53 Easy Summer Dinners, Side Dishes and Desserts for Potlucks

Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day celebrations are about easy summer dinners, fun and the people you are blessed to spend time with. Celebrating shouldn’t involve wasting away in the kitchen while everyone else enjoys the festivities. Celebrate summer with these deliciously easy recipes and make this a summer to remember!

Whether you are hosting a crowd at your house or taking something to a potluck, choose easy summer dinner recipes you can make ahead or toss together quickly. Then they will cook away on their own without lots of attention from you.

Try this great collection of Memorial weekend recipes, and then go celebrate! Have a great weekend!

1. Slow Cooker BBQ Country Style Ribs

Tender, smoky, succulent and beautifully caramelized Country Style Ribs are easy to make, and you don’t even need a grill!

Tender, smoky, succulent and beautifully caramelized Country Style Ribs are easy to make, and you don’t even need a grill! These mouthwatering ribs only require five ingredients, 10 minutes of prep time and your slow cooker does the rest. Fabulous celebration recipe or when you’ need an’re planning the week’s easy summer dinners!

Get the Easy Slow Cooker Recipe: BBQ Country Style Ribs

2. Loaded Baked Potato Salad
3. Classic Potato Salad
4. Easy Delicious Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
5. Bell Pepper Salad, Easy Delicious and Crunchy

6. 10-Minute Taco Dip: Quick and Easy Recipe

Yes, It’s a dip. But it’s also one of the most delicious quick, and easy meals you will enjoy serving. On its own, it has protein, dairy and vegetables, plus grain in the chips you serve it with. You can amp up the protein if you want by adding a layer of leftover chicken, roast beef or taco meat. Use the taco toppings and veggies your family loves best. Delish!

Get the Quick and Easy Recipe: Taco Dip.

7. Asian Cucumber Salad
8. Creamy Coleslaw with Homemade Coleslaw Dressing
9. Mandarin Orange Salad | Easy 5-Ingredient Orange Jello Salad
10. Shirazi Salad (Easy Persian Cucumber Salad)

11. Best Homemade Sloppy Joes Recipe

A Sloppy Joe Recipe packed with knock-your-socks-off flavor! It’s quick and easy, but it also tastes amazing! It has a subtle sweetness from caramelly dark brown sugar and savory goodness from the beef, onion and all-purpose seasoning. Then, just as you’re thinking how delicious it is, you get that little kick of heat on the back of your tongue. Boom! Seriously, guys, these are THE best sloppy joes and will take easy summer dinners over-the-top!

Get the Quick and Easy Recipe: Sloppy Joes.

12. Perfect Pulled Pork: 2 Ingredient Easy
13. Slow Cooker Kalua Pork, Succulent and Smoky Hawaiian Favorite
14. Mexican Shredded Beef, Slow Cooker Simple
15. Slow Cooker Chicken Breasts, the Juicy Secret

16. 10-Minute Pimento Cheese Recipe

My scrumptous pimento cheese recipe is lusciously creamy and tangy with a bold Cheddar cheese flavor. It’s spiked with a touch of citrusy sumac and a mild kick of chipotle to wake up and excite your tastebuds! Slather it on crackers or toasted baguette slices. Stuff it in celery or cherry tomatoes. We love it with all types of fresh veggie crudites. My pimento cheese recipe is also a spectacular burger topping, and it will take your hotdogs next-level!

Get the Quick and Easy Recipe: 10-Minute Pimento Cheese.

17. Creamy Hummus Recipe with Roasted Garlic
18. Easy Homemade Taco Chips
19. Jalapeno Popper Dip Recipe
20. Creamy Southwest Salad Dressing, Sauce & Dip

18. Strawberry Cottage Cheese Salad Recipe

This creamy strawberry cottage cheese salad is a favorite throwback to the early 80s. It’s a cool and refreshing salad that both kids and adults enjoy. Strawberry Cottage Cheese Salad is only 4 ingredients and is gluten-free. It’s a perfect sweet relief for heavy, savory meals. We’ve served it with every kind of protein, with casseroles, and even with pancakes! It’s great at a barbecue with burgers and hotdogs or on the salad table at a summer potluck or family reunion.

Get the Quick & Easy Recipe: Strawberry Cottage Cheese Salad

19. Slow Cooker Creamed Corn
20. Best Baked Bean Casserole (Baked Beans with Hamburger)
21. Slow Cooker Chicken Breasts, the Juicy Secret
22. Italian Meatballs: Scrumptious, Savory and Oh So Easy

23. Charcuterie Cups

Charcuterie cups are the perfect appetizer solution for any gathering or get-together. I love them for easy summer dinners. They’re as simple or as elaborate as I choose and can be customized to every occasion. Charcuterie cups are gorgeously colorful, individualized servings of munchies. Individual charcuterie cups can be made ahead, and the potential for myriad theme, flavor and color variations makes them as exciting to look at as to eat. And charcuterie cups are so simple to assemble.

Get the Quick and Easy Recipe: Charcuterie Cups

24. Walking Taco Casserole Recipe (Frito Pie)
25. Beef Enchilada Casserole Recipe, 5-Ingredient Simple
26. Pulled Pork Tacos (Slow Cooker Pulled Pork for Tacos Recipe)
27. Delicious Broccoli Ramen Coleslaw

28. Easy and Delicious Pineapple Salsa

Pineapple Salsa is simple to make. It’s tangy and bright. The juicy pineapple and flavorful veggies lift all your favorite meals. The salsa recipe is only mildly spicy, making it a kid-friendly dish that adults love, too!

Get the Quick and Easy Recipe: Pineapple Salsa

29. House Salad Recipe, a Quick and Easy Favorite
30. Mediterranean Cucumber Tomato Salad
31. Bean Salad | Simple and Delicious
32. Homemade Avocado Ranch Dressing, Easy & Delicious

33. Slow Cooker Pineapple Chicken

Slow Cooker Pineapple Chicken is a party in your mouth! It’s a tantalizing mix of savory and sweet with a mildly spicy kick. It’s fantastic served as the main dish centerpiece on any celebration table! We love it served as a chicken rice bowl with Pineapple Salsa. It’s also fantastic shredded into chicken salad, Cobb salad and chicken street tacos. It’s gluten-free and slow cooker simple. Your new favorite chicken recipe!

Get the Easy Slow Cooker Recipe: Pineapple Chicken

34. Easy Crock Pot Cube Steak: Slow Cooker Savory and Comforting
35. Mississippi Pot Roast Recipe: Tender, Juicy and Flavor-Packed
36. Easy Maple Mustard Slow Cooker Pork Loin
37. Best Crock Pot Ham Recipe, 3-Ingredient Simple

38. Slow Cooker Southwest Chicken

Toss six ingredients into the crockpot and let the appliance work its magic! Southwest Chicken is savory, tangy, spicy, deliciousness! You’ll love this juicy, melt-in-your-mouth tender chicken! It’s also gluten-free. Add Southwest Chicken to Chicken Street Tacos, chicken tacos, Buffalo Ranch Chicken Melts, burritos, quesadillas, chimichangas, taco salads, vegetable salads, casseroles, pasta salads, spicy chicken salad sandwiches and pizza.

Get the Easy Slow Cooker Recipe: Southwest Chicken

39. Buffalo Ranch Chicken Melts
40. Chicken Street Tacos
41. Delicious Cuban Sliders, Mini Cuban Sandwiches
42. Ham and Cheese Sliders: One Pan of Easy Savory & Cheesy Handheld Deliciousness

43. Homemade Beef Summer Sausage

My Homemade Beef Summer Sausage recipe is EASY to make and so much more delicious than anything you’ll buy at the store. Summer parties, Memorial weekend, backyard barbecues and bonfire snacking are all just a few of the perfect times to whip up this easy summer sausage recipe. Pair it with cheese, crackers, toasty bread, pickles, olives, fresh fruit, and veggies for a spectacular movie night snack board. It’s perfect for tailgating, charcuterie boards, holiday buffet tables and gift baskets. You can’t go wrong with this delicious, savory, salty snack, no matter when you serve it.

Get the Easy Make-Ahead Recipe: Homemade Beef Summer Sausage

44. Magic Cookie Bars: Ooey, Gooey Chocolate Perfection in Under 30 Minutes
45. Meatballs in Brown Gravy: Savory Delicious Orbs of Comfort
46. Sweet and Sour Meatballs
47. Best Easy Chili Recipe | 6 Ingredients, 30 Minutes

48. World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies satisfy every indulgently gooey, chocolatey cookie craving! Classic chocolate chip cookie goodness in a small batch perfect dozen! Double or triple the recipe to feed a crowd. My chocolate chip cookies have deeply caramelized brown sugar crisp edges and soft, chewy centers studded with gooey, melty chunks of chocolate. Cookie nirvana, my friend. You’re gonna love them!

Get the Quick and Easy Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

49. Easy Chocolate Butter Cake: Just Like Grandma Made
50. Homemade Apple Pie Recipe: a Make-Ahead American Classic
51. Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies
52. Best Easy S’mores Cookies Recipe, No Campfire Required

53. Easy Delicious Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

The easiest, creamiest, most decadently delicious and perfect cheesecake recipe you will ever make or eat! Hands down! Cream cheese never tasted so good! You’ve never tasted a cheesecake crust as scrumptious as this chewy cookie-style one. You won’t believe the secret ingredient to make it! A simple, luscious, baked cheesecake that requires no water bath and can be baked in a 9×13 pan or in a 10″ springform. You’ll never want any other cheesecake recipe!

Get the Easy Make-Ahead Recipe: Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

I hope you refer back to this post often when planning easy summer dinners and potluck menus. Whether you’re hosting or just need a dish to take to the party, you’ll find an easy summer dinner recipe that’s just what you need.