Chicken Wings -- How many?

[dukelecker]

I'm doing a party in a couple weeks for about 250 people.  They want pulled pork sandwiches and smoked chicken wings.  I've settled on about 100 lbs of raw boston butts for the pulled pork.  I might bump that up to 120 lbs depending on how many wings I do.  However, I'm struggling with how many wings to prepare?  Any suggestions on how many wings I should prepare as a side dish?

Would 100 lbs pork shoulder + 400 wings be sufficient, too much?  I'll also be doing fresh cut french fries, slaw, and beans if that helps.

Thanks for the help!

 

[nivekd]

About 80 (100 lbs raw) pounds of finished PP should be good but what do you mean by wings, a whole wing or wing parts. If whole, I would go with 2 per. 500 wings...man that's a lot a wings.

 

[dukelecker]

Thank for the help! When I say "wings" I mean the drumette and the wingette. 500 wing pieces is a lot but honestly I can see some people eating like 8 and others eating none at all. 80 pounds of finished PP requires about 120 raw, IMO.  Usually 10 pounds raw gets me 6 pounds finished PP.

 

[sqwib]

More info needed, Menu, Guests, day party, night party, how long will it run will there be partiers?

You say 250 people? woman, children, men? this is an important part on figuring out how much and how to serve.

Are you making hot wings or smoking with another type of sauce?

One thing I'm sure of... use slider rolls for the pulled pork, this will reduce waste, especially if there will be kids there!

Are you having any other Main menu choices such as dogs, burgers, mac and cheese.

I would go with 3 per person (would actually be 6 pieces) unless half the crowd is younger children

However... your crowd will determine the quantity MORE MEN = MORE WINGS!

 

[bigwheel]

Have you ever tried cooking 400 wings?  Lot of numerous small parts which are going to need flippng and such things..least on most pits. If you have some kind of specialized equipment I take all this back of course. I got gun shy over large amounts of leg quarters. Its like trying to cook a giant sized box of Tinker Toys..and surmising a bunch of wings would be worse than that. I would steer them over to pulled pork sandwiches. I like a pound per person raw bone in butts. Meaning you need 250 lbs..and dogs for the kids. Best of fortunes. At the local grill pub 5 drumettes usually fill me up..so I get 10 and take 5 home to Mama.

 

[tc fish bum]

wow that's  a lotttttttt of wings to manage, you gotta q-view that one if you do it!

 

[demosthenes9]

I'd go with about 135 lbs raw, or 16  8-9 lb butts.

135 * .6 = 81lbs, or 1396 ounces.  That yields 324  4oz portions or 259 5oz portions.

For wings, I'd figure 3 sections per person.  Sure, some number of people will eat way more than 3, but a whole lot of people won't even eat them.

 

[dukelecker]

I have a 13 foot smoker trailer with a removable rack.  I'll smoke the shoulders on one rack and put the wings on another.  The plan is to smoke the wings for 1:30 or so and then flash fry them before serving, but like a lot of you said, 500-750 will be an ish ton of wings.  I'll have to post a pic of it after the event.

The head count is a little tough to nail down.  The host distributed 100 hand delivered invitations and they expect 80% attendance.  Most invitations were to family's with two parents with multiple kids, but the kids range from infant to 18, so we're saying 3 per invitation.  This is a four hour open house during dinner time, as opposed to a more formal dinner, so it's entirely possible some people might not even want to eat.  Also, if we run out of food no one can complain since its an open house.

In addition to PP and wings, I'm planning on serving slaw and french fries.  We'll have 3-4 pans of slaw with 50 pounds of fresh cut fries. The host is also planning on serving small platters of finger foods like a veggie platter and chips.

 

[floyd]

You are a VERY industrious man. Good luck. Please send pix of all those wings. I'll bet you right now, you'll have a LOT of left overs.

 

[txblackjack21]

 
You are a VERY industrious man. Good luck. Please send pix of all those wings. I'll bet you right now, you'll have a LOT of left overs.

Leftovers = more for the cooks and hosts.