Not Sure What to Cook This Month? These Dishes Are Seasonal and Delicious

Matt Horn on the watermelon salad recipe from his cookbook, Horn Barbecue: “This is such a light summer salad to freshen your palate between barbecue dishes. If you have time, I recommend chilling the salad for about 20 minutes before serving for the best flavor and most refreshing bite.”

Is there any better appetizer than sweet, crunchy Mexican street corn? Bacanora’s version boasts two cremas.

Rockfish, also known as Pacific snapper or rock cod, is one of the most sustainable and widely available fish in the West, and has a mildly sweet flavor. Vermilion rockfish, with their scarlet hue, are especially pretty and tasty. For a large feast-worthy fish, order ahead of time from your seafood shop or counter.

“Grilled chicken is an excellent humble family meal, although the marinade in this recipe adds an incredible glaze worthy of a restaurant meal,” Matt Horn says in his cookbook, Horn Barbecue. “The brown sugar speeds up caramelization and deepens the flavor of the finished poultry.”

Serve Bacanora’s melt-in-your-mouth showstopper alongside its bone. 

Tomato water requires you to plan a day ahead, but the mixture adds another layer of tomato flavor to this pretty grilled salad from Los Angeles restaurant Yangban Society.

Take one bite of Bacanora’s grilled chicken, and you probably won’t believe it’s only seasoned with salt. But that’s exactly how the team prepares their poultry. Let’s just say, they let the grilling do the talking. Serve with potatoes, frijoles de la olla, salsas, and warm tortillas.

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,” says the creator. If you’re looking for something to serve with it, he suggests grilled or smoked whole chickens, baby back ribs, or beef tri-tips.

Healthy and delicious. This recipe is perfect for a camping trip: Make the mix for these tender, moist pancakes at home, and they’ll be ready in no time in the great outdoors.

“When I was the chef of Saltwater in Inverness, I was right down the street from Marin Sun Farms butcher shop,” says Meave McAuliffe of Rory’s Place in Ojai. “I’m still obsessed with their meats, and a perfectly marbled ribeye is still one of my favorite things to eat. Get two really good quality ribeyes and let them come to room temperature while you are preparing your bottarga butter. I love to cook with my friend’s bottarga from Cortez Conservas in Florida. This is simple and delicious and can be done on the stovetop or a gas grill if you don’t have a wood-fired oven.”

A metal cooling rack set in a rimmed baking sheet makes bi-level cooking possible—squash below, chicken above—so the glazed meat stays nicely charred, while the juices drip into and moisten the squash.

In this version of the Filipino classic, the chef uses flavorful rib-eye steaks lacquered with a salpicao sauce brushed on as they char. He rounds out the meal with purchased longganisa sausage cooked alongside the steak. It is the perfect backyard barbecue meal when you have guests over.