Labor Day weekend is the last real cookout of the year and I refuse to spend it in the kitchen. So this year I built the whole menu around one thing: a single batch of pimento cheese that does three separate jobs.
It goes on the sandwiches. It goes in a bowl with ruffled chips. And it goes on a tray of crispy roasted potatoes. One recipe, three dishes, and suddenly a seven item menu feels like about two hours of actual work.
Everything here is either already made, dumped in a slow cooker, or thrown on the grill at the last second. Nothing is spicy, which matters if you have kids or in laws or anybody who says “just a little” and means it. And almost all of it can be done the day before.
Here’s the whole thing.
The Menu
1. The Main: Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with Pimento and Pickles
This is the reason for the whole menu. Slow cooker BBQ pulled chicken, a thick swipe of pimento cheese, cold dill pickles, all on a toasted potato bun. The chicken goes in the crockpot the night before and shreds itself into something ridiculous by morning.
The pimento is technically optional. It is not optional.
2. The App: Pimento Cheese with Ruffled Chips
My pimento cheese recipe makes five cups, which is way more than you need for sandwiches. That is on purpose.
Put the extra in a bowl with a bag of ruffled chips and set it out the second people walk in. It buys you twenty minutes of peace while the chicken finishes and it keeps everyone from hovering over the grill.
3. OPTIONAL Side: Crispy Roasted Potatoes with Pimento Cheese
Third and final use for that batch. Roast the potatoes until the edges are genuinely crispy, then spoon the pimento over while they are still hot so it melts into every crack.
This is the dish people ask about and you’re using the leftover pimento in a fun, unexpected way!!!
4. Side: Ranch Pasta Salad
Cavatappi, diced carrots, red bell pepper, slaw mix, a ton of fresh dill and parsley, all tossed in ranch with microgreens on top.
I want to be clear that this is not a mushy mayo situation. It is built on raw shredded vegetables, so it stays crunchy, and the dill ties it right back to the pickles on the sandwich. Dress it the day before and hold the microgreens until you serve.
5. Salad: Watermelon Salad with Feta
Every other thing on this table is rich, so this is the one that resets your palate. Watermelon, cucumber, mint, cilantro, shallot, pumpkin seeds, lime and feta. No cooking at all.
One swap: the recipe calls for jalapeño and I am leaving it out this time. If your farmers market has long hots, thin slice one of those in instead. They are at their peak in September and they are the more Philly answer. Just taste a sliver first, because long hots are wildly inconsistent and some of them will surprise you.
Prep everything into separate containers in the morning and toss it in the last five minutes so it does not get watery.
6. Side: Old Bay Honey Butter Corn
The only thing on this menu that has to be hot. Char it while the chicken holds in the slow cooker, then slather the Old Bay honey butter on right at the table so everyone watches it melt.
Ten to fifteen minutes and it is the best looking thing you will put down all day.
7. Dessert: DIY Chipwiches
These are from my Taste of Summer menu on Substack and they are the easiest dessert I make all year. Good cookies, ice cream left on the counter for fifteen minutes to soften, and a plate of sprinkles or mini chocolate chips for rolling the edges.
Build them, wrap each one in parchment, freeze them hard in the morning. There is no recipe here. That is the point.
Get the Taste of Summer Menu on Substack
How to Set Up the Sandwich Bar
Do not assemble twelve sandwiches by hand. Put everything out and let people build their own:
- Pulled chicken, kept warm in the crockpot
- Pimento cheese
- Dill pickle chips
- Thinly sliced red onion
- Toasted potato buns
- Extra BBQ sauce on the side
It looks more generous than a plate of pre made sandwiches, it takes you zero effort, and the picky eaters sort themselves out.
Why This Menu Works
A cookout goes wrong when everything on the plate is the same texture. Rich, creamy, soft, sweet, over and over until nobody wants a second helping.
So this one is built on contrast. The pimento is the rich thread running through three dishes. The ranch pasta salad brings crunch. The watermelon salad brings acid. The corn brings sweetness and char. They are all doing different jobs, which is why you can put all seven things on one table and it still feels like a menu instead of a pile.
Make It Ahead
The whole menu is built so that almost nothing lands on the day itself. Here is the rhythm:
Two days before: Make the pimento cheese. It is genuinely better on day two and it is the backbone of three dishes.
The night before: Chicken into the slow cooker, shred it, and hold it on low overnight. Dress the pasta salad and keep the microgreens separate.
The morning of: Build and freeze the chipwiches. Prep every salad component into its own container, but do not toss anything yet.
The last hour: Potatoes in, corn on the grill, buns toasted, sandwich bar laid out. Toss the watermelon salad at the very end. It is the only thing that truly cannot wait.
That is the whole weekend. One slow cooker, one grill, one batch of pimento cheese, and a menu that looks like you tried a lot harder than you did.
If you make any of it, tag me. I want to see your sandwich bar!!!!!
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