If it hasn’t already hit you, it soon will: the outdoor cooking bug, which begins buzzing in early spring and reaches swarm-status around Memorial Day. As you get ready for a summer of fire-kissed food, may we remind you that a cast iron skillet (or several) can be your best friend when cooking outside—whether in your backyard, in the wild, or wherever your travels take you.
Below, some of our favorite cast iron recipes for the great outdoors:
Start on the grill, finish in a ripping-hot skillet: this recipe gives you the best of both pieces of equipment.
Get the recipe: Reverse-Seared Pork Chops.
If you like diner-style smashed cheeseburgers, there’s only one way to achieve crusty, craggy perfection: cooking them in cast iron.
Get the recipe: Cast Iron Skillet Smashburgers.
You don’t need meat to make a mean burger.
Get the recipe: Cast Iron Plant-Based Burgers.
Our three favorite cast-iron recipes for adorning burgers, brats, hot dogs, sausages, and more.
Get the recipe: Burger and Hot Dog Toppers.
After a stove-top braise, this succulent pork recipe can be crisped up on the grill while you finish your homemade tortillas.
Get the recipe: Double-Pork Carnitas.
Cast Iron Whole Trout with Capers and Lemon: A skillet solves our biggest challenge—stuck skin—when cooking fish on a grill.
Get the recipe: Cast Iron Whole Trout with Capers and Lemon.
Another fish recipe made easier with a skillet.
Get the recipe: Cast Iron-Seared Salmon.
If you have a cast iron lid for your Field Skillet you can make this super-quick, Normandy-style recipe.
Get the recipe: Cider-Steamed Mussels.
For serving with mussels (above) or as a simple starter, this Catalonian recipe is a great way to use up your bumper crop of summer tomatoes.
Get the recipe: Cast Iron Pan con Tomate.
When charred in a hot skillet, green beans take on an extra-savory flavor, complimented here with butter and toasted almonds.
Get the recipe: Blistered Green Beans in a Cast Iron Pan.
These crispy, latke-like patties are a great way for using up your bounty of summer squash and zucchini.
Get the recipe: Cast Iron Zucchini Fritters.
After you’re finished with your grill-top cooking session, use the leftover ashes and embers to cook a few potatoes, which you can turn into a buttery, slightly smoky mash.
Get the recipe: Mashed Ash-Roasted Potatoes.
