These Are the Easiest Dinners You Can Make This Summer

This technique cooks salmon perfectly every time. The sauce is flavorful and rich, but not heavy—just right for a weeknight.

Created by Brad Cecchi, chef and owner of Canon, a seasonally driven restaurant in Sacramento, the salad brings in flavors from all over the globe and blends them with top-quality local produce. “It’s great for a block party, because it doesn’t need to be hot or ice-cold and won’t wilt,” he says. “It’s not your typical block-party fare—it’ll make you look cool. And it’s beautiful.” If you’re looking for something to serve with it, he suggests grilled or smoked whole chickens, baby back ribs, or beef tri-tips.

“Fab, fuss-free dinners are my holy grail,” says Michelle Tam (nomnompaleo.com,@nomnompaleo) about sheet pan meals. This one is adapted from her and husband Henry Fong’s latest Nom Nom Paleo cookbook, Ready or Not! “Sheet pan suppers allow me to maximize the amount of veggies for dinner,” she says. “And cleanup is a breeze.”

Serve this fresh salad with grilled chicken and you’re all set!

Want to try something new on the grill? Here you go! “Beef satay is the flavor of 19th Street (in Yangon) for me. I remember eating it when I was young in Burma,” says Saw Naing, chef at Ojai’s Dutchess restaurant. At the Dutchess, they grind their own garam masala, but store-bought will work just fine.

And for a vegetarian- and vegan-friendly grilling idea, eggplant skewers are the way to go.

Chef Josh Buckwald of Orso Pasta in Los Angeles created this verdant dish enriched by creamy burrata. “At Orso,” he says, “we love campanelle, cavatelli, or corzetti for this one—but no wrong answers here.”

This is Oakland-based Chef Matt Horn’s signature burger. Two key ingredients are sweet, savory caramelized onions, and the right cheese. Horn uses Clover Sonoma Monterey Jack.

Mu shu pork is said to have its origins in northern China. In this version, Chef Brandon Jew eliminates the pork and adds wild mushrooms, though it will still be delicious with store-bought creminis or other fresh mushrooms. Wood-ear mushrooms are a more traditional ingredient but are optional. Look for mu shu pancakes at Asian markets. Feel free to substitute 6-inch flour tortillas.

Sweet-salty white miso makes beef taste wonderfully beefier. Marinate the steak the night before so it’s quick to cook the next day. Serve with hot rice if you like.

We subbed in the green fruit for olive oil to create a pesto that’s lighter and fresher than the classic. You’ll want to serve the pasta right away, while the color is bright.

Making enchiladas the traditional way—filling each tortilla and rolling it up—is a bit of a project for a weeknight. This quicker version brings enchiladas to the table faster with no loss of flavor.

What can be a more quintessential summer dish than grilled stone fruit paired with burrata? With bread, it might make for a filling dinner already, but you can also add some grilled chicken for protein.

How do you serve a huge crowd well, but without massive costs? A great soup and plenty of sides can be the answer, especially if there’s the added richness of culture and history. Gazpacho, the classic chilled Spanish soup of puréed raw vegetables, totally qualifies for a backyard summer party.

Ripe tomatoes and juicy chicken, hot off the grill, mingle with herby oil to make a delicious sauce. Serve with warm bread to mop it up. You’ll need a perforated grill pan for this recipe (or use a double thickness of foil, oiled, with dime-size holes poked through about an inch apart).

This salad from Alice Waters’ restaurant Lulu highlights farmers market broccolini with a boost of flavor from fresh herbs and carrots that are mixed into quickly cooked lentils.

If Niçoise and antipasti had a love child, this would be their girl—simultaneously elegant and rustic. San Francisco cookbook author Michelle McKenzie created this as a main-course event, requiring nothing more than a chilled bottle of wine, a crusty sourdough loaf, and good butter. Serving it family-style, with groupings of seasoned ingredients, allows guests to customize their plates. “When everything anyone needs is there all at once, it creates a space for ease, comfort, and lingering—and the cook gets to sit back and enjoy the experience of feeding others,” says McKenzie.

Don’t feel like burgers? Grilled fish sandwiches are a great and easy option.

This dish is an easy way to jump-start the week—and cook outside on a summer night. Prep everything the night before to make it come together even more quickly, and serve with warm, crusty bread.

Crisp tacos are topped with chunks of juicy fish then a drizzle of creamy yogurt-lime sauce and fresh salsa in this healthy and speedy halibut recipe that’s perfect for a summer dinner.

A simple spice mix flavors chicken while it grills; finish with avocado, chiles, and cheese. Four more minutes on the grill melts the cheese to perfection.

Both vegetarians and non-vegetarians will enjoy this fresh-tasting salad.

This healthy, hearty dinner makes the most of the season’s produce. Cut vegetables as you cook to get dinner on the table quickly.

After cooking the chicken, J. Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Sciene and the Serious Eats online column of the same name, throws corn on the still-hot grill to use in this unusual, delicious salad.

If you have leftover grilled meats and veggies from a barbecue, save them and throw them in a salad the next day. The dressing is a cinch to customize, depending on what you have on hand.