If I did a buffalo chicken chili kale salad would that show off my cooking skills?

Whatever you do, don't make something for the first time. If you're looking to impress, adding an array of side dishes, like rolls, potatoes, steamed vegetables, green salad, fruit salad etc is much more effective than one really killer main.

I mean, can you cook? It isn't like we're born knowing how, and the learning curve is real. You eat your own food, presumably. Is it good, or just edible?

That matters because if you seek praise, and you can't tell if you can cook, chances are high that you can't.

Being a good cook isn't about recipes. It's about practice. Doing things over and over until you don't have to think about timing or ingredients. In terms of your specific idea, have you mastered that dish well enough that your chicken is juicy, safely cooked, and flavorful? That's going to be the part anyone judgy is going to be right about if they find fault. If you can't cook the chicken right, the sauce don't mean shit.

If you can, then those flavors will absolutely slap yo mama in the face and make her ask for more.

Lasagna is easier. Well, more labor intensive, but easier to not fuck up, depending on the stuff in between the pasta. So if you're just an okay cook, go with that. It's just a lot more forgiving when trying to feed someone that's looking for faults. You can still fuck it up, but as long as you don't go that far, it's a very filling, satisfying dish.

What does she like to eat, and why is she demanding you cook only on one day as some bizarre test?

If you make a kale salad and she doesn't like kale, it won't work. It could be amazing and she might still say it sucks.

Personally I'd be inclined to not play that game at all. If you like your own cooking you are fine. But if you are going to play, consider your audience.

Well, that depends on how good you make it, and on if the other person likes it.

If you actually can cook, make a dish that a) your mom likes and b) that you can easily make because you have done it often enough.

Producing something from a random recipe off the internet, or worse, a chatbot, that happens to look fancy, but you are doing this first ever on this day, well, that is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Make everything from scratch, and make sure you can do it successfully before trying it live if you want to show off.

It's not very flashy, but I make green bean casserole from scratch every thanksgiving. Instead of buying canned beans and cream of mushroom, get green beans from produce and prep them, make a roux, chop some fresh mushrooms and make your own sauce. I do buy fries onion rather than make my own, but that's an option. All of that is extremely easy to do, looks impressive to people who don't know how to cook, and tastes better.

For lasagna, make the sauce instead of buying it.

A buffalo chicken salad can be good an option, but you probably need to make the chicken yourself rather than just throwing precooked buff chicken on some kale.

If you can make a dessert in advance that will add to your cause. If you have a spring form pan, NY style cheesecake is very easy to make and provides the option for people to choose their own toppings.

Soups are a good choice. Most require some level of prep like making a mirepoix and can be made as a side dish. Most are prep and then wait, so the soup can cook while you're doing other cooking.

Salmon in a cast iron or stainless is easy and looks impressive. Start skin side down, butter baste, and finish by sticking the whole pan in the over. Just don't over do it.

Just make sure everything is cooked all of the way through and nothing is burnt. Whatever you decide, I say find a recipe, or something similar to what you have planned online, and get a good feel for time and temp, because those will ruin anything you've done prior if you get it wrong.

What is your relationship to your mom? The way you describe it, it sounds like she is putting you down which is sad and not ok. Shouldn't she help you learn if she feels you don't know? What is the point of giving you one day to prove yourself? But maybe there is context I am missing.

As others have said, you develop your ability to cook through repeated use, trial and error, and ideally knowledge passed down from your family. If you want to become someone who can cook, it won't happen after one try or ten. Just keep trying out recipes that sound good to you, and treat each one as a learning experience. Overtime you will build up recipes that you have memorized and can riff on confidently.

You must like to cook, since you want to prove you can. Whatever you make, take your time, trust your gut, and do it to feed yourself something you like. Cooking is a personal thing, just because not everyone likes what you make doesn't mean you can't do it.

i think the key is to put a lot of love in it. just pump it full of love. and then serve it to them.

I suggest a Tiramisu as a dessert.

It's not too complicated to do but you need decent ingredients and especially at least half decent mascarpone and good (strong coffee).

Ive got a super simple recipe for thai fish curry if youre interested.

Depending on your tastes a cottage pie or moussaka are simple (each has their own challenges like the mash on the cottage pie) but they are tasty and can look quite good in a big crock pot or something.

If you are doing this to impress then no matter what, tidy up after yourself and have a plan for any leftovers if you make too much.

You want to show that you can cook on her level but you never told us what's her level. Is her cooking any good? What's your age and experience? You kinda strike me as an annoying 12 y.o. who said "I could do better" once too many and now has to prove themselves. Idk, I might be wrong but I'm seriously missing some context here.