We’ve all been there: you’re cooking up a nice meal for your family when a last-minute dinner mishap strikes and suddenly the whole meal is in jeopardy. What can you do when things go horribly wrong in the kitchen to make sure your family doesn’t go to bed hungry?

1. Try to keep your cool

When you’ve burnt those chicken breasts you just spent an hour preparing a sauce for, your first instinct might be to scream – that’s money and time down the drain! But that isn’t going to accomplish anything, so try to be kind to yourself instead. 

Take a deep breath, remind yourself that these things happen to everyone, and collect your thoughts. Shift your mindset from being upset to problem-solving mode: you have burnt chicken, so what other protein do you have on hand that might pair well with this sauce? Would tofu or beans work? Could you serve it over pasta?

2. Have some dinner mishap strategies in your arsenal

Yes, some dinner mishaps are pretty much unfixable, but you’d be surprised just how many times you might be able to salvage dinner when things go wrong. Here are a few good strategies:

  • Your food is way too salty. Add some acid, like a drizzle of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice to balance it out. If it’s a soup, you can simply dilute it with water or broth or add a raw cut potato and cook some more; the potato will absorb the salt. 
  • You dried out the chicken. Chicken breast is pretty easy to overcook, but as long as you haven’t turned it into something resembling leather, all hope is not lost. A quick sauce may be enough to bring it back to life, especially if you use a bold ingredient like citrus or herbs like rosemary to give it some intense flavour. You can whip up a simple sauce or gravy in no time. Be sure to slice the chicken before ladling sauce onto it so each bite has more liquid.
  • Your food turned out too spicy. A bit of dairy, like plain yogurt or sour cream, might help keep everyone’s tongue from burning. You might also try adding more of the non-spicy ingredients used in the recipe to push the spiciness factor down, add a little sugar, or add some texture like rice.
  • You forgot to defrost the meat. If it just occurred to you that the meat you’re cooking tonight is still in the freezer, you can submerge sealed chicken or ground beef in a bowl of cold water, changing the water every 20 or 30 minutes to safely thaw it faster. This can still take a few hours, though. If you don’t have time for that, you can try cooking chicken from frozen, especially if you have a pressure cooker. This only works with smaller cuts, however, and you’ll probably still need to cover it in sauce.
  • The bread you were going to serve is stale. If you know everyone was looking forward to sopping up the sauce you’re making with bread but your loaf has seen better days, slice it up and toast it to make some crispy crostini and act like that was the plan all along!
  • You burnt your meat beyond recognition. Sorry, but this dinner mishap is a total loss. Try sprucing up your sides instead – for example, you can mix some chickpeas into the rice you were going to serve with that burnt turkey to make it heartier and more meal-like.

3. Make sure tomorrow is a better day

Chances are, you’re not going to make the same mistake twice in a row, but as I said, cooking mishaps do happen and I’m sure you’d prefer they don’t happen twice in a row! 

It’s always useful to keep some staple ingredients on hand that can be turned into emergency meals. I suggest a box of pasta and some pantry sauce ingredients, or tortillas you can use to make a wrap for whatever grill-worthy veg you have in the fridge. It’s also useful to have some ready meals from batch cooking in the freezer to rescue you on days where nothing seems to go right.

Next time, make sure you read your recipe the night before in case something needs thawed, and look it over again before you get started. Set everything out beforehand so it goes quicker and you don’t have to take your eyes off cooking food to dig around in the back of your pantry for ingredients. Set timers in your phone so you don’t forget to check on that roasted chicken until your smoke alarm goes off. Finally, taste your food as you go, adding salt and spices little by little, especially if it’s a new recipe.

A dinner mishap doesn’t have to mean everyone goes hungry if you keep these strategies in mind!

I really hope this tips help!

Love,

Nakita xxx