5 Finger-Licking Good BBQ Recipes for Summer

Fire up the grill for beef tenderloin, smoked baby back ribs and cauliflower parmesan steaks

Jennifer Bradley Franklin,

AARP

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Published July 02, 2024

Smoked ribs and small bowl of sauce on plate

Smoked baby back ribs with chipotle pomegranate BBQ sauce, from "What’s Gaby Cooking: Grilling All the Things."

Matt Armendariz

Summer is upon us, and that means it’s time to fire up the grill. Whether it’s hosting a big barbecue for family and friends or dining alfresco with a couple of your nearest and dearest, cooking — and eating — outdoors is one of the season’s pleasures. And it comes with some great warm weather benefits: Cooking outside means you won’t heat up your kitchen, the post-meal cleanup can be easy, and grilling is just plain fun.

These five recipes from new cookbooks include the traditional beef on the barbie and finger-licking baby back ribs with BBQ sauce, plus a whole fish cooked over an open flame. No matter what kind of outdoor meal you’re planning, there’s something here to boost your summer menu planning.

Grilled chicken topped with strawberry-jalapeño salsa on plate

Caitlin Prettyman

Grilled Chicken with Strawberry Jalapeño Salsa

Caitlin Prettyman, the San Diego–based food blogger behind the popular recipe site Kalefornia Kravings, loves mixing the super-fresh cuisine of her Southern California hometown with the vibrant flavors from just over the border. In her new book, Fast and Fresh Cal-Mex Cooking: West Coast-Inspired Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less, she shares more than 60 recipes that pack in plenty of flavor but take half an hour or less to get on the table. Prettyman’s recipe for Grilled Chicken with Strawberry-Jalapeño Salsa is a winner thanks to homemade strawberry salsa with cilantro, jalapeños and fresh lime juice, a made-from-scratch spice rub, and protein-packed chicken breasts grilled to perfection over an open flame. If you’re cooking for a small group, save any leftovers for a salad the next day.

Get recipe: Grilled Chicken with Strawberry Jalapeño Salsa

Beef tenderloin cut into slices with fork next to it in dish

Jason Perry

Whole Beef Tenderloin

Food Network fans know chef Tyler Florence from The Great Food Truck Race, Food Court Wars and as a mentor to home cooks on America’s Best Cook. The restaurateur and best-selling author is back with a new book, American Grill: 125 Recipes for Mastering Live Fire, designed to be a go-to for home cooks and aspiring grill masters. Florence teaches readers to marinate, char, caramelize and sear, so that they can up their skills and make a host of flame-fired favorites just like a top chef. For his Whole Beef Tenderloin, a lean cut of beef packed with iron and vitamin B-12, Florence layers flavor with both Dijon and grainy mustard and offers step-by-step instructions for getting the 3-pound cut of meat cooked to your preferred temperature.

Get recipe: Whole Beef Tenderloin

Matt Armendariz

Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Chipotle Pomegranate BBQ Sauce

Cookbook author and blogger Gaby Dalkin has carved out a niche for herself by offering easy comfort food recipes on her What’s Gaby Cooking website. In her fifth cookbook, What’s Gaby Cooking: Grilling All the Things, she focuses on more than 100 of her favorite grilling recipes. Dalkin doesn’t just dive in with ingredients and cooking times. She also breaks down the finer points of different kinds of grilling equipment — from gas and charcoal grills to pizza stones and smokers — and how best to use them. For her Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Chipotle Pomegranate BBQ Sauce, she uses a tried-and-true smoking technique she learned from her grandmother and shares a homemade BBQ sauce recipe that leverages pomegranate molasses, spices, apple cider vinegar and chipotle chiles to achieve a one-of-a-kind flavor. A word to the wise: Bring extra napkins when you serve this finger-licking recipe.

Get recipe: Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Chipotle Pomegranate BBQ Sauce

Two cauliflower slices on a plate with chimichurri, radishes and scallions on them; small bowl of chimichurri next to them

Chloé Crane-Leroux

Cauliflower Parmesan Steaks with Chimichurri

For mother-daughter duo Trudy Crane and Chloé Crane-Leroux, cooking healthy, nourishing food is a family affair. Their new book, The Artful Way to Plant-Based Cooking: Nourishing Recipes and Heartfelt Moments, is a lushly illustrated ode to family and gathering around delicious, thoughtful meals. While the focus is plant-based — both authors are vegans, although, they admit, imperfect ones — the recipes in the book are designed to be so flavorful that even the most committed carnivore will find dishes to tempt their taste buds. The book also teaches home cooks how to stock their kitchen with plant-based staples and incorporate techniques to add flavor sans animal products. Try your hand at the Cauliflower Parmesan Steaks with Chimichurri, which would make an ideal main course for vegans and vegetarians or could double as a side alongside a protein. Though this recipe can be made in the oven, it would be equally tasty on the outdoor grill.

Get recipe: Cauliflower Parmesan Steaks with Chimichurri

Flounder on baking dish with spices and sauce on it and around it

Courtesy Penguin Random House

Grilled Whole Flounder with Sauce Chien Beurre Monté

Outdoorsman and hunter Steven Rinella loves cooking in the great outdoors, often in the wild, and he’s made a name for himself as the host of his MeatEater TV show and podcast. In his new book, coauthored with Krista Ruane, The MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook: Wild Game Recipes for the Grill, Smoker, Campstove, and Campfire, he celebrates a variety of cooking techniques that work at home or on a wilderness adventure. In his recipe for Grilled Whole Flounder with Sauce Chien Beurre Monté, the flounder — a high-protein, low-fat white fish — becomes something extraordinarily flavorful when cooked in a basket over a grill or campfire. The addition of a homemade herb sauce with fresh thyme, parsley, chives and lemon juice takes it to the next level. This dish comes together quickly and makes an ideal addition to any cookout menu.

Get recipe: Grilled Whole Flounder with Sauce Chien Beurre Monté

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Jennifer Bradley Franklin is an Atlanta-based journalist, editor and author who has contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, People magazine, USA Today and others. She's an avid traveler, ballroom dancer and is more than a little coffee obsessed. Read more of her work at jenniferbradleyfranklin.com.

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