Summer Done Simply: Sheet

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Marinate your chicken thighs in pickled jalapeño brine, then toss the peppers with fresh summer corn and lime for a dinner that’s spicy, sweet, salty and sour.

By Emily Weinstein

It’s cruel that the best time of year to bake is also when you’re least likely to want to turn on the oven, and yet every summer I heat up the kitchen baking cherry pie and blueberry crisp. Desserts made with peak fruit are irresistible, and I mean that literally: I can’t resist them. I know we’re here to talk dinner, but if you have some spare time in low-key August, then you might want to know about these: peach cobbler, blueberry pie and lemon-blackberry shortcakes.

If you’re still not turning on the oven, I get it. I recently went on the radio at WNYC to talk about our no-cook recipes. Eric Kim’s cold noodles with tomatoes, which follow, come close to no-heat cooking; you just have to boil the noodles. Tell me what you’re making at [email protected]. I love to hear from you.

Melissa Clark’s new chicken recipe will work anytime, but it’s most ethereal made with fresh summer corn. You marinate the chicken in the brine from a jar of pickled jalapeños, and add the peppers to the corn. I’ll probably cook two jalapeño-less thighs and corn for my kids alongside everything else.

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This simple recipe, which has roots in Yucatán, Mexico, comes from Christian Reynoso, who uses a puckery combination of orange, grapefruit and lime juices to marinate pork, along with a heap of garlic. The pork only needs a few minutes on a hot grill, then you can serve it with tortillas, rice and beans.

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The icy slurp of chilled noodles is the ideal antidote to hot August weather. Eric Kim’s recipe is inspired by a few different cold Korean soups, and by gazpacho, too — another tomatoey answer to the question of what to eat in the heat.

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This recipe from Ali Slagle is a good gateway dish for anyone intimidated by cooking a whole fish, though it also gives you the choice of using fillets. You can use dried herbs instead of fresh, or skip the herbs altogether. Roast some string beans alongside it.

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Peanut sauce and vegetables are an excellent match. This recipe from Genevieve Ko couldn’t be easier to make, and all it takes is a pot of rice to turn it into dinner. Double the recipe to serve four people if it’s your main course.

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Thanks for reading and cooking. If you like the work we do at New York Times Cooking, please subscribe! (Or give a subscription as a gift!) You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, or follow me on Instagram. I’m [email protected], and previous newsletters are archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at [email protected] if you have any questions about your account.

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Emily Weinstein is the Food and Cooking editor of The New York Times. She also writes the popular NYT Cooking newsletter Five Weeknight Dishes. More about Emily Weinstein

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