The Kitchen's Easy Side Dish Recipes for a Summer Cookout

The secret to making this bright, colorful salad in a hurry is starting with store-bought rotisserie chicken. Jeff Mauro tosses it with pasta and adds a sweet-smoky dressing for crowd-pleasing results.

Put those pantry staples to good use combining your favorite canned vegetables to create a quick-fix salad.

This quick and easy dip gets smoky flavors with a hint of spice from the chipotle peppers in adobo.

Sweet summertime fruit is the star of this colorful salad.

Say goodbye to the boring steamed cauliflower you've always known. Here the vegetable is coated in a deeply smoky rub and BBQ sauce, and then cooked whole on the grill. To serve, cut it up and present with a creamy ranch sauce.

If you can’t find doenjang, which is a Korean-style soybean paste, white miso will work well. You’re looking for something to add a bold umami flavor.

Not just for breakfast anymore, the combo of bacon and eggs stars in this top-rated potato salad. The secret ingredient is a blob of whole-grain mustard, which adds a tangy bite to the creamy dressing.

The key here is to let the cabbage to marinate for a few hours before serving so the flavors have a chance to marry.

The sweet and spicy flavors of this salad come from a honey-hot sauce vinaigrette that’s tossed with arugula and berries. For an extra sweet crunch, Kardea includes caramelized pecans!

This spicy side dish can be made in only 15 minutes! Keep it in mind for a quick-fix app too.

Dress up a classic Panzanella salad by using Naan bread — an Indian-style flatbread — instead of the usual rustic Italian loaf! Maneet tosses hers with a lemony yogurt and an herby chutney for a burst of tang.

Katie mixes classic Greek salad ingredients like tomatoes, cucumber and feta to bring new life to the usual pasta salad. Hers is a heartier dish because there are chunks of juicy chicken.

If you’ve never had bulgur before, it’s a whole grain that looks and tastes pretty similar to couscous. Here it’s tossed with seasonal cherries and feta for a tangy bite.

You can’t go wrong with Jeff’s four-ingredient buttery potatoes.

Similar to pasta in both shape and texture, pearl couscous forms the base of this fuss-free side dish, studded with tender zucchini and creamy goat cheese.

The sweet canned peaches and the spicy jalapeno pepper are baked right into Sunny’s Peachy Jalapeno Cornbread. Glazed with a combination of butter and fresh lime juice, this easy side dish can be made in under an hour.

Katie upgrades the usual baked beans by adding a sweet-smoky combo of peach preserves and crispy bacon to her cookout-ready side dish.

Slaw is a summer staple, and Sunny gives the classic recipe a new twist with a sweet and spicy topping.

Check out this "hot" new twist on summer fruit salad: A simple, crowd-pleasing food craft turns the average fruit salad bowl into a super cool watermelon grill.

Jeff Mauro’s pesto potatoes are topped with crunchy crushed chips for that second dose of spuds — and a welcome bit of textural contrast.

Classic potato fries are great — obviously! — but try switching things up with these crispy carrots. They’re dusted with fresh mint and orange zest before serving.

Warm side dishes are less typical at outdoor cookouts, but corn is a staple. Step up your corn game and surprise your party with this easy bacon creamed corn (without cream). Cooking pureed fresh corn juice on the stove for about five minutes forms a thick pudding that substitutes for heavy cream.

Marcela likes to grill her coleslaw fixings before tossing them with the dressing so they take on a subtle char and smoky flavor.

Panzanella was made for the summer. Sunny’s version packs a little heat with pickled jalapeno slices added to a quick vinaigrette that is poured over baguette cutes, baby spinach, black olives and heirloom tomatoes.

This fresh, light and colorful Orzo Salad makes for the perfect summer side dish that can be brought along to cookouts and picnics without the worry of it getting ruined in the heat.

You can never go wrong with watermelon and feta. For a simple salad, add the combo to a bed of baby spinach and top with the crunch of chopped toasted pistachios.