5 Ways to Save a Bad Meal

How to solve it: When you've overcooked poultry to a barely edible toughness, there are generally two options (well, three, if you consider takeout). The first is to grab two forks and start shredding. This is your best bet if you've made a dish with plenty of sauce, or better yet, a stew, such as chicken cacciatore or chicken curry. Breaking the meat into smaller pieces and then stirring it into the sauce means more of it will come in contact with the juices, whether a mushroom wine sauce (in the case of cacciatore) or a spice-coconut-based one (for curry), making it taste moist. The alternative, if you've made a simple roast chicken with no sauce, per se, is to remove the meat from the bones and chop it, then mix it up with a spoonful of mayonnaise. The same concept applies—you're exposing more of the meat to moisture—and hey, chicken salad isn't a half-bad dinner.