Oven-free dinners that are cooler than you feat. chicken and chips, but not as you know it

I’m calling this my no-oven-keep-your-sanity recipe trilogy.

Three dinners for nights when the weather’s hot and sticky, your patience is thinner than prosciutto, and the mere thought of preheating an oven feels like the final shove over the edge. These are meals built on fresh things, sharp dressings and the quiet thrill of doing very little.

There’s a pickle-addled chicken and chip “salad” that knows quotation marks are hard-earned; a double-dressed masala chickpea salad that respects the power of a loose measurement; ; and a pasta slicked in a no-cook tomato sauce that tastes like summer rang the doorbell and stayed for (entirely too much) wine. Minimal ingredients, maximum reward, and absolutely no one needs to know how little you actually did.

Dill pickle, chook and chip salad

Yes, you can add a bag of crisps to a meal and still call it a salad. Consider this your official permission. The only caveat? Add the chips immediately before serving. You want that sharp, salty crunch; if they sit with the chicken and pickle mix for too long, they soften. Don’t get me wrong, it still tastes great, but the texture is what takes this from “good” to spectacular. It’s another meal that bends the rules of what you can do with a humble barbecue chook.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 barbecue chicken, meat shredded, carcass discarded
• 1 large celery stalk, finely sliced
• 1 small bunch dill, leaves pulled
• 1 cup (155g) sliced dill pickles (I love sweet ‘n’ spicy pickles)
• 140g packet crisps (I use dill pickle flavoured chips)

Buttermilk-dill dressing

• ¼ cup dill fronds, roughly chopped
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup Kewpie mayo
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• ¼ cup (35g) diced pickles
• 4 tbsp pickling liquid
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

METHOD

1. Add the shredded chicken, celery, dill leaves and pickles to a large bowl. Using your hands, gently toss to combine.
2. To make the buttermilk-dill dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a separate bowl with a fork (see note below). Season generously with sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper.
3. Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture and toss again to coat.
4. Layer the chicken mixture with the crisps as if you were building a lasagne: a layer of chicken, a handful of chips, then repeat until you have a pickle-addled peak of goodness. Serve immediately and devour with joy.

Serves 4

Tip: Buttermilk consistency varies by brand. If yours seems thin, dial back the buttermilk or add the pickling liquid gradually. A thicker, more luxurious dressing ensures a better coating and keeps your chips at maximum crispness.

Double dressing masala chickpea salad

This might be the best last-minute salad I’ve thrown together all summer. It is truly superb eating for how little effort it asks of you. Serve it as a full meal with warm, fluffy naan – or even a fried egg or two on top for a hit of protein. I’ve provided measurements below, but please, be liberal. This is a salad with a lot of give, perfectly suited to a slapdash eyeball measurement.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 continental cucumber, chopped
• 250g cherry tomatoes, halved
• ¼ cup finely sliced mint leaves
• ¼ cup toasted almond slivers (I toast mine in butter for extra flavour)
• 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 carrot, peeled and shredded

Date syrup dressing

• 1 tbsp date syrup
• pinch chilli powder
• ¼ cup olive oil
• sea salt flakes to season

Creamy masala dressing

• ½ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup finely chopped mint
• ¼ cup finely chopped coriander
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 1 garlic clove, grated

METHOD

1. Make each of the dressings by combining the ingredients in separate bowls or lidded jars. Season generously, mix well, then set aside.
2. Add all the salad ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Pour over the first dressing and let everything sit for 5 minutes or so. The oil, date syrup and salt do something marvellous with the tomatoes – they gather flavour at speed if you let them have a good sit, unbothered.
3. Once the ingredients have had time to get acquainted, toss and mix well before turning them out into a large serving bowl or platter. Season with sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Finish by dolloping over the creamy masala dressing. This isn’t meant to be an “even” dressing situation – the intent is for tangy little pockets of goodness to be discovered in the spoon-to-plate lottery.

Serves 4

Pasta with tomatoes left to their own devices

This shouldn’t be as good as it is. Tomatoes left to sweat it out on the bench with a heavy pinch of salt are the absolute hero here. Every time I make this, it blows my mind that something so simple can taste this incredible. I have gone a touch rogue – Italians, please don’t hate me – by adding a sneaky splash of oyster sauce to an otherwise traditional base. Good lord, it works, bringing an umami background hum that never disappoints.

INGREDIENTS

• 800g very ripe tomatoes, hulled, finely diced
• 250g punnet cherry tomatoes (I like the Sweet Solanato variety), diced
• sea salt flakes to sprinkle
• 2 small garlic cloves, grated
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• ¼ cup olive oil
• handful of basil leaves, roughly torn
• about 500g of your favourite pasta
• 150g butter, chopped
• freshly grated parmesan, to serve
• basil leaves to serve

METHOD

1. Place the diced tomatoes in a bowl and season generously with sea salt flakes. Set aside for 30 minutes to let the juices develop.
2. Add the grated garlic, oyster sauce, olive oil and basil leaves to the tomatoes. Stir to combine, then use a potato masher, whisk, or the back of a spoon to mash the mixture several times, maximising that juicy goodness.
3. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain and return it to the pot with the butter. Toss well to melt the butter and coat the pasta, then season lightly with a pinch of sea salt.
4. Divide the pasta into serving bowls. Top with generous spoonfuls of the fresh tomato sauce and finish with grated parmesan and a few extra basil leaves.

Serves 4