100 Super Easy Fourth of July Recipes

April 18, 2019
Photo: Jennifer Causey; Styling: Claire Spollen
Get Independence Day-ready with our absolute favorite Fourth of July recipes. Celebrate the big day with cookout classics, like beefy burgers and smoky baby back ribs, and some new soon-to-be favorites, like mac and cheese-stuffed pizza. And we didn't forget about cocktails—from bellinis to beergaritas, we've got the drinks to keep your party going. 
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Slow-Cooker Ginger, Sweet Tea, and Whiskey Short Ribs

Photo: Hector Manuel Sanchez; Prop Styling: Mindi Shapiro Levine; Food Styling: Torie Cox
Slow-Cooker Ginger, Sweet Tea, and Whiskey Short Ribs Recipe

Short ribs are often considered a cold weather dish, but we gave them a makeover for summer with a bright, tangy sauce (inspired by spiked sweet tea) and a fresh, herbal topping of parsley, scallions, and lemon zest. Serve these easy-to-prepare slow cooker ribs atop grits, mashed potatoes, or egg noodles or alongside potato salad with a tangy, vinegar-based (not mayonnaise-based) dressing.

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The Best Grilled Ribs

Photo: Jen Causey; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey and Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
The Best Grilled Ribs Recipe

The texture of these smokey beauties is everything you want. Cooking over an indirect heat gives them a crispy exterior bark, while the meat stays tender, but not completely falling-off-the-bone tender—you’re left with the perfect amount of chew. Baby back ribs are readily available at most any supermarket; when shopping, look for the smaller racks as these tend to have more tender meat.

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Smoky Chicken With Potato Salad and Slaw

Greg DuPree
Smoky Chicken With Potato Salad and Slaw Recipe

Enjoy the flavors of a late-summer backyard barbecue on your lunch break. Smoked paprika delivers grill-like flavor to spiced chicken, and creamy potato salad and tangy slaw complete the meal. We toss the undressed coleslaw mix with sugar and salt, let it stand, and rinse it; this process helps to remove some of the water from the cabbage so that the coleslaw will hold up longer without watering out.

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Instant Pot Honey-Soy Baby Back Ribs

Photo: Aaron Kirk; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis; Food Styling: Adam Dolge
Instant Pot Honey-Soy Baby Back Ribs Recipe

When you’re going for a mouthwatering BBQ experience done indoors, these Instant Pot Baby Back Ribs are the way to go. Using the Instant Pot creates incredibly succulent ribs with virtually no fuss; you even make your sauce right in the pot. Finishing these honey-soy ribs under the broiler creates a nice, crispy exterior crust, but you can bypass this step if you want to avoid heating the oven at all. And if you’re short on time and looking to make this recipe an even speedier dinner solution, you can skip the dry rub; however, the flavor enhancement this mixture of dry spices and aromatics provides is well worth the extra effort when possible. 

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Smashed Chili Cheeseburgers

Caitlin Bensel
Smashed Chili Cheeseburgers Recipe

Our healthier take on a beach-side burger, these patties have a delectable seared crust but are juicy inside, especially if you use a screaming-hot cast-iron skillet.

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Creamy Potato Salad

Caitlin Bensel
Creamy Potato Salad Recipe

Here's a salad you can feel good about eating at your next cookout or picnic.

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Deep South Barbecue Ribs

Photo: Hector Manuel Sanchez; Prop Styling: MindI Shapiro Levine; Food Styling: Torie Cox
Deep South Barbecue Ribs Recipe

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Easy Catfish Tacos with Slaw

Photo: Victor Protasio; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis; Food Styling: Tina Bell Stamos
Easy Catfish Tacos with Slaw Recipe

These oven “fried” catfish filets are just as crispy as pan-fried filets but a lot less messy to make. The tender, tasty fish is soaked in buttermilk and covered in panko breadcrumbs flavored with Cajun seasoning. If catfish is not available, use any firm white fish such as cod, tilapia, or grouper.

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Sweet Heat Hot Dogs

Photo: Jennifer Davick; Styling: Allison R. Banks
Sweet Heat Hot Dogs Recipe

Take hot dog toppings beyond traditional sauerkraut and mustard by dressing with sweet-hot pickles, shredded red cabbage and a creamy topping made of mayo, whole grain mustard, and hot chili sauce.

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Beer-Battered Corn Dogs

Photo: Greg Dupree; Styling: Rachel Burrow and Claire Spollen
Beer-Battered Corn Dogs Recipe

These crispy corn dogs will rival just about any festival or fair's version. The key here is to work with one hot dog at a time for the perfect golden batter crust.

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Slow Roasted Pulled Pork

Jim Franco
Slow Roasted Pulled Pork Recipe

When I make this recipe at home, I slow cook the pork in the oven. It's such a treat to have leftovers of this for enchiladas, tacos, tostadas, or sandwiches. To make a delicious quesadilla, combine about 1/3 cup of this pork with a little coleslaw and grated sharp Cheddar cheese.

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Cheddar-and-Onion Smashed Burgers

Photo: Marcus Nilsson
Cheddar-and-Onion Smashed Burgers Recipe

Inspired by the sliders at White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, Adam Fleischman creates beef patties by flattening balls of ground meat on the griddle.Tip: Burger purists handle ground meat as little as possible; over-working the beef can create a tight, meatloaf texture.

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Chicken Fingers and Green Beans with Tahini Sauce

Photo: Hector Manuel Sanchez
Chicken Fingers and Green Beans with Tahini Sauce Recipe

Chicken fingers aren't just for kids. Savory-sweet and addictive, the tahini-tomato dipping sauce offers a palate intrigue adults will love but enough flavor familiarity to keep it kid-approved.

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Instant Pot Chicken Wings

Meredith Food Studios
Instant Pot Chicken Wings Recipe

Make homemade wings in minutes with some help from your Instant Pot. Everyone's favorite pressure cooker get your chicken wings cooked through quickly, while the broiler crisps them up. Serve with crunchy veggie sticks and the sauce of your choosing. 

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Dry-Rubbed Smoked Chicken Wings

Jennifer Causey
Dry-Rubbed Smoked Chicken Wings Recipe

This recipe is from pitmaster, Wade Reich, of Butts To Go in Pell City, Alabama. His story and recipe is one of many beloved pitmasters in our new book, South’s Best Butts. Wade opened Butts To Go in a Texaco after a friend invited him to go in on a local service station. So what about the barbecue? Well, with all his Southern-gentleman charm, Wade says, “The gas business got so bad that it made the food business look good.” His place serves as a quick in-and-out eatery for families and hungry road warriors to literally get their butts to go. Butts ain’t the only item highly demanded by customers of Butts to Go. The wings are equally delicious. They come on and off the smoker throughout the day just to keep up with demand. The low-and slow method ensures that the meat remains super moist and fall-off-the-bone tender, with a deliciously melded skin that is heavily seasoned with an in-house rub. Paprika, along with a good bit of salt, plays the dominant role in this fragrant, orange-hued rub, which works great with poultry. Don’t be too shy about trying it out on other food as well. This rub works great as a finishing seasoning for soft-scrambled eggs.

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Mac and Cheese Crusted Pizza

Meredith Food Studios 
Mac and Cheese Crusted Pizza Recipe

When two of the world's greatest foods combine...

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Cherry Flag Pie

Photo: Greg DuPree; Prop Styling: Heather Chadduck Hillegas; Food Styling: Torie Cox
Cherry Flag Pie Recipe

Your guests will be wowed not only by the delightful presentation, but also by the taste of this quintessential summer pie. For a great looking piecrust, brush the piecrust with a mixture of egg yolk and water to create a deep golden brown crust. You can use thawed, frozen cherries if fresh are not available.

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Oven-Fried Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans

Photo: Victor Protasio; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis; Food Styling: Tina Bell Stamos
Oven-Fried Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans Recipe

This hearty sheet pan supper is a cinch to make, even on the busiest weeknight. The secret to crisp, breaded pork chops? Dredge only one side of each pork chop in the panko mixture to keep the underside of the meat from becoming soggy.

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Perfect Grilled Burgers

Photo: Jen Causey; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey and Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
Perfect Grilled Burgers Recipe

Delightfully charred, juicy, and full of nuance, these burgers are the only ones you will ever want to make. That’s why we named them Perfect. 

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American Flag Crepe Cake

photo courtesy of real simple
American Flag Crepe Cake Recipe
The Founding Fathers intended for us to celebrate with cream cheese frosting

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Grilled New York Strip Steaks

Photo: Jen Causey; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey and Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
Grilled New York Strip Steaks Recipe

For the absolute best of a classic, everything-you-expect grilled steak experience, you simply can’t beat the New York strip steak.

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Grilled Ginger-Lime Chicken Thighs with Peaches

Sara Tane
Grilled Ginger-Lime Chicken Thighs with Peaches Recipe

Bursting with fresh flavor from minced fresh ginger and lime juice, these boneless chicken thighs are anything but a boring chicken dinner. Served alongside juicy, grilled peaches on a bed of greens with pecans and goat cheese, this hearty poultry dish makes for an easy, go-to summer supper.

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Grilled Bone-In Chicken Thighs

Photo: Jen Causey; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey and Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
Grilled Bone-In Chicken Thighs Recipe

Super-crispy skin that sheaths succulent dark meat, which has gradually developed flavor and tenderized with low and slow cooking, make these simplest of simple thighs some of the most delicious pieces of chicken you’re going to bite into this year.

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Buffalo Chicken Sliders

Photo: Johnny Miller; Styling: Sarah Smart
Buffalo Chicken Sliders Recipe

For this slider, we tuck the usual Buffalo wing accompaniments--carrots and celery--inside the patty. This gives you all the flavors of a wing plate while also helping to keep the lean breast meat moist. When shredding the celery (so that it incorporates nicely), you'll have to stop occasionally to pull and discard the strings. Be sure to search for celery bunches with nice, fresh leaves still attached.

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All-American Grilled Burger

Jennifer Causey
All-American Grilled Burger Recipe

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Whole Roasted Red Snapper with Potatoes and Onions

Photo: Jennifer Causey; Food Styling: Karen Rankin; Prop Styling: Heather Chadduck Hillegas
Whole Roasted Red Snapper with Potatoes and Onions Recipe

While cooking a whole fish definitely seems intimidating, this is the recipe to show you just how easy it really is. But don’t worry, no one has to know—because it’s gonna look ridiculously impressive when served, no matter what.

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Easy Margaritas for a Crowd

Photo: Emma Crist; Styling: Emma Crist
Easy Margaritas for a Crowd Recipe

Look no further than these large-batch margaritas when you're hosting your next big fiesta and can't spend hours juicing limes. This margarita recipe is a revelation--the secret ingredient is a can of frozen limeade concentrate which, once emptied, doubles as a measuring cup for the remaining ingredients. These margaritas are strong, slightly (but not overly) sweet, and have the perfect note of orange flavor. Oh, and did we mention there's beer involved? We prefer to serve in a large glass drink dispenser with plenty of limes on the side.

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Simple Grilled Halibut

Photo: Jen Causey; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey and Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
Simple Grilled Halibut Recipe

Though simple, this recipe provides you with the tools to grill most any flakey fish. We happen to particularly love halibut because it’s an inherently flavorful fish that requires no more than salt, pepper, and a squeeze of fresh lemon to taste absolutely divine

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Grilled Salmon with Orange-Soy Glaze

Photo: Jen Causey; Food Styling: Margaret Dickey and Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland
Grilled Salmon with Orange-Soy Glaze Recipe

While the grill is obviously the cooking method for casual, outdoor-centered meals and gatherings, don’t forget that you can still bring a touch of sit-down-dinner-type sophistication to the patio table too. This buttery, smoky, and gloriously glaze-y salmon does just that. We call for individual fillets in this recipe, but you could also opt for going with a whole side of salmon (of roughly equivalent weight) for a truly impressive presentation. 

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Korean Barbecue Spatchcock Chicken with Shishitos and Scallions

Photo: Greg DuPree; Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Styling: Kay Clark
Korean Barbecue Spatchcock Chicken with Shishitos and Scallions Recipe

This impressive and vibrant meal comes together surprisngly quick thanks to the power of the grill and the power of spatchcocking. If you've never tried it before, spatchcocking is a technique that refers to removing the bird's back bone so that you can butterfly the whole chicken open. This technique is a guaranteed route to succulent meat, ultra-crispy skin, and a much quicker cooking time. 

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Permanent Slaw

Photo: Hector Manuel Sanchez; Prop Styling: Lydia Pursell; Food Styling: Toni Brogan
Permanent Slaw Recipe

Like a cross between a vinegar-based coleslaw and chowchow, Permanent Slaw is tender and tangy. This easy salad is designed to be prepared in advance. Made with finely shredded angel hair cabbage, carrot, bell pepper, sweet onions, and a sweet and sour apple cider vinegar dressing, the longer this side dish sits, the more flavorful it becomes (hence the name). Serve the dish on its own at a cookout (it’s delicious with grilled chicken or pork) or use it to top pulled pork or chicken sandwiches.

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Red, White, and Blue Berry Cake

Photo: Jennifer Causey
Red, White, and Blue Berry Cake Recipe

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Quick Pickled Slaw

Photo: Antonis Achilleos; Prop Styling: Mindi Shapiro Levine; Food Styling: Tina Stamos
Quick Pickled Slaw Recipe

This light, healthy slaw recipe is mildly acidic and full of flavor. The veggies will soften slightly but retain their crunch that will add texture to any meal. This bright slaw is the ideal summer side to pair with kebabs, pulled pork, fried catfish, or any classic warm-weather main dishes. If you’ve never pickled anything, this easy quick pickle is a great place to start. Our Test Kitchen professionals recommend serving this salad the day you prepare it for ultimate freshness. This healthy side is a no-guilt dish you can make all summer long, and every cookout guest will rave over it.

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Bourbon-Glazed Salmon with Firecracker Slaw

Jennifer Causey
Bourbon-Glazed Salmon with Firecracker Slaw Recipe

This recipe hits all the notes of a classic barbecue dish, but with omega-3-rich fish. Use an outdoor grill or indoor grill pan.

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Grilled Wedge-Salad Slaw

Jennifer Causey
Grilled Wedge-Salad Slaw Recipe

We took the irresistible toppings from a wedge salad—namely bacon and blue cheese dressing—and added them to coleslaw. The cabbage goes onto the grill in wedges to pick up smoky char, then is chopped for the slaw.

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Spiced Chicken Tacos with Lime-Cabbage Slaw

Greg DuPree
Spiced Chicken Tacos with Lime-Cabbage Slaw Recipe

Cabbage and red onion offer plenty of prebiotic fodder for the probiotics in Greek yogurt to flourish. (This is the difference between pre- and probiotic foods.)  Use the spice rub on tofu or tempeh for a plant-based option that also boosts fiber.

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