Sometimes the best cullinary discoveries are entirely unplanned. Redditor Njdevils11 asked, “What cooking decision have you made in desperation only to find out it’s frickin’ delicious?” Here’s what people said.
1.
“I was out of sour cream when making funeral potatoes but I decided to use leftover French onion chip dip. It’s the only way I make them now.”
2.
“I was desperate for breakfast potatoes with a protein. The problem: I only had sesame oil and pepperoni. Well, how bad could it be? I thought. Turns out, not bad at all. In fact, it was outstanding. I’ve been honing that recipe. I’ve cooked it like every weekend since, and it’s a new personal favorite.”
3.
“I was making a burger, but I didn’t have Mayo or even ketchup. I just had tobasco and peanut butter. So I mixed Tobasco and peanut butter, and I slathered it on the buns. The hot patty melted the peanut butter so the consistency was perfect, and it was reminiscent of satay sauce.”
4.
“Once I was snowed in for four straight days and only had chicken breast, plain yogurt, roasted peanuts, overripe bananas, and honey. I decided to throw them all together, and to this day, it’s still one of my favorite mistakes for dinner. FYI, I put a bowl of yogurt, honey, and crushed peanuts on the side and sauteed the chicken with the bananas (both marinated in honey, salt, black pepper, and a bit of brown sugar).”
5.
“I was trying to use leftovers, so I stuffed peppers with roast chicken, onions, potatoes that’d soon go bad, and a chilli-lime rub, topped with cheese. Added tomato sauce, and it was GOOD.”
6.
“Egg roll wrappers for fried ravioli. It was the holidays some years back, and some friends ended up having to stay over longer than we planned because of a snowstorm. I was in the kitchen hunting for extra party snack ideas, and found that we had the ingredients for cheese ravioli filling and jarred sauce, but not enough flour to make pasta. I did have egg roll wrappers, which are similar, right? They fried up beautifully and were basically like a flat Rangoon. I intentionally make them this way now, and they’re always a hit.”
7.
“Years ago, when I was still kind of a baby cook, I bought soba noodles from a Thai supermarket. I used the back of the package for instructions, but they were written in somewhat broken English, and the word thyme ended up in there. When I realized the mistake, it was too late, and I already had a pot of soba noodles sprinkled with dry thyme. I thought, ‘screw it,’ and just threw some butter in there. It was DELICIOUS, and I still make it occasionally.”
8.
“Yogurt instead of milk in boxed mac ‘n’ cheese. Tangy and so good!”
9.
“I didn’t want to go through the hassle of making ramen broth, so I decided to just use what I had. I added Thai red curry paste, some chilis, and onions to a pot. Added coconut milk, soy sauce, and water. Cooked the ramen noodles in that. The result was basically ramen in a Thai red curry broth. It was absolute fire. I prefer it to any ramen I’ve eaten at restaurants.”
10.
“I wanted chicken parm. I thought I had everything for chicken parm. I didn’t check the kitchen. Boiled pasta, started to fry chicken cutlets… Turned out, I was missing some crucial ingredients. I had cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce. Eventually, we started to call the dish cowboy chicken pasta. It’s noodles, cheddar cheese on top of the fried chicken, and BBQ sauce. Maybe I will meal prep it this week. And when I’m feeling really lazy, I resort to a frozen chicken tender.”
11.
“Not cooking, but while making an Old Fashioned cocktail, I didn’t have any oranges to muddle. I looked in the fridge and bam! Orange marmalade to the rescue. Delicious!”
12.
“I was making a protein bowl and mixed leftover white rice with tuna salad (canned tuna, mayo, Dijon mustard) and mashed in a couple of hard-boiled eggs. It might sound pretty off-putting. But the eggs and rice kind of make it this really soft, pillowy texture, and the flavor of the tuna overpowers any egginess. It’s honestly good.”
13.
“I discovered that if you panfry tinned pineapple rings with extra firm tofu, then make a sauce with the juice, peanut butter, soy sauce, and chili flakes, you get pure deliciousness on rice.”
14.
“Years ago, I only had one banana while making banana bread so it tossed it in along with some crushed strawberries and made some delicious strawberry banana bread that I can’t recreate to this day.”
15.
“I was. making a pot roast and didn’t realize I was out of salt. In its place I dumped cheap grated parmesan cheese on top. Never going back.”
16.
“I tried adding savory ingredients to oatmeal instead of rice… Turns out, savory oatmeal goes hard.”
17.
“Years ago, I started making pancakes without realizing the only milk I had was spoiled. So I used sour cream. The rest is history.”
18.
“I slathered a whole chicken in plain mayo because it was literally the only condiment available. After 40 minutes in the oven, it shattered my whole entire world view.”
19.
“Once I was grilling and I really wanted to grill zucchini to go with my chicken, but I only had fresh cucumbers. So I sliced them long-ways, seasoned them, and threw them on the grill anyway. Holy moly, they were SO good! I still love grilled cucumbers, and they are a delicious addition to salads and other things too.”
20.
“A friend of mine decided to make chocolate chip cookies before realizing he didn’t have shortening, so he substituted bacon grease. He said they tasted amazing, not to mention how delicious the aroma smelled while baking.”
21.
Tell us yours! What is a delicious cooking discovery you made entirely by accident or because you were out of an ingredient? Add it in the comments or in this anonymous form.
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