I think of reliable appliances and a stocked freezer as insurance against defaulting to eating out. At restaurants (sorry, restaurant industry), the food is inferior to home cooking, prices are higher every week, the lines are long, parking is tight and the noise is annoying. On top of that, we cannot get out of a restaurant without adding another 25 percent onto the bill for tax and tip. Oh, dump chicken, how I love thee.

Here are two more variations of dump chicken to add to your repertoire:

—Lemon garlic chicken: 2 cloves garlic, chopped, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, 4- to 6 chicken breasts.

—Garlic Dijon chicken: 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 4 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon juice), 4- to 6 chicken breasts.

You can use bone-in or boneless and skin-on or skinless chicken breasts for these variations. Experiment. You'll figure out your preference. Simply mix the ingredients to make the sauce, add the sauce to the bag with the chicken, seal and freeze.

To cook: Thaw the bag overnight in the refrigerator. Pour the contents of the bag into a 9-by-12-inch pan and bake at 350 F until cooked through, or about 25-35 minutes. Dark meat must cook longer.

Note: If you are wondering if you can buy already-frozen chicken, the USDA says that it is safe to re-freeze chicken if it was thawed properly in the first place. However, the quality may decrease, since moisture is lost while defrosting.

Mary invites questions, comments and tips at [email protected], or c/o Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Suite B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of "Debt-Proof Living," released in 2014. To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Ray Sawhill