15 Spicy Dishes That Make Summer Heat More Bearable

Grilled corn on the cob brushed with paprika and harissa butter — Serious Eats/ Niedle Creative

When the mercury rises, do you need to forgo spicy foods? Fortunately, the answer is "no.' Spicy foods can make you sweat, and your body cools as sweat evaporates from your skin. So if you're craving food with some heat when the thermometer reads 100°, go ahead and set your mouth on fire with one of these 15 dishes. They may bring the heat to your mouth, but they won't bring the heat to your kitchen—none of them require turning on the oven.

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Summer Tomato Salad With Spicy Tonnato

Vicky Wasik

Turkish hot pepper paste, found in Turkish markets or online, adds heat to an emulsified sauce made with tomato, anchovy filets, egg, capers, tuna, Dijon, and oil. Pour it over the freshest in-season tomatoes you can get your hands on and garnish with basil leaves for a cool. spicy, summery salad.

Summer Tomato Salad With Spicy Tonnato
Spicy Cucumber-Jalapeño Limeade

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Try this spicy cucmber-jalapeńo limeade for a nonalcoholic drink that brings the fire and ice while sweetly quenching your thirst.

Spicy Cucumber-Jalapeño Limeade
Steak Salad With Cucumber, Peppers, and Spicy Fish Sauce Vinaigrette

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

On top of steak cooked on the stovetop, pile cold cucumbers, red peppers, and peanuts, then drizzle with a spicy sauce made with fish sauce and dried Thai chiles. Eat it right away or refrigerate it overnight because it's even better the next day.

Steak Salad With Cucumber, Peppers, and Spicy Fish Sauce Vinaigrette
Grilled Corn With Smoked Paprika–Harissa Butter

Serious Eats/ Niedle Creative

Spice up your grilled corn with this smoked paprika–harissa butter, and consider making extra because it also tastes amazing on seafood, bread, and more.

Grilled Corn With Smoked Paprika–Harissa Butter

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Isan-Style Spicy Thai Fried Pork Rind and Herb Salad

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Dried and fresh Thai chiles, sugar, fish sauce, and lime juice make a bold and delicious dressing for this Isan-style salad. Toss the dressing with tomatoes, bean sprouts, and pork rinds that soak up the flavorful dressing.

Isan-Style Spicy Thai Fried Pork Rind and Herb Salad
Kofte Kebabs With Spicy Harissa Yogurt Sauce and Grilled Flatbread (Minced Lamb Kebabs)

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Spicy, seasoned ground lamb (or beef) kebabs are served with garlicky, herby harissa sauce in this cookout-ready dish.

Kofte Kebabs With Spicy Harissa Yogurt Sauce and Grilled Flatbread (Minced Lamb Kebabs)
Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings With Soy and Fish Sauce

Shao Z.

Fish sauce adds saltiness and umami depth, and dried red chiles add spice to these garlicky, crowd-pleasing grilled chicken wings. Plan ahead—they need to marinate for 12 hours before hitting the hot grill.

Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings With Soy and Fish Sauce
Vegan Dan Dan Noodles

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

This dish offers the classic rich and spicy flavors of Sichuan dan dan noodles without meat. Instead, button mushrooms add meatiness to this meal that's ready in 25 minutes.

Vegan Dan Dan Noodles

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Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad With Cucumbers, Red Peppers, and Basil

J. Kenji López-Alt

Colorful bell peppers—red, yellow, or orange—cooling cucumbers, and bean sprouts are the base of this vegetable salad with noodles. It gets heat from ground chili sauce in the dressing, plus optional Thai bird chiles that you add to the fresh vegetables.

Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad With Cucumbers, Red Peppers, and Basil
Smoky and Spicy Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs

Serious Eats / Maureen Celestine.

A riff on tandoori-style chicken, these chicken kebabs are marinated in a yogurt mixture with smoked and hot paprika plus cayenne for at least four hours. Thread onto water-soaked skewers and grill for an easy chicken kebab dish you'll return to again and again.

Smoky and Spicy Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kebabs
Spicy Grilled Jerk Chicken

Perfectly tender and juicy, deeply infused with smoky flavor, charred, crisp, and spicy.

Smoked low and slow on the grill, this chicken marinated with Scotch bonnet peppers puréed with other fresh aromatics and spices tastes incredible. It's an 11 1/2-hour process (about 10 of those hours are hands-off while the chicken marinates), but the flavor is beyond worth the effort.

Spicy Grilled Jerk Chicken
Smoky and Spicy Apricot-Glazed Barbecue Ribs

Joshua Bousel

You have to do ribs on the grill at least once in the summer, and if you're looking for something beyond your basic bottled barbecue sauce, you've come to the right place. Here, apricot preserves give the sauce a sweet, fruity flavor, and chipotle chiles add a contrasting earthy, spicy flavor to the sauce that tastes just as good when licked off your fingers as it does on the ribs.

Smoky and Spicy Apricot-Glazed Barbecue Ribs

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Spicy Cabbage and Red Onion Slaw

J. Kenji López-Alt

This is the spicy slaw everyone at the picnic or cookout will love. Cabbage, red onion, cilantro, Thai bird chiles, lime juice, and salt combine for a side dish with a kick for grilled meats, fish, or vegetables.

Spicy Cabbage and Red Onion Slaw
Spicy Grilled Watermelon

Joshua Bousel

Brush watermelon wedges with a mixture of honey, lime juice, and cayenne pepper, then grill quickly, just till the wedges show grill marks. It's so simple and such a creative way to enjoy the most summery of fruits, the juicy watermelon.

Spicy Grilled Watermelon
Cajun Burgers With Spicy Rémoulade

Morgan Eisenberg

Grind a combination of beef and smoky, spicy Cajun andouille sausage for burger patties. Grill, then top with blue cheese and a sauce of mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, cayenne, horseradish, and garlic for the most spicy and flavorful burgers.

Cajun Burgers With Spicy Rémoulade