Cookout Side Dishes: 4 Easy BBQ Sides for Your Next Backyard Party

Start with the beans because they need 60 minutes to bake - that hour is your built-in timer for the other three dishes.

Cook 1/2 lb diced bacon in a Dutch oven until most of the fat is rendered. Drain most of the grease (leave a bit). Add 1/2 yellow onion and 1 small green pepper, both diced. Cook 4-5 minutes until softened.

Stir in a 28-oz can of maple-bacon baked beans, 1/4 cup chili sauce, 1 tbsp grainy mustard, 1 tbsp Worcestershire, 2 tbsp maple syrup, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 minced chipotle peppers in adobo, kosher salt, and black pepper. Mix everything together until combined. Transfer to a baking dish if your Dutch oven isn't oven-safe, cover with foil, and bake at 350F for 60 minutes.

While the beans bake, get cornbread going. Whisk 1.5 cups cornmeal, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 1.5 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp kosher salt in a large bowl. Separately whisk 1.5 cups milk with 2 eggs, then stir in 1/3 cup maple syrup. Add wet to dry, then fold in 3/4 stick of melted butter and 3/4 lb of cooked, crispy, crumbled bacon.

Pour into a greased 9-inch springform pan and bake at 425F for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. While the cornbread bakes, make the topping: combine softened butter with 2 tbsp honey, 1.5 tbsp sriracha, a clove of minced garlic, and a pinch of kosher salt. Mix until smooth - the picture shows this exact step.

Top wedges of warm cornbread with the sriracha honey butter and let it melt into the crumb. The yellow + red contrast is the visual hook.

The hook on this potato salad: zero mayonnaise. Mayo is what makes potato salad spoil fast at outdoor parties, and skipping it actually makes the salad taste fresher and brighter.

Boil 1.5 lbs of multi-color baby potatoes (the red, white, and purple mix is gorgeous) for about 10 minutes until knife-tender. Let them cool, then halve into bite-sized pieces. Combine in a large bowl with 3 stalks diced celery, 1/3 cup curly parsley, and 2-3 tbsp fresh dill.

Whisk the dressing in a separate bowl: 3 tbsp dijon mustard, 3 tbsp honey, a clove of minced garlic, salt, pepper, and the juice of one lemon. Toss the dressing through the potatoes, mixing well. THEN gently fold in 4 quartered hard-boiled eggs at the end - if you add the eggs before mixing, they break apart and turn mushy.

Halve a dozen hard-boiled eggs and pop the yolks out into a bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork to break up the lumps before adding anything else - this saves you having to sift later.

Mix the mashed yolks with 1/4 cup Japanese (Kewpie) mayo - it's tangier and richer than American mayo and worth seeking out. Add 2 tbsp diced green onion, 2 tbsp diced red onion, and a few dashes of Cholula. Spoon the filling back into the egg whites, or pipe it in by snipping the corner off a ziplock bag full of the filling.

The kicker: a small mound of crispy carnitas on top of each egg. The shortcut is to buy pre-cooked pulled pork from the supermarket and crisp it in a hot pan with a splash of oil. The texture pop against the creamy yolk is what makes the dish.

Pull the baked beans out of the oven and top with a generous handful of sliced green onions. The fresh oniony bite cuts through the sweet maple richness and gives the dish its finishing texture - the picture shows exactly what that looks like.

Cut wedges of cornbread and top each with the sriracha honey butter so it melts down into the warm crumb. Spoon the no-mayo potato salad into a pretty serving bowl. Arrange the deviled eggs on a flat tray.

Total elapsed time: about two hours. Total active work: about 90 minutes - the hour the beans spend in the oven overlaps with the cornbread baking and the cold dishes coming together. Show up to the cookout with all four of these and you're the hero of the day.