For last-minute Labor Day chicken salad, buy a cooked bird

Sometimes the best way to change the way you cook is to not cook at all.

For some weeknight meals, we grab a cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, which allows us to focus on loading up the shredded meat with flavor. It’s a trick we use for this impromptu chicken salad from our book “COOKish,” which limits recipes to just six ingredients without sacrificing flavor. And it’s the perfect thing to throw together at the last minute before that Labor Day cookout without having to turn on the oven during a hot summer day.

For this recipe, we skip the mayonnaise and instead use another shortcut that packs complex flavor into one ingredient — red pepper jelly. The slight bitterness and vegetal quality of the peppers helps to balance the sugars.

Two tablespoons of white vinegar brightens the dressing, and thinly sliced scallions or red onion contribute a sharp