Whether you’re hosting a backyard barbecue, entertaining for Father’s Day or celebrating your recent grad, your grill will be working overtime this summer. Here are a few tips and recipe ideas to help make planning your special event run smoothly.
Summer Cookout Recipe Ideas
For each guest, you will need the following:
For the Food
- 1 1/2 servings of any burger, hot dog or sandwich
- 4-6 pork ribs or 3-5 beef ribs per person
- 1/2 pound of meat per person (balances out to account for children and bigger eaters)
- 2 platters of cut up fruit or vegetable crudite for every 25 people (or 1 of each)
- Cake/Pies: 1 slice per person; Cookies: 2-3 per person
For the Drinks
- 1 1/2 alcoholic drinks per hour
- 2 gallons of lemonade or iced tea for every 25 people if you’re also serving alcohol
- If you’re going bar-less, increase the number to 4 gallons of alcohol-free drinks for every 25 people
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Hot Off the Grill
- Hot Dogs or Italian Sausage with Italian Onions on crusty Italian bread
- Flame broiled Hamburgers or Sliders are a must have at any bbq and if you’re looking for something a little different, try my Mediterranean Turkey Sliders with Horseradish Dressing, Grilled Chicken Burgers with Copycat Chick-Fil-A Sauce or these Greek Black Bean Sliders for a meatless option.
- Spareribs are a Summer staple and you can make them a variety of ways; however, I’ve found that the key to juicy ribs EVERY time, is to slowly simmer them in water for about 90 minutes, coat with your favorite bbq sauce like my Honey Maple BBQ Sauce , Asian Marinade or Tomato Garlic BBQ Sauce; then grill to perfection (and if you don’t want to make a mess of your grill, you can bake them too!). Perfect, fall-off-the-bone ribs every time!
- Chicken; whether on or off the bone is another must-have at our cookouts. Most of the time I use boneless chicken breasts if I’m marinating them, but if you prefer bone-in legs and thighs, I suggest simmering the chicken in water for about 30-45 minutes before adding your bbq sauce so that it cooks quicker on the grill. If your kids are like mine, they won’t eat “blackened” chicken. Here are a few of our favorites: Honey Lemon Grilled Chicken, Lemon Dill Grilled Chicken, Gremolata Chicken Skewers or Grilled Chicken in a Lime Sea Salt Brine.
For more grilling items, look under the Recipe Index!
Extras
- No picnic is ever complete without baked beans. Try Maple Brown Sugar Baked Beans or these Italian Baked Beans. Trust me, these are so much better than any canned version!
- Want to top your juicy burger or marinated steak with something extra special? Try Mushrooms Vittoria or these Vanilla Almond Onion Straws!
- Hot Buttered Corn on the Cob with Garlic Basil Butter or Italian Style Grilled Street Corn
- There are so many salads to choose from and everyone has their favorites. Here are 25 Summer Salad Recipes to get you started or you can look under the Recipe Index for more inspiration!
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