The Only Grilling Recipes You’ll Need for Summer (and Beyond)

“Just the right amount of salt and sweet and bright and savory flavors,” says chef Nico de Leon. “Plan ahead to let the chicken marinate fully overnight to absorb the flavors. Brushing the chicken with the aromatic butter baste gives the chicken even more flavor and the most beautiful color.”

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).

These chicken kebabs are marinated in crowd-pleasing Kung Pao flavors (don’t skip the fermented bean paste doubanjiang for the full effect). A garnish of basil and puffed rice provides a vivid finish and pleasing textural contrast.

You’ll love the classic Italian flavors of this grilled chicken, and the caprese salsa with sweet, tart grape and cherry tomatoes is the perfect accompaniment to the charred flavor from the grill.

Try this twist on summer burgers. The addition of shredded zucchini makes them the juiciest turkey burgers we’ve tried.

In Mexico and Cuba, cooks marinate chicken in a mixture of cumin, oregano, garlic, and citrus to make it juicy and flavorful. Adding achiote paste, as cooks do in Mexico, adds depth and sweetness, but the chicken is good without it too.

One of the most popular yakitori dishes and for good reason: Salted chicken thighs are difficult to overcook, stay succulent, and take on the smoky flavors of the grill. Lightly brush with tare sauce for an extra burst of umami, then serve with yuzu kosho for a spicy, citrusy kick.

We love this live-fire version of a recipe from our archives because it gives camp chicken a complex flavor with minimal ingredients. The key is the Mediterranean seasoning blend called zaatar. You can start marinating the chicken at home, and even freeze it ahead.

A simple garlic-ginger paste creates a flavorful crust on the wings as they grill, so don’t brush off the excess before cooking.

Chef Russell Moore gave us this technique for grilling chicken breast–and it’s the juiciest version we’ve ever had, protected from overcooking by the bones and skin. “Don’t cook it too fast,” he adds. “You don’t want it burnt outside and raw inside.” We also like his clever way of producing an entire dinner over one fire, grilling everything in sequence. He uses cherry and almond wood, but for the home griller, he suggests a mix of mesquite hardwood charcoal and either fruitwood or hardwood chunks—and lighting more charcoal partway through cooking.

If you can’t find packaged broccoli slaw, whirl broccoli stems in a food processor, using the grater attachment. Throw in a carrot and some red cabbage if you like.

Poultry burgers have a reputation for being dry and bland, but jazzed up with sharp cheddar, parmesan, and garlic—and then topped with crisp bacon, juicy tomatoes, and lettuce—they’re boldness in a bun.

Use dry-aged beef for a deeply flavorful patty, then add unctuous bacon jam for a truly decadent burger experience.

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.

This lamb recipe picks up plenty of flavor from the simple mustard marinade, and a nutty, herbaceous Italian-style salsa puts it over the top. If you like, serve it with grilled garlic scapes or green onions. You can also cook the dish over a charcoal grill instead of a wood fire.

Experience the rich umami flavors of koji-marinated pork loin, a Japanese-inspired dish that’s sure to become a favorite. The koji marinade tenderizes the pork and enhances its natural flavors. Paired with a vibrant shiso shishito chimichurri, this dish is perfect for a special occasion or a weeknight dinner.

This combination is also delicious layered in bolillos (crusty Mexican rolls) or soft French rolls.

These sweet and spicy and oh-so-sticky pork ribs benefit from a sauce spiked with gochujang, the deeply flavored fermented Korean chili paste. For maximum deliciousness, make sure you give yourself 3 to 12 hours to cure the pork ribs in the dry rub.

Beef salpicao is a classic weeknight staple in many Filipino households. Typically, it’s made with cubed beef sirloin that’s been cooked in a skillet then enriched with a garlicky, slightly sweet, soy-based pan sauce. In this version, L.A. Chef Charles Olalia uses flavorful rib-eye steaks lacquered with a salpicao sauce brushed on the steaks as they char. Olalia compares it to yakitori, in that you’re building layers of flavor as you add sauce to the steaks as they cook: “It’s brush, burnish, turn. Brush, burnish, turn.” Olalia rounds out the meal with purchased longganisa sausage cooked alongside the steak.

These juicy burgers are a nice alternative to hamburgers. Roasted piquillo peppers add a sweet, clean taste to the burgers, but you can use regular roasted red peppers instead. If you’re serving the burgers with the deep-fried french fries, undercook the burgers slightly and keep them warm in a low oven while you cook the fries for the second time.

“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.

Many of us associate souvlaki with roast lamb, but in the back alleys and on the roadsides of Greece, pork and chicken are actually more common. Charles Bililies, founder of Souvla restaurants in San Francisco, gave us this recipe for the quintessential Greek street food. It’s very much worth making at home, especially for a party. Most of it can be done ahead, the meat and pita cook in minutes, and it’s easy to serve. All you have to do is pile the hot skewers and the warm pita on platters, set out the toppings, and let everyone assemble their own sandwiches (or you can wrap them if you like, as directed below). Just make sure there are lots of napkins—souvlaki are deliciously drippy.

With its generous marbling, rib-eye just may be the tastiest steak of all for the grill. Inspired by the cider-house tradition in the Spanish countryside, Chef Matthew Dillon adds a phenomenal but simple sauce from the resting juices and a touch of cider vinegar and honey. He grills the meat over wood at the restaurant; for home grillers, he recommends hardwood charcoal and fruitwood chips.

Yogurt is marinade magic: Its mild lactic acid tenderizes meat and keeps it moist. This version, flavored with Indian spices, takes just a few minutes to make the night before.

Befitting a restaurant with both log walls and white tablecloths, the steak at the Grand Canyon’s El Tovar Dining Room is earthy yet refined. The Arizona-raised beef is seasoned with a coffee rub and it’s paired with a malty beer sauce, like our Black Lager Demi-Glace.

An unusual salsa, made with easy-to-find Middle Eastern ingredients, transforms ordinary kebabs into something exotic. You’ll need 4 to 6 metal skewers (10-inch size) for the lamb.

Steve Freidkin, the chef at Texaz Grill in Phoenix, shared this technique with us for instantly “marinating” meat. By making small slashes in a diamond pattern over both sides of the steak, the flavors of the lemon and spices sink right in.

Grilling watermelon adds a smoky note to the fruit and gives it a slightly meaty texture that matches well with shrimp. Cooking takes only a couple of minutes, so have both sets of skewers ready before you start. You’ll need 12 flat metal skewers (12 in. long) or 18 skewers (8 in. long)–or use bamboo skewers of the same size, soaked in water for 30 minutes.

A side of salmon, hot off the grill and laid on fig leaves from a backyard tree if you have one, makes a spectacular main course. If you’re daunted by the prospect of flipping such a large piece of fish, cut it into three sections before grilling (they’re easier to turn) and arrange them end to end on the platter. Erin Scott, creator of the blog (and cookbook) Yummy Supper, gave us this recipe.

Big, meaty calamari steaks are sweet and mildly flavored, so they benefit from the bold, salty flavors of olives, anchovies, and capers. You’ll find the steaks—we like those from large Humboldt squid—in the frozen seafood section of your grocery store. This seafood dish packs in a salty, citrusy flavor that is exquisitely complemented by hearty white beans and fresh herbs on top.

Ebi Sumibi-Yaki, or grilled blue prawns, is a simple yet flavorful dish. Marinated in light soy sauce and olive oil, the prawns are grilled and finished with a rich butter sauce. This dish brings out the natural sweetness of the prawns.

Chef Jacob Wetherington wraps local rock cod with olive leaves and foraged bay laurel, and garnishes it with fresh fennel flowers. We substitute more readily available fennel stalks.

Chef Christian Graves loves how well the grilled flavor of the mussels pairs with the coolness of the cucumber and the spicy hit of the chiles. He prefers ‘Corno di Toro’ chiles for his recipe, but you can also use Fresnos.

One year, chef and cookbook author Joanne Weir led a culinary tour to the Cinque Terre in Italy. “We went out on the Mediterranean, where we drank prosecco and ate seafood cooked on a tiny grill…I relished the fresh grilled calamari and halibut skewers as I baked in the sunshine and gazed at the crystal blue waters from which the seafood had just come. A few people decided to go for a swim. I won’t mention whether bathing suits were involved. What happens in the Mediterranean after 18 bottles of prosecco stays in the Mediterranean.” This is her ode to the skewers from that day.

Wild king salmon requires the right mix of exuberance and restraint. Chefs Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton of Ox restaurant in Portland hit the sweet spot, brightening its richness with tart sumac and a luscious yogurt sauce, and crisping the skin to create cracklings. The recipe is adapted from their book Around the Fire with Stacy Adimando. You’ll need a rimless baking sheet to ease the salmon off the grill.

Michelle Tam, creator of the blog Nom Nom Paleo and author of two cookbooks (Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans and Ready or Not!) makes this recipe whenever she’s on vacation with her family in Hawaii. The tacos are made with butter lettuce leaves instead of tortillas, so they’re very light and refreshing.

Any firm, mild fish is delicious cooked this way. Grilling the delicate fillet on foil keeps it from sticking to the grates. As for a wine pairing, try it with something that’s crisp, but fruity like Sauvignon Blanc.

A quick turn on the grill brings extra summer flavor to this riff on classic Italian bread salad.

“Having access to wild Alaskan salmon is amazing,” says best-selling cookbook author Kim Sunée, who moved to Anchorage several years ago. She loves to serve it as an entire glorious fillet, with rice, lettuce, cilantro, and a crunchy topping like bean sprouts or cucumbers, so people make their own ssam (Korean-style lettuce wraps). “It’s pretty, fresh, and great for those who aren’t eating gluten. And because they make their own bites, it’s more convivial.” This recipe, flavored with the mellow Korean red-chile paste called gochujang, gives the salmon an alluring spicy-sweet depth. It’s based on one in her most recent book, Everyday Korean: Fresh, Modern Recipes for Home Cooks, written with Seung Hee Lee.

This beautiful make-ahead recipe is perfect for backyard parties. You can prepare and tie up these bundles in the morning and store them in the refrigerator until cook time while you tend to other party preparations. Not only do the banana leaves add flavor, but they also make for a stunning presentation. If you can’t source banana leaves, aluminum foil can be substituted—but it won’t add that intoxicating banana-leaf aroma.

Ranch dressing makes a surprising and delicious sauce for salmon. The recipe is adapted from one created by Outstanding in the Field, a California-based event company that serves open-air feasts. To go with the fish, grill zucchini halves and packets of boiled potatoes with a little olive oil.

Put together this full meal in just 40 minutes. It’s the perfect, fresh meal for busy weeknights.

This pizza showcases the best of the allium family–from the sharp top notes of fresh chives to the deep flavors of sautéed leeks.

Umami-packed Zhong sauce is the sweet and spicy secret to this luxurious grilled eggplant dish that gets just the right amount of char from a hot grill.

If you’ve ever been to a street festival in Portland, chances are you’ve seen enormous pans of paella bubbling over open-air burners. This is that!

You can start marinating the tofu mixture a full day ahead.

Chef Morgan Robinson creates lavish Argentinean-style asados (barbecues), often in the middle of vineyards. Unexpected and satisfying with a briny bite, this egg dish riffs on a recipe from one of those feasts.