17 Best Meals To Make When It's Too Hot To Cook

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The summer heat can make cooking a chore in any home, but if you're one of the roughly 39 million people in the United States going without air conditioning — willingly or otherwise — adding even one degree to the already-sweltering kitchen can be downright nightmarish. Still, we all have to eat, even when already roasting alive, and cold cereal can only be satisfying for so long.

But you don't have to settle for a frozen dinner from the microwave or spend your evening hovering over the hot coals of a grill. These 17 recipes prove that there are plenty of ways to have a hearty meal without turning your kitchen into a convection oven. Some use precooked or no-cook ingredients, while others can be tweaked by using small appliances like a slow cooker, rice cooker, air fryer, or electric skillet to keep the ambient temperature down. And if you absolutely must turn on the stove or the oven, some forethought can help you avoid it when the heat is most oppressive.

Cold cuts are practically synonymous with summer afternoons, from end-of-year field trip box lunches to flattened zip-top bags of sandwiches in a poolside cooler. But once you try this viral sandwich recipe, you may never look at turkey and cheese the same way again.

Smear Dijon mustard on wheat bread, layer it up with lettuce, red onion, dill pickles, sliced gouda, turkey breast, and creamy avocado, top it with another slice of bread, and, if you're feeling fancy, skewer the whole thing with a toothpick. It requires no heat at all. In fact, it just barely requires a knife. That's manageable even on the hottest, busiest summer days. No wonder social media was buzzing about this sandwich. 

Recipe: DIY Viral Sprouts Sandwich

Tacos are tasty any time, but they're extra satisfying in the summer, and this recipe takes nearly all the active prep out of the process. Start by marinating a beef chuck roast with quartered onions and peeled garlic in orange and lime juice and red wine vinegar. Cook the roast in a slow-cooker with bay leaves and thyme for four hours on high, then shred it. 

To stay cool, though, you'll have to adjust how you make the sauce. Instead of simmering chiles, tomatoes, onion, and garlic in water, keep things simple by tossing it all into the slow cooker from the start. Then, when you pull the beef out to shred it, you can use an immersion blender to smooth out the sauce, or scoop out the solids and process them in a regular blender before returning them to the slow cooker. Either way, make sure to pull the bay leaves out of the pot before you blend. Garnish with diced onion, cilantro, and thinly sliced radishes, and you've got a feast fit for a fiesta. 

Recipe: Slow Cooker Barbacoa Tacos

Though few people would ever describe lettuce as "craveable," the fresh crunch of a salad is more refreshing than ever on a hot summer day. Loaded with water-rich veggies like cucumber, tomatoes, and shredded romaine, this sandwich-in-a-bowl is perfect for those days when all the water in the world doesn't feel like enough.

Start by chopping up your favorite Italian cold-cuts with sliced provolone. Prosciutto, capicola ham, and Genoa salami work well, but you can experiment with whatever's available to you. Mix up a mayo-based dressing with acids like red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard, then toss it all together with croutons.

The recipe calls for toasting homemade croutons in a preheated oven – the last thing you want to do during the hottest part of the day – so go with your favorite store-bought croutons instead or, if you can't bear the thought of that, toast your own the night before so the heat can dissipate overnight. 

Recipe: Italian Deli Grinder Salad

Long days in the sun and on the water can work up the kind of appetite that can only be filled by a hearty, nourishing meal, and this recipe fits the bill. Plus, it uses precooked and canned ingredients to get you there with as little active cooking time as possible. As the name suggests, all the cooking happens in one pot, so you can use an electric skillet to avoid heating up your kitchen, or even a slow-cooker, if yours has a browning function, like this one from Hamilton Beach. 

Start by sweating onion, bell pepper, and celery in oil in the skillet, then add sliced Andouille sausage to brown. Add washed rice and toast it lightly, then pour in chicken broth and red beans, cover, and simmer. Just 15 minutes later — which you can spend standing in front of a fan rather than over a pan — you'll have a warm, satisfying meal to replenish all the energy you burned during the day. Garnish with green onions, parsley, and pickled jalapeños for a little extra heat that may potentially help cool you down. 

 Recipe: One-Pot Red Beans And Rice

On a hot day, classic chicken salad is as satisfying as it is nostalgic. It calls to mind family potlucks and lunch at grandma's kitchen table, but this recipe adds a refreshing twist to this old-school summer staple with chopped fennel fronds, fennel bulb, and tarragon leaves. And you can make it up to four days in advance, so it's ready to dish out when you don't even want to turn on an appliance.

It uses precooked rotisserie chicken to cut the cooking down to almost nothing, and you can save even more time and effort by getting it pre-shredded. The recipe does call for toasting walnuts in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, which we're trying to avoid, but there are ways around that. You could skip toasting altogether, and the salad would still taste great, but you would lose the intensity of the walnut flavor. Or, you can toss them in your air fryer for a couple of minutes at the same temperature, shaking them halfway through. It will still emit a little heat, but not nearly as much as warming up an entire oven. 

Recipe: Triple Anise Chicken Salad

Don't let the recipe's name fool you — this dish is just as good at the peak of summer as it is in spring. It has the tropical vibes of a luau, without standing over a smoking pit fire all day. All it takes is a few minutes of prep followed by a few hours in the slow-cooker. And since it starts with a fully-cooked ham, that cooking time is all about loading the ham up with as much flavor as possible.

Score the ham, smear it with a glaze made from Kahlúa, apricot preserves, mustard, and spices, toss it in the slow-cooker with whole carrots, pearl onions, and sliced leeks, and cook it on low. After an hour, add a splash of white wine, and an hour after that, give the ham another glaze. Cook it for a few more hours — or as long as you can stand to wait — and it's good to go. And it makes great leftovers, so you can save yourself the effort of cooking another day this week, too. 

Recipe: Slow Cooker Easter Ham With Apricot And Kahlúa

This recipe takes a classic lox bagel and turns it into a fresh, satisfying entree with very little effort and (almost) no heat at all. It starts with a seasoned cream cheese spread, bursting with chives, dill, and lemon zest, slathered over two slices of thick, bakery bread. Next, layer thinly sliced cucumber, smoked salmon, creamy avocado, red onion, tomato, and arugula on one slice. Sprinkle briny capers on the other slice before sandwiching the two together and slicing the whole thing in half.

It's the kind of sandwich you'd find at a New York deli, loaded with complex contrasts in flavor and texture, and nearly every single ingredient comes straight from the fridge or counter. The only heat you'll need, if any, is from a toaster, and with a firm, chewy bread, you could even skip toasting altogether. Add a tangy glass of watermelon lemonade, and you've got a refreshing summer brunch with no sweat at all.

Recipe: Smoked Salmon Sandwich

There are few things worse than hovering over a steaming pot in the middle of a heat wave, but doing the dishes afterward is definitely one of them. That's what makes one-pot recipes like this one great. It cooks up quickly, can be made in an electric skillet, and it's just one easy-to-clean pan to wash at the end of the night.

Simply sauté some chopped onion, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, bell peppers, and carrots, and let them soften for about eight minutes. Stir in curry paste — red if you like a little heat, yellow if you don't – then add leafy greens, coconut milk, coconut sugar, and soy sauce, and let it simmer a little longer. Pour in a splash of lime juice at the end, garnish with cilantro, and serve over precooked rice. 

Recipe: One-Pot Vegetable Red Curry

Canned chickpeas are wonderfully versatile and can turn into a satisfying, protein-packed meal in a few short minutes and with just a handful of ingredients, which is a boon on a day when even thinking about moving makes you sweat. Plus, the cucumber and tomatoes are loaded with water, which makes staying hydrated a little bit easier.

The recipe calls for roasting the chickpeas in the oven to get a tasty char and light crunch out of them, but you can accomplish the same thing in about half the time by roasting them in the air fryer instead, or even skip the roasting altogether. Whiz up some fresh tzatziki by blending grated cucumber, Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings, then pour it over seasoned chickpeas, more cucumber, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion, Kalamata olives, and feta. In about 15 minutes, you'll have a cool, refreshing salad with enough protein to get you through the long summer days.

Recipe: Chickpea Salad With Tzatziki Dressing

Pulled pork barbecue is the epitome of summertime dining, but you don't have to spend a day and a half tending a smoker in the backyard to get it. All you need is some garlic, sliced onions, chicken broth, and a pork shoulder rubbed with dark brown sugar, chili powder, salt, cumin, and cinnamon.

Toss it all in the slow cooker and let it go for the day while you're out and about having summertime fun, and it'll be ready to shred and sauce by dinner. Pick up your favorite chain restaurant cole slaw on the way home for a barbecue sandwich fit for a cookout. Best of all, it makes nine servings, so there should be plenty of leftovers for an even easier supper later in the week. 

Recipe: Easy Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Lettuce wraps are great for days when you don't want to cook, because they look like hard work, but they take about as much time and effort as making a sandwich. This recipe uses protein-packed garbanzo beans to make a vegetarian-friendly version of Buffalo chicken salad that's as good on a sandwich or as a dip as it is in a lettuce wrap.

It takes about 10 minutes to pull together — less if you prep your veggies in advance, or get them pre-shredded and diced. Just toss two cans of rinsed chickpeas into a food processor and pulse a few times. Don't overdo it — you're looking for a mince, not a paste. Stir in celery, carrots, cilantro, sunflower seeds, Buffalo sauce, and mayo, fold in blue cheese crumbles, and scoop it into lettuce leaves. It's quick and easy enough for a weeknight dinner, or you can meal prep it at the start of the week, and dish it out as needed. 

 Recipe: Buffalo Chickpea Lettuce Wraps

No judgment here — Hamburger Helper is top-tier when you need a filling meal with as little work as possible, and if you use an electric skillet instead of cranking up the stove, it doesn't turn the kitchen into a sauna, either. And while it's fine on its own, this recipe adds a bit of gourmet flair with very little additional effort.

To start, add diced onion to the skillet with the beef while browning. Stir in some garlic and tomato paste, then dump the entire Hamburger Helper cheeseburger macaroni kit into the pan along with water and beef broth, and let it simmer until the pasta is al dente. Fold in shredded cheddar and heavy cream, then sprinkle with fresh parsley, cracked pepper, and panko bread crumbs (optionally toasted in the air fryer). It's familiar enough to be kid-friendly, but it feels like you've done something fancy, and it still only takes about 30 minutes. 

Recipe: The Bear-Inspired Gourmet Hamburger Helper

This recipe takes a classic tuna salad and boosts the flavor and texture with chopped celery, red onion, pickle relish, parsley, and capers. Stir it all together with some mayo and scoop it out onto butter lettuce leaves (or any leaf lettuce you like), and it's ready to go.

Yes, it's really that easy. Even if you haven't done any prep in advance, you can have these wraps plated in under 15 minutes. But the tuna salad will keep in the fridge for up to a week, so you could whip it up ahead of time and have it ready to go in seconds. It would even make a great picnic lunch to pack in a cooler for your summertime adventures. The possibilities are ... not quite endless, but definitely plentiful! 

Recipe: Tuna Lettuce Wraps

Traditional mole preparation is a long and labor-intensive process, and no one wants to embark on that journey when they're already burning up. But with a slow cooker, it becomes an (almost) hands-free process.

Start by toasting pepitas, slivered almonds, and sesame seeds for about five minutes, until fragrant. The air fryer can be used for this, as can an electric skillet. But even if you have to resort to the stove, it's just a few minutes at medium heat, which shouldn't heat up the kitchen too much. Throw them in a blender with the rest of the sauce ingredients — including stemmed and seeded dried chiles, chipotles, raisins, cinnamon, and bittersweet chocolate — and blend until smooth. Pour it into the slow cooker with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and cook it for four hours on high, or eight on low. When you're ready to serve, scoop the chicken and sauce over a bed of precooked white rice.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Mole

Cool, crisp California rolls are a refreshingly light lunch option in the summertime, and they're easier to make at home than you might think. This recipe in particular adds an unconventional twist that boosts the flavor, crunch, and fun factor of the rolls with crushed Funyuns.

Though it calls for quite a bit of cooking, it's easy enough to avoid or, at least, avoid heating up the house while doing it. You can buy sushi rice at the grocery store and simply cook it in a rice cooker. As for toasting the Funyuns and sesame seeds, you can either skip that altogether or toast them in the air fryer using a silicone basket like this one from Lékué. Spread the rice on a sheet of nori, sprinkle it with sesame seeds, then flip the whole thing over on a sushi mat. Roll up sliced avocado, cucumber sticks, and crab salad, roll the whole thing in crushed Funyuns, slice it, and serve. Easier said than done, perhaps, but imperfect sushi rolls taste just as good as perfect ones. 

 Recipe: At-Home California Rolls (Classic And Crunchy)

Ordering takeout is tempting enough when the family calendar is loaded with summer activities, and it becomes downright irresistible when a heat wave rolls in. But with the help of a slow-cooker, you can have rich butter chicken at a fraction of the cost, and with about as much effort as driving to the restaurant to pick up your order.

Simply toss boneless, skinless chicken thighs, diced onion, garlic, and plenty of seasoning in the Crockpot, cover with canned crushed tomatoes and heavy cream, and let the whole thing simmer for about four hours on high. Stir in a cornstarch slurry to thicken at the end, and it's good to go. Rice is optional, but if you want it, use your handy-dandy rice cooker to keep the kitchen cool, or get it precooked from the grocery. 

Recipe: Crockpot Butter Chicken

Caprese may be the ultimate summer salad, made with layers of sliced tomato and fresh basil — ideally fresh from the garden, where they grow happily together — and cool, creamy mozzarella cheese. This recipe gives the classic dish a bit more body by sandwiching it all between ciabatta bread smeared with pesto and drizzled with balsamic. The result is a deli-quality sandwich without the fancy deli price tag.

A panini press squishes it all together without heating up the kitchen too much, but you can still make this panini without a panini press, if wanted. Just plop the whole sandwich into a hot skillet — preferably an electric one, since we're trying to keep things as cool as possible — and press it down with a cast iron pan, or anything clean, flat, and heavy until the bread is lightly toasted and flattened to your liking.

Recipe: Pesto Caprese Panini