28 Easy Grilling Recipes for a Delicious Season
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It’s time to fire up the grill. And there isn’t a more delicious way than with these Easy Grilling Recipes. From grilled vegetables to grilled chicken, ribs, steaks, salads, flatbread, and more. Plus, we’ll review summer food safety guidelines for a spectacular season ahead!
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When it comes to summer, backyard BBQs, salads, the 4th of July, Memorial Day, and beachside or lakeside gatherings all come to mind. And I hope you’re adding some to your summer calendar.
Picnics are definitely on my mind this year. In fact, you may also enjoy taking a look at these 31 Simple Summer Picnic Recipes!
Let’s start with a refresher on food-handling tips!
Safe Summer Grilling
With the grilling season here and a long season of outdoor entertaining ahead, no one wants to think about foodborne illnesses. But news broadcasts all too often remind us how prevalent they are.
The great news is that, with a few food handling guidelines and minimum food temperatures to remember, you can keep your family safe, healthy, and having fun!
Here’s to a summer filled with fun and fantastic memories.
Grilling Recipes Safely According to FoodSafety.gov
With summer right around the corner and a long grilling season ahead, it’s time for a food safety refresher. These reminders from FoodSafety.gov will ensure a safe season of delicious foods and favorite grilling recipes. Be sure to take note of the “Danger Zones” when cooking/grilling, and food handling tips.
When Grilling Recipes, What is the Danger Zone?
The Danger Zone is the temperature range in which bacteria can grow faster. Bacteria can actually double in number in as little as 20 minutes when perishable food is kept in the Danger Zone. In order to steer clear of the Danger Zone, you should always:
- Keep cold food at or below 40°F in the refrigerator, coolers, or containers on ice.
- Limit the time coolers are open. Open and close the lid quickly. Do not leave coolers in direct sunlight.
- Keep foods served hot at or above 140 °F, in chafing dishes, warming trays, slow cookers or on the grill. You can keep cooked meats hot by setting them to the side of the grill rack, not directly over the coals where they could overcook.
- Use a food thermometer to check the safe recommended temperatures.
- Never leave food between 40 and 140˚F for more than two hours. If the temperature is above 90 °F, food should not be left out more than one hour.
Keeping it Clean
Make sure to always wash your hands and surfaces with soap and warm water for 20 seconds before cooking and after handling raw meat or poultry during cooking. Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and work spaces with soap and warm water too. If you plan to be away from the kitchen, pack clean cloths and moist towels for cleaning surfaces and hands.
Separate Cooked and Uncooked Foods
When taking food off the grill, use a clean platter. Don’t put cooked food on the same platter that held raw meat or poultry. Any harmful bacteria present in the raw meat juices could contaminate safely cooked food.
Grilling Recipes Temperatures
Always use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of burgers, steaks, chicken, and foods containing meat or poultry.
- Hamburgers, sausages, and other ground meats should reach 160 °F.
- All poultry should reach a minimum temperature of 165 °F.
- Whole cuts of pork, lamb, veal, and beef should be cooked to 145 °F as measured by a food thermometer placed in the thickest part of the meat and allowed to rest for three minutes before eating. A “rest time” is when the product remains at the final temperature after being removed from a grill, oven, or other heat source. During the three minutes after meat is removed from the heat source, its temperature remains constant or continues to rise, which destroys pathogens.
- Fish should be cooked to 145 °F.
- Meat and poultry cooked on a grill often brown very fast on the outside, and by using a food thermometer, you can be sure the items have reached a safe minimum internal temperature needed to destroy any harmful bacteria that may be present.
Leftovers
After a cookout, place leftovers in shallow containers and refrigerate or freeze immediately. Discard food left in the Danger Zone too long. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out!
Grilling Recipes
28 Easy Grilling Recipes for a Delicious Season
Grilling Steaks with Garlic Butter Mushroom Sauce
"Grilling Steaks with Garlic Butter Mushroom Sauce is one of the easiest meals you can make. And for steak lovers, it is the ultimate BBQ. Easy? Absolutely! Just follow these simple steps with a handful of ingredients, and you’re on your way to the tender, juicy, perfectly grilled steaks smothered in a delicious 3 ingredient mushroom sauce!"
Easy Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Skewers are a simple, savory and sweet BBQ kabob recipe! These simple Chicken Teriyaki Skewers are an easy go-to dinner idea everyone will love, all season long stacked with onions, peppers and zucchini – all the summer vegetables that taste their best cooked on the grill!
Firecracker Chicken Burgers
Taking grilled burgers to a delicious level with these Firecracker Chicken Burgers. Infused with a delightful blend of chili peppers, shredded cheese, and aromatic spices, these mouthwatering burgers can be prepared in 20 minutes or less with simple ingredients you may already have.
Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
"Bursting with flavors like ginger, coconut, turmeric and garlic, chicken satay with peanut sauce turns out beautifully tender, and extraordinarily scrumptious."
Nicoise Salad with Grilled Fish!
"This delicious healthy recipe for Nicoise Salad can be made with grilled salmon, tuna or your choice of white fish! Paired with baby potatoes, olives, roasted peppers, french beans & white beans – it is tossed with the most delicious lemony, mustard seed dressing. Gluten-free, super filling and full of flavor!"
Grilled Ribeye Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce and Grilled Corn
Summer is about grilling, delicious food, and gathering with family and friends. These Grilled Ribeye Steaks with Chimichurri Sauce and grilled corn on the cob are everything we love about the season. And here’s the best news… they’re ready in 30 minutes or less and are genuinely, easy!
Easy Grilled Flatbread Recipe
Grilling season is here, and it’s a delicious one! This Grilled Flatbread recipe is a delicious way to celebrate the warm months. The dough is easy to make and handle, is seasoned beautifully, and is one of our favorite ways to grill pizza!
Perfectly Grilled Zucchini Recipe
"Make Perfectly Grilled Zucchini all summer long! Quick and easy, great as a side dish with anything you’re grilling."
Easy Grilled Chicken Marinade
This easy Grilled Chicken Marinade is so incredibly delicious. It’s filled with savory herbs, sweet with honey, and citrusy with lemon flavors. You’ll love it for the grilling season. Bonus: The marinade helps keep the chicken moist and juicy—just as we love it!
Easy Grilled Beef Kofta: Lebanese Street Food
This easy Grilled Chicken Marinade is so incredibly delicious. It’s filled with savory herbs, sweet with honey, and citrusy with lemon flavors. It’s a marinade you’re going to love for the grilling season. Bonus… the marinade helps keep the chicken moist and juicy. Just as we love it!
Easy Grilled Vegetables with Burrata
Easy Grilled Vegetables with Burrata is a centerpiece of summer grilling. With a simple balsamic glaze drizzled over delicious and slightly charred vegetables, it's a feast for the eyes and the palate.
Grilled and Tender Foil Wrapped Baby Back Ribs
Learn how to make deliciously Tender and Juicy Foil Wrapped Baby Back Ribs on the grill this summer! It’s grilling season and nothing says BBQ quite like a fall-off-the-bone pork baby back ribs made with a homemade dry rub and a mouthwatering basting sauce.
Best Easy Grilled Burgers Recipe
This is our favorite grilled burgers recipe. Plus, it's super easy. And we all love that. Whether grilled indoors or out, this burger reciple is packed with flavor and easy to make ahead too.
15 Minute Super Easy Foil Packet Fish Dinners
Ready for grilling season… or simply looking for a quick-fix oven-baked dinner? Consider 15-Minute Foil Packet Fish Dinners as a go-to meal, individually customized and assembled.
Smoky Sweet Cedar Plank Salmon with Sesame Asparagus.
"This cedar plank salmon is grilled with the most wonderful smoky sweet flavor! Pair with sesame asparagus on the side for the best meal ever."
Rainbow Trout in Sage Butter Foil Packets
Rainbow Trout in Sage Butter is a foil packet dinner you won't soon forget. Easy to prepare yet incredibly delicious.
Skinny and Easy Foil Packet Cod with Greens
Steamed Foil Packet Cod with Greens is an all-star, quick cook meal, that’s also easy and healthy. By quick, I mean, perhaps 10 minutes, from start to finish.
Grilled Lemon and Herb Chicken Thighs
It’s deceptively easy to make, and the flavors of fresh lemon and fresh herbs are incredibly delicious – perfect for your next cookout!
Grilled Tuscan Lemon Chicken and Vegetables
This simple recipe for Grilled Tuscan Lemon Chicken and Vegetables is a favorite easy and healthy midweek dinner, all year long. Change up the vegetables depending on what is on season and simply serve alongside bread, quinoa or rice, and a simple side salad!
Grilled Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Herbs
This simple recipe for Grilled Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Herbs yields delicious, juicy sausages and tender, charred onions perfect for grilling season! Served either stuffed into a fluffy bun or over cooked rice, grilled sausages with onions are the ultimate Game Day treat!
Easy Foil Wrapped Salmon in Lime Garlic Butter Sauce
This Easy Foil Wrapped Salmon in Lime Garlic Butter Sauce is one of our favorite ways to enjoy salmon. And my favorite way to make it! Crusty and tasty on the outside and so tender and deliciously flaky on the inside.
Grilled Elotes: Mexican-Style Corn with Queso Fresco
Popularly known as “elotes,” this grilled corn is a favorite street food in Mexico.
Grilled Corn on the Cob Foil Packets
Grilled Corn on the Cob in Foil Packets is a favorite 3 ingredient summer side dish that is sweet and juicy and smoky with herbs and spices.
Favorite Steak Marinade: a Delicious Blend of Tangy and Spicy
This steak marinade infuses beef with a delicious blend of herbs, spices, and tanginess. Incredibly flavorful with a bit of heat for good measure. A simple blend to make home-cooked steaks taste like a steakhouse.
5 Best Dry Rub Recipes: And a Secret Ingredient
A homemade dry rub recipe is the secret ingredient to amazing BBQ. Making your own couldn’t be easier. Especially when you start with 5 of the best dry rub recipes we could find.
How to Make Smoked Pork Ribs in the Smoker
These are the drive-across-town-to-get, almost addictive, divinely delicious smoked pork ribs we adore. But guess what? You don't have to drive across town. Because... they are incredibly easy to make at home. And here's how:
Grilled Corn Salad with Feta
This easy Grilled Corn Salad is a delicious salad recipe, perfect for summer BBQs and picnics. A simple lime vinaigrette enhances the bright, sweet, and refreshing flavors of this chilled salad.
Mediterranean Greek Chicken Souvlaki
If you love Greek street food, this Mediterranean Greek Chicken Souvlaki recipe is for you. Tender, juicy grilled chicken wrapped in warm pitas is an incredibly simple, delicious and authentic dish to make at home.