23 Summer Potluck Ideas Our Food Staff Swears By for Easy Outdoor Gatherings

23 Summer Potluck Ideas Our Food Staff Swears By

Every summer, the same question shows up in the group text: what should I bring? The Food section and NYT Cooking staff answered it themselves.

This roundup, published June 23, 2021 and updated June 9, 2026, collects 23 dishes they make on repeat for picnics, block parties and backyard potlucks. Some are sweet, like peach cobbler, sugar cookie bars and plum torte.

Others are savory, from deviled eggs and laab to fried chicken. Whatever your gathering looks like, at least one of these staff favorites will fit.

• Cool and creamy: deviled eggs, shrikhand, potato salad with sweet relish
• Crisp and bright: spicy watermelon salad, corn salad with tomatoes, feta and mint, French lentil salad
• Handheld and portable: chile crisp dumplings, onion finger sandwiches, make ahead fried chicken
• Sweet finishes: peach cobbler, plum torte, sugar cookie bars

The best potluck dish is the one that travels well, holds up without refrigeration and still makes people ask for the recipe.

Pasta and Pickles Salad

Cat Baldwin looks for three things in a potluck dish: it has to taste great, it has to offer a small surprise, and it has to be easy to serve.

Hetty Lui McKinnon’s pasta and pickles salad delivers all three, with the familiar chewy comfort of pasta salad plus chopped pickle for a bright, briny bite. No spoon, no bowl and no refrigeration worries either.

The Store's Green Dip

Alexa Weibel calls this caper and herb dip what ranch would be if it had a French makeover. Sam Sifton adapted the recipe, and the base is simple: mayonnaise and anchovies.

Surround the bowl with crudités and it looks elegant, but the flavor is anything but fussy. Fair warning, it is very addictive.

Spicy Watermelon Salad With Pineapple and Lime

Melissa Clark points out that fresh fruit and vegetable dishes are underused at potlucks, even though they are exactly what people want next to seven layer dip and potato salad.

Alexa Weibel’s spicy watermelon salad with pineapple and lime is light and cooling with a little heat. Sue Li’s cucumber salad with roasted peanuts and chile does the same job, bright and spicy and hard to stop eating.

Peach Cobbler

Kim Gougenheim brings three dishes, and all of them earn their spot. Genevieve Ko’s Rice Krispies treats with chocolate and pretzels hit that sweet and salty note kids and adults both chase at a block party.

Alexa Weibel’s zucchini salad with pecorino and basil needs no cooking at all, since it is built from raw ingredients, and it tastes fresh. For dessert, Alex Ward’s peach cobbler is lovely on its own, though she likes it with vanilla ice cream.

Laab

Becky Hughes calls chicken laab by Kwan Bellhouse, or Hetty McKinnon’s tofu version, ideal for a summer group. The cooking is minimal.

You brown the meat or the tofu, make a pot of rice, and you are done. Set everything out with plenty of crunchy lettuces, cucumber and herbs, then let guests build their own bites.

Pickle Lemonade

Kasia Pilat brings pickle lemonade, which is exactly what it sounds like: lemonade with pickle brine stirred in. It is a familiar drink with a surprising twist, and it tends to start conversations.

She also notes that it is hydrating, and one commenter compared it to a more refined sports drink. In hot weather, that matters more than you would think.

Shrikhand

Priya Krishna calls shrikhand her summer potluck magic trick.

Tejal Rao’s recipe turns plain yogurt into a luxurious, saffron tinted dessert that is refreshing and not too sweet. She also suggests serving it next to any fruit pie, a pairing she describes as dreamy.

Corn Salad With Tomatoes, Feta and Mint

Ross Laing suggests Mark Bittman’s corn salad with tomatoes, feta and mint as a fresh counterpoint to burgers and hot dogs.

He is bringing it to a friend’s cabin on the Fourth of July. His description: deceptively simple, quick to put together and a reliable crowd pleaser.

Original Plum Torte

Eric Kim’s rule of thumb is simple. When in doubt, make Marian Burros’s plum torte. He keeps the batter ingredients stocked, and he swaps in whatever fruit he has: apples, peaches, pears from the crisper drawer, or berries and chopped frozen rhubarb from the freezer.

Do not skip the lemon juice, he stresses, because it matters for both flavor and texture. The cake travels well as long as it cools completely before it goes in the car.

Deviled Eggs

Sara Bonisteel loved deviled eggs as a child mostly for the paprika on top. These days she values the filling just as much. This recipe is adapted from “U.S.A.

Cookbook” by Sheila Lukins, who co wrote the Silver Palate books, and it gives you a basic framework to play with. Want a smokier version? Add a little puréed chiles en adobo.

Want more zip? Swap the mustard for yuzu kosho. For picnics, she packs the egg whites and the filling in separate chilled containers and assembles them right before serving.

Baked Red Bean Nian Gao (Mochi Cake)

Eleanore Park admits her motivation for elaborate cooking drops off in summer, and this red bean butter mochi cake, or nian gao, is about as simple as a dump cake. Low effort, high reward.

It also solves the sweet versus savory debate, since it leans into both. You can substitute summer fruit for the red bean, or try the lemon honey version if you want a little more of a project. Either way, she expects it to be a surprise hit.

Chile Crisp Dumplings

Genevieve Ko’s chile crisp dumplings are a current go to summer potluck dish for one Times staff member. The filling comes together easily and carries a lot of flavor.

You get a browned underside for crunch and a tender, chewy steamed top. They travel well and are consistently popular with friends and family.

Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions

Margaux Laskey recommends Lidey Heuck’s chickpea salad with fresh herbs and scallions for picnics. It has the character of potato salad without the heaviness. She transports it in a large container with red Solo cups and plastic forks for serving.

For dessert she relies on Nell Lewis’s Kentucky butter cake, which is foolproof because everything goes into an electric mixer at once and gets beaten until smooth.

To carry it, she lets it cool, returns it to the Bundt pan, slices and wraps the pieces in aluminum foil, then unmolds again. Or she serves slices straight from the pan with juicy berries.

Caramelized Scallion Sauce

Florence Fabricant says Francis Lam’s caramelized scallion sauce takes some time to make, but you can prepare it well ahead, and she often triples the batch for outdoor meals. It does not need to be served hot, which is a gift in July.

Spoon it over cooked chicken, grilled tofu, or shrimp and corn cut from the cob. She usually skips the egg and finds a splash of chile oil a welcome addition.

Furikake Snack Mix

Mia Leimkuhler reports that furikake snack mix has never failed to earn raves and recipe requests, whether it shows up at a potluck, a picnic, a dinner party or Thanksgiving.

Sweet, spicy and salty, it gets deep umami from toasted nori, and it appeals to kids and adults alike. She always makes extra so she can keep some for herself.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

Emily Weinstein brings watermelon to summer gatherings. Eric Kim’s watermelon and feta salad is a simple, near perfect dish that takes only a few minutes to prepare.

If you want an even easier route, cut a watermelon into slices, arrange them on a platter, and serve chile powder on the side. Cayenne works, and so do Tajín or Rancho Gordo’s Stardust dipping powder.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Emily Fleischaker says sugar cookie bars, adapted by Margaux Laskey from an American Girl cookbook, are a strong motivator for attending barbecues.

She also admits to lingering near the platter at gatherings so she can eat more than her fair share without anyone noticing. Honestly, same.

Make Ahead Fried Chicken

Kim Severson considers fried chicken the ultimate picnic food, and she highlights Melissa Clark’s recipe built specifically for make ahead occasions.

You can prepare it the night before, or early in the morning if you are feeling ambitious, then pack it in a box for transport.

She pairs it with Whitney Otawka’s sugar snap pea salad with Calabrian pepper and fennel, which is flexible enough to swap in celery or another sturdy crunchy vegetable that holds up during travel.

Potato Salad With Sweet Relish

Krysten Chambrot spent years bringing a quick white bean dip blended with garlic, basil, lemon and sometimes Parmesan. Then came the pandemic summer, when she turned to potato salad for comfort and made or bought big batches to eat over several days.

This year she plans to share Millie Peartree’s potato salad with sweet relish, a recipe that came from Peartree’s mother, Millie Bell. Some recipes carry a whole family with them.

Onion Finger Sandwiches

Brian Gallagher believes an ideal potluck dish should be unexpected, fairly simple and tasty enough to earn repeat helpings.

A friend vouches for a bucket of fried chicken, but Gallagher favors Tejal Rao’s adaptation of James Beard’s onion finger sandwiches. His tweak is small and effective: stir a little Dijon and white pepper into the mayonnaise.

French Lentil Salad

Cathy Lo has chosen Lisa Donovan’s French lentil salad as her new picnic staple. It is vegetarian, and it is highly portable because it tastes best at room temperature. It is also crunchy, colorful and fragrant with a generous mix of herbs.

She sees it working as a light main for vegetarian friends or as a side dish for the meat eaters at the same table.

Potato, and Radicchio Tart

Eleanore Park’s top summer pick is Natasha Pickowicz’s potato and radicchio tart, which Pickowicz originally created as a staff family meal when she was pastry chef at Café Altro Paradiso.

The tart is a smart way to use up pantry odds and ends, bits of cheese and wilting greens, since most ingredients come together well inside a tart. The result looks far more impressive than its humble fridge clearing purpose.

Margarita

Sharon Attia prefers a fun summer drink over plain water, and she notes that bright, zippy options like classic lemonade or Brazilian limonada are refreshing crowd pleasers for all ages. This year, though, she is bringing batched cocktails to the potluck, leaning toward tequila drinks.

Most likely margaritas. If your gathering is adults only, that is your sign.