Family cookouts are one of the best parts of summertime barbeques. Kids and parents get the chance to spend time together, often playing games or simply chatting and listening to music. With good food, catchy music and people you care about, enjoying a barbeque cookout with your family is quite easy.
However, getting the right recipes and food is just as important to many barbeque lovers. As great as having good music and activities is during a family cookout, you can’t have a barbecue without food to put on it. And while burgers, hotdogs and steaks are, too many cookouts with just those as the available options can become bland and boring quickly.
So, to provide you with fresh new options to try the next time you have a barbecue cookout with your family, we’ve collected some of the best recipes to try. Many of these recipes can be tried and served year-round, with ingredients you can easily find in your local supermarket. If you want to get a barbecue rub or sauce that isn’t available there, just visit dicksonbbq.com for all that and more!
Grilled chicken and pineapple skewers
Chicken and pineapple skewers are one of the more classic summer dishes you can fire up your grill for throughout the year. Thanks to the combination of the two foods, these skewers are both protein rich and gluten-free, making them great for all kinds of families and individuals. Paired together, barbecued chicken and the tart sweetness of the pineapple can really make a dish delicious. And, if you want to make it a complete meal, you can easily whip up a salad or add some veggies to the grill for a quick side dish.
You’ll ideally need at least two boneless chicken breasts to make it at home since you’ll be putting them onto skewers. Cut both the chicken breasts and a small pineapple one-inch cubes - or a little bigger - and marinate the chicken with salt, olive oil, vinegar, honey, and paprika. Leave the chicken to rest for six hours before threading the pineapple and chicken chunks onto your skewers. When grilling them, let the skewers sit for three to four minutes before flipping and repeating the process until it’s done and ready to serve.
BBQ Baked beans
Another great classic your family would love is BBQ baked beans. What really makes this dish great is that it can be served as a side dish or as a unique topping for burgers and hotdogs. Since beans are also a great source of protein for vegans, vegetarians or people who simply feel like having something that isn’t meat, the dish itself can get some of the same smokiness from barbecuing while still being healthy and filling.
One of the easier ways you can start to make BBQ baked beans is to use canned ones instead. While you can go ahead and make your own homemade baked beans, using tins cuts the time down by quite a bit. With two 28 ounce cans of baked beans, mix them together with cooked ground beef, onion, molasses - or a suitable substitute - barbecue sauce and cayenne pepper into a baking dish. You can also add some brown sugar to make it a bit sweeter.
Since you aren’t cooking the beans or any of the other ingredients, you can easily place the baking dish into your grill to absorb some of the smoke. Then, with a handful of your choice of wood chips, you can change the taste of the smokiness to whichever one you want. Just make sure your baking dish won’t break or burn!
Marinated Grilled Vegetables
If you’re looking for a way to get your kids to eat their veggies or just want to add some flavour to them, all you need to do is make this dish. While you can choose any types of vegetables to marinate and grill, this recipe specifically uses zucchini, mushrooms, red onions, eggplant, asparagus and bell peppers – all of which are great for barbecuing.
What makes this particular recipe great is that you don’t need much seasoning to make the marinade and you can easily adjust some of the measurements of the ingredients to your liking. All you need to do to make the marinade is to mix sugar, salt, pepper, chili flakes, minced garlic and any herbs you like into ⅓ of a cup of both olive oil and lemon juice. Then, once you’ve barbecued your veggies, add the marinade and let it soak before serving!
Honey BBQ Chicken Kabobs
Sometimes, a barbecue can use a bit of a sweeter main dish, especially if you have a lot of savoury ones too. What makes these chicken kabobs especially great is how simple or complex they can be. If you don’t have much time to prepare a super intricate dish, you can just toss honey and salt into some store bought barbecue sauce and marinate boneless chicken chunks in the sauce before grilling them on skewers. But if you really want to impress your guests, you can add some spice or even make your own BBQ sauce.
Texas pulled pork
If you want to try your hand at making Texas pulled pork right on your grill, but are worried that it’s going to be hard, the good news is that it isn’t! To make it, all you need to do is cover a six-pound pork shoulder with mustard and let it sit before making a rub out of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Sprinkle the homemade rub over the meat and pat it on both sides before placing it onto your grill’s grate. Let it cook for two hours on low or until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Take the pork shoulder out and cover it with foil before putting it back into the hot grill. Let it cook again until the internal temperature reaches between 195 to 205 degrees. Take it out and let the meat rest for a minimum of an hour before shredding.