30 Recipes to Make in June

Although his breading technique at Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack in Asheville, North Carolina is top secret, chef Rich Cundiff was kind enough to create this special riff on his coconut shrimp exclusively for us. A drizzle of syrupy honey glaze, infused with black pepper and lemon, adds a tart-sweet bite.

Finnan haddie, or cold-smoked cured haddock, gives this brothy chowder a deep, clean, smoky foundation that highlights sweet clams without overwhelming them. Using a mixture of lightly mashed potatoes and half-and-half to thicken and enrich the soup gives it a silky, but not heavy, texture.

This vegetarian masterpiece of a flatbread is topped with a mix of vegetables — such as zucchini, red onion, and baby bell peppers — as well as a homemade Smoked Almond Muhammara and a generous sprinkle of fresh herbs. It'll turn heads at your next cookout, and, as a bonus, also has helpful make-ahead options and smart shortcuts. You can make the Smoked Almond Muhammara up to three days in advance and stash it in the fridge; if you'd like, skip grilling the bell peppers for the muhammara and substitute in two cups of jarred roasted peppers instead, plus about 1/4 cup of liquid from the jar. You can also cut the flatbread in half if you're working with a small grill, or use lavash instead.

These next-level BLTs combine tender, sweet lobster meat with smoky, salty bacon; juicy tomatoes; and pillowy potato buns, lightly toasted in bacon drippings. In the mood for wine? Pair the sandwiches with a tangy Loire Valley white.

This sweet, spicy, and punchy upgrade to classic slabs of salted watermelon is the palate-pleasing appetizer your cookout guests deserve. Fresh coconut water is much sweeter and has a greater depth of flavor than bottled versions, so crack open a coconut if you can. If using store-bought coconut water, select a brand with no additives for the best-tasting crudo. Reserve the strained spicy marinade to use as a fruity base for a tequila cocktail.

"Nowadays, when I serve plums and nectarines, like in my Stone Fruit Salad with Collard-Peanut Pesto, I'm transported to parties where we dapped, hugged, boogied, and kissed under the moonlight," says writer Nicole A. Taylor, of her Juneteenth celebrations. In this savory fruit salad, roasted peanuts, collard greens, and Parmesan yield a hearty pesto that's the perfect partner for honey-dressed wedges of plums and nectarines. Fonio, a West African grain similar in texture to couscous, soaks up the pesto, flavoring each bite of this salad.

2020 F&W Best New Chef Donny Sirisavath shared this recipe, which is a nod to his Laotian heritage and Texas upbringing, when his parents grilled brisket over hardwood coals for family gatherings. Here, thick and meaty tri-tip steaks get seared on the hot zone of the grill and then slowly smoke-grilled until medium-rare. Let them rest, and then thinly slice them against the grain and serve with Sirisavath's Jeow Som, a fiery, fish sauce–flavored dipping sauce. A quick soak in beer tenderizes thick tri-tip steaks, and a marinade of garlic, lemongrass, cilantro, and fish sauce builds big flavor. Sirisavath loves using oak or mesquite wood here, placed at the center of the grill, alongside the lit coals, where they smolder and add a rich aroma.

Maydān, Rose Previte's Washington, D.C. restaurant and wood-fired homage to Lebanon, is justly famous for its massive hearth, where this whole marinated cauliflower is cooked. While the Maydan chefs truss and hang the cauliflower heads over the fire to slowly cook them, we've adapted the recipe to grill-roast them over indirect heat with an oak or hickory log at the center of the grill, alongside lit coals (which imbues the dish with smoky flavor and a rich color) before lightly charring the cauliflower over the coals to finish. Simply put, this is one of the most delicious dishes we've ever grilled at home. 

Scholar Regina Bradley (nicknamed Gina Mae as a child) added a few special touches to her husband's baked beans recipe to make it her own. "A cookout's DNA is found in the sides and who made them. This task is not for the faint of heart or the thin-skinned," wrote Bradley, in an essay on the hierarchy of the cookout  for Food & Wine. "If your beans taste burnt or your potato salad has raisins or olives, we talking bad about you 'til your grandchildren hear about it." For this summer-perfect side, Bradley dresses up store-bought barbecue sauce with extra brown sugar; apple cider vinegar balances the smoky sweetness.

Smoky, charred Broccolini and chickpeas give this take on Caesar salad the heft it needs to be a main course. Texture is the secret to a salad's wow factor. Here, Little Gem lettuces, hearty kale, and crisp-tender Broccolini bring three levels of crunch, and provide plenty of leafy nooks and crannies to catch the thick, anchovy-laced dressing.

Pastry chef Sasha Piligian channels summer vibes to create her showstopping baked goods, like this epic layer cake. She starts with two flavor-packed components — a tart-sweet Meyer lemon curd for the filling, and a coriander-spiced blueberry jam to flavor and tint her fluffy Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. The addition of beaten egg whites to the batter keeps the lemon chiffon cake layers light and airy, and, for a final flourish, Piligian embellishes the frosted cake with edible flower petals, mint leaves, pools of glistening jam, fresh berries, and sliced citrus.

A vinaigrette bolstered with chopped olives, toasted walnuts, and fresh parsley is a bold finishing touch for roasted salmon basted with smoked paprika and lemon. The combination of basting and slow roasting yields incredibly tender salmon; the walnut-olive vinaigrette adds a briny, buttery crunch.

Marc Farrell of Ten to One Rum, who wants to introduce the Caribbean's history, heritage, and culture into people's understanding of rum, shared the recipe for this rich and layered riff on the Manhattan, which shows off the smooth caramel and butterscotch flavors from dark rum. Pairing rum with the soft herbal notes of Averna Amaro Siciliano, which is sweeter than typical amaro, a few dashes of bitters, and a sweet Maraschino cherry, gently mellows the alcohol, making this simple stirred cocktail balanced, not bracing.

In this flavor-packed chicken, Juan Pablo Loza, director of culinary operations at Rosewood Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, shares his obsession for the al pastor style of cooking. This dish takes its inspiration from a traditional way of roasting chicken in Michoacán, where butterflied whole chickens are marinated with citrus, and speared with thick wooden stakes hammered into the ground. Splayed open, the chickens slowly cook vertically over a bed of coals, resulting in juicy meat and bronzed skin. Here, the cooking style is adapted to a horizontal grill basket set over two stacks of bricks on the grate, positioning the chicken up and away from the hot coals. An oak or mesquite log set alongside lit coals at the center of the grill perfumes the bird with smoke.

Wood can be as essential and impactful an ingredient as fat or salt. As it burns, wood releases chemical compounds that deliver delicious flavors and aromas to food. In this dish, inspired by the cooking of Swedish mushroom forager and chef Elle Nikishkova, applewood and juniper add layers of flavor to oyster and chanterelle mushrooms and rich crème fraîche. Seasoning the oyster and chanterelle mushrooms with salt and pepper and letting them rest for a long stint in the refrigerator before cooking draws out moisture, helping them caramelize quickly on the grill while staying meaty and tender. When you're ready to smoke the mushrooms, place an applewood log alongside coals or place wood chunks directly on coals. For the crème fraîche, place a juniper branch or juniper berries directly onto the coals.

"When hibiscus is steeped in water, it creates a red drink, an essential menu item of Juneteenth," says Nicole A. Taylor, sharing the Juneteenth memories that inspired her to create this Hibiscus Snow Cone. In this playful icy dessert, Taylor riffs on tradition, using dried hibiscus blossoms to make a sweet, tangy syrup for a celebratory snow cone. Whipped cream and crushed pink peppercorns add a final flourish. To make snow cones at home, you'll want to grab a home ice-shaving machine, like the Little Snowie Max, which pulverizes cubed ice to a fine powder.

Smoky, melty "pimentón" cheese, crispy jamón serrano, and a savory-sweet aioli top beef patties in this towering tapas-inspired burger from Urdaneta, a popular tapas spot in Portland, OR. Kalimotxo, a Spanish red wine and cola cocktail, is the inspiration for the marvelously mauve aioli.

Mildly spicy poblano liqueur and tangy passion fruit liqueur add delicious complexity to this white rum–spiked Aperol spritz from Ten to One distillery CEO/founder Marc Farrell. Boozy heat from white rum gives a pleasant bite to a bubbly summer staple. Choose your fizz: Use sparkling water to let the spirits and liqueurs shine through, or use a splash of sparkling wine to tame the tart piquancy of the drink for a mellower sip.

This recipe is 100% vegan, but you would never know it from the richness, like frozen ganache, with a bit of smoky tang from the chipotles. Nondairy ice cream is typically made with alternative milks or nondairy yogurt to achieve the creaminess of regular ice cream. Chef and ice cream maker Fany Gerson opts for a combination of both, calling for unsweetened oat milk or rice milk as well as coconut yogurt. "I don't love chocolate ice cream, but it's my husband's favorite, though he would never order a sorbet," she says. "So the challenge here was to make a chocolaty vegan ice cream that isn't a sorbet, has the creaminess of ice cream, and would appeal to both of us. The finished product is as creamy as it gets for being made without dairy, and the flavor combination of chocolate and chipotle, which is smoky and a bit hot, adds personality."

The perfect tanghulu is a skewer of ripe fruit covered evenly in a thin, clear sugar shell. This simple recipe for the Chinese street snack relies on a precise ratio of sugar, water, and corn syrup that produces a crisp, even, candy shell. Be sure to thoroughly dry fruit prior to dipping it in the syrup. To add a sweet chew or nutty crunch to these treats, stuff the fruits with red bean paste or walnuts prior to skewering and dunking.

"One of our first — and favorite — Horn side dishes is our potato salad," says 2021 F&W Best New Chef Matt Horn, of his wife Nina's popular recipe. "This is our take on the classic recipe that goes perfectly with barbecue!" This crowd-pleasing side is neither too rich nor too light, hitting the perfect balance of tart and creamy to perfectly complement a smoked brisket.

The crispy, caramelized "burnt" pieces of a smoked brisket are often the best part because the flavor is concentrated and the texture is pleasingly chewy. This recipe creates an entire baking tray of crispy pieces, so there are plenty to go around. Chef Matt Horn likes to serve these with slices of white bread, and he shared his step-by-step process for making Burnt Ends with us, from seasoning the brisket to caramelizing the sauce on the cubed meat.

This sweet, tart, and creamy confection is a beautiful homage to strawberries and cream. It's a French-style ice cream, adding egg yolks to cream and milk to form a custard base, giving rise to a thick, silky ice cream. According to Fany Gerson, the key to French-style ice cream is making a base so good you could eat it without freezing it. In this recipe, Gerson wanted to celebrate the flavors she grew up eating in Mexico City. "My mom would take strawberries and put a little Mexican crema and sugar on top, and that became dessert," she recalls. "For this ice cream, roasting the strawberries gives a new dimension to the fruit."

Sweet, mild, grilled mahi-mahi harmonizes with an aïoli featuring lemongrass and lime. The creamy aïoli comes together in seconds using an immersion blender, resulting in a silky texture that's less likely to break and adding richness and zest to a classic summer meal.

Twice-cooked eggplant provides the creamy base to this luscious, smoky condiment from Mini Kabob restaurant in Los Angeles. Seasoned with piquant hot pepper paste, fresh cilantro, and onion, it's delicious with lavash or as a dip for the restaurant's popular Mini Kabob Potatoes.

A symphony of herbs — in the form of za'atar — and little bits of toasted pine nuts add bright flavor and texture to ground lamb patties that accompany a fresh summer salad.

The ground beef lule kebab recipe at Mini Kabob is a Martirosyan family secret, but the chef-owners were willing to share their equally delicious chicken version. Freshly grinding chicken thighs with lamb fat gives these kebabs a rich, savory flavor and juicy, tender texture.

This soba salad offers bracing heat that's most welcome on a hot day when the coldest beers are at hand. Tender buckwheat noodles and crispy strands of zucchini soak up a pleasantly piquant dressing laced with both gochugaru and gochujang for a double hit of spicy Korean peppers, mellowed by a touch of brown sugar. Perfect served chilled or at room temperature, it's an easy make-ahead dish for summer entertaining.

Hot coals impart a smoky flavor and mellow the jalapeños, while tomatoes soften to juicy sweetness. A wide, flat skewer is the key to preventing the tomatoes and jalapeños from rolling when rotating on the grill. See How to Make Kebabs on the Grill to follow the Martirosyan family's detailed step-by-step instructions for making charred jalapeños and tomatoes and other kebabs. This recipe is for one skewer — just enough to provide a side of grilled vegetables as part of a larger meal — but it can easily be multiplied to make more.

In this swoon-inducing dessert, the classic tropical flavors of a piña colada cocktail are transformed into Piña Colada Pie featuring layers of silky coconut custard and a caramelized pineapple jam made by simmering fresh pineapple with brown sugar. Adding rum to the hot pineapple mixture burns off the harsher taste of the alcohol while leaving a pleasant kick. Spread across a buttery shortbread crust, the jam is ultimately layered with a double-coconut custard and piled high with a cloud of coconut cream whipped topping. Served ice-cold, this make-ahead pie is destined for your next summer gathering.