Grilling Recipes You Can Pull Off on a Weeknight

Weeknight grilling is absolutely possible—with the right recipe. These dinners maximize your time outside with quick-cooking proteins, high-impact spice blends and sauces, and clever techniques (hint: lemon slices are the ultimate multitasker). Try our thin-cut chicken breasts with a spicy ranch marinade that eliminates the risk of dreaded dry white meat. Show off gorgeous summer tomatoes with Pasta Pomodoro a la Plancha, a vegetarian showstopper that picks up serious depth over the flames without adding hours to the cook time. Rethink stuffed peppers with a smoky kebab-inspired seasoning. Or meet your new favorite sauce for fish with our zesty dill chimichurri grilled salmon (and find out what those lemons can do). Grilling weather doesn’t last forever, so get outside and enjoy a Tuesday night, or any-night, cookout.

Grilled Kofta-Stuffed Peppers

Find our staff-favorite baharat, sometimes called kebab or köfte blend, at Burlap & Barrel (their blend includes smoky sweet black Urfa pepper). Or try this four-spice cheat for a similarly warm and heady blend: 1¼ tsp. ground cumin, 1 tsp. ground coriander, ½ tsp. smoked paprika, and ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon.

Spicy Ranch Chicken

A mayo-yogurt marinade is the secret to chicken breasts that don’t dry out over the flames. The lactic acid from the yogurt tenderizes the meat while the fatty mayo insulates it, making for a particularly juicy result. Hot-off-the-grill slices are especially good with a green salad and thick rounds of salted tomatoes.

Grilled Salmon With Dill Chimichurri

How do you get gorgeous grill marks without having to scrape fish off the grill? Avoid the skin touching the grates altogether. Start with a quick sear, skin side up, then turn the fillets onto lemon slices. Like a cedar plank, they provide protection and flavor. Plus you can eat them!

Pasta Pomodoro a la Plancha

Stirring cubes of butter into the hot pasta and charred tomatoes instantly thickens the sauce and helps it cling to each noodle. And the sugar? It’s essential for balance. A touch of sweetness tempers the acidic, bitter edges of the smoke (and tomatoes) without muting the umami.