5 Fast Food Family Meals That Give You The Most Bang For Your Buck

As much as we may wish that we had the time to make a hearty family dinner from scratch each night, it simply isn't always possible. It seems like our lives are getting busier by the minute, and sometimes you need a simple, inexpensive way to pick up dinner for the whole family. A good fast food meal deal can be the perfect relief valve, allowing you to take some pressure off by grabbing plenty of food for everyone on your way home from work without breaking the bank. Best of all, you still get to sit down and eat together and share communal time, because eating dinner together as a family is important.

In putting this list together, we sought to provide an array of options from fast food favorites that are readily available across the U.S. All of the meal deals listed are simple to pick up any night of the week and won't have you reeling at the price. Some are more expensive than others, but each represents a significant value for the price, especially once you factor in that you won't have to deal with the shopping, cooking, and cleaning that typically come with a communal dinner.

A bucket of chicken may just be the quintessential fast food family meal deal. That red-and-white-striped KFC bucket has long been a symbol of a comforting, low-stress dinner, and this deal from KFC fits the bill. However, this 6-piece chicken and nuggets deal does bring some new energy to that classic standby.

In this KFC family meal deal you will find not just six pieces of the chain's signature fried chicken — one breast, one wing, two drumsticks, and two thighs — but also a dozen chicken nuggets and a pair of your choice of dipping sauces. To accompany the proteins, you also get four fluffy biscuits and a duo of KFC's large side dishes, which include mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, potato wedges, sweet corn, and KFC's secret recipe fries.

It is a fairly classic fast food fried chicken dinner, but one with plenty of room to customize the meal to your family's preferences. The nuggets in particular make this meal a great choice for families with young children. Kids can be picky eaters, but chicken nuggets transcend cuisine for the little ones. And at just $27.99, it is a pretty inexpensive way to feed everyone a meal you know they'll enjoy. (As a general note, the prices listed in this article may vary by market.)

Next on the list is Popeyes 12-Piece Tender Group Bundle. Just like with the nuggets in the KFC meal deal above, chicken tenders are a hit with hungry people of all ages. With Popeyes, however, you also have the option to really lean into the Cajun-inspired menu.

The center of this meal deal is the chicken tenders. You get 12 of them, prepared with any of the chain's three breadings — classic, spicy, and blackened (blackening seasoning is a Cajun spice mix). Given all those chicken tenders, Popeyes also throws in four dipping sauces, with an impressive array of options. There are classics like barbecue sauce and ranch dressing, but also more Cajun-inspired choices like bayou buffalo sauce, mardi gras mustard, and blackened ranch. But no chicken meal is complete without sides, and this deal comes with four Popeyes side dishes of your choice, including red beans and rice, Cajun fries, mashed potatoes with cajun gravy, and coleslaw. And for a $0.50 upcharge you can swap one of those for the mac and cheese that Anthony Bourdain loved.

While that is already a pretty excellent meal, Popeyes doesn't quit there. This meal deal also comes with four biscuits and four drinks — all for the low price of $25. To feed the whole family, that is one heck of a deal.

Deviating from the chicken-bucket theme of the first two family meal deals on this list, we have the 5-Person Family Meal from Panda Express. While it is now fairly ubiquitous as a fast food  Chinese restaurant, Panda Express actually got its start in mall food courts. Shopping malls may not be quite as happening as they once were, but the food at Panda Express is every bit as craveable as ever. And this family meal deal is a great way to explore all of the available Panda Express menu options.

The 5 Person Family Meal from Panda Express is a bit more expensive than some of the other deals you'll find on this list, coming in at $40, but that is still a small price to pay to put a delicious dinner on the table with hardly any effort. In this meal deal you get to choose two sides from the list of white steamed rice, fried rice, chow mein, and the chain's Super Greens — a medley of broccoli, cabbage, and kale flavored with garlic, soy sauce, and a few other seasonings. On top of the sides, you get three entree choices, though they must come from the list of more standard options, like kung pao chicken, orange chicken, honey sesame chicken breast, broccoli beef, and Panda Express' Beijing beef. You can upgrade to premium items — like Crispy Sesame Shrimp & Beef or Honey Walnut Shrimp — but each premium selection comes with a fairly steep $4.50 upcharge.

While it might not be the first restaurant that pops into your head when you think of fast food, Domino's is the restaurant chain that brought us the 30-minute delivery pizza. And with a family meal option as good as the brand's mix-and-match deal, it had to be on this list.

This Domino's deal allows you to get two or more of any of a myriad of menu options for the low price of just $6.99 each. Odds are you're going to order at least one pizza, and this deal covers medium two-topping pizzas. Additional toppings and extras like pan-style or stuffed crust will cost a bit more, however. It's the breadth of the Domino's menu that makes this deal special. In addition to pizzas, this deal covers the whole range of breadsticks, sandwiches, pastas, loaded tater tots, chicken, salads, and desserts. Needless to say, there are too many options to describe in detail here, but rest assured, there is something for everyone on this family meal deal.

Another beauty of this deal is that it scales to the size of your party. You must order at least two items to get the special pricing, but there is no upper limit. If you want to order two pepperoni and mushroom pizzas, a Philly cheese steak, a plate of tater tots smothered in cheese and bacon, a garden salad, and some chocolate lava cakes, each item is still just $6.99, so you can feed that proverbial army for about $42.

The last entry on this list is also the most expensive, but it does deliver enough food to feed five to six adults. On top of that, this family meal deal offers a unique choice both as the only seafood option on this list, and also because this deal has a surf-and-turf option, mixing Long John Silver's fried white-meat chicken with the chain's signature fried Alaska pollock.

On top of a heaping 12 pieces of either fish or chicken, this family meal deal comes with a dozen hushpuppies — those delicious fried cornmeal balls that every seafood feast needs — and three family-sized sides. Options for the sides include waffle fries, green beans, corn, coleslaw, and mac and cheese with or without crumblies — which is a unique topping made from the crispy batter bits that get scooped out of the fryer. For $2 more, you can also choose the chain's Cheese Bites — a Wisconsin-style fried cheese curd — though these do come and go from the menu.

The Long John Silver's 12-Piece Family Meal will run you $49.99, or about as much as two of those Popeyes chicken tender bundles, but divided six ways, that's still quite cheap for a fish fry. When the family is hankering for fried fish, it's hard to argue with this quick and easy way to put it on the menu for the evening.