Cooking for a crowd

[mschepac]

Hey gang,

Hopefully I put this in the correct forum.  I did a search and didn't really find what I was looking for.

In June my daughter will be graduating High School.  The Mrs and I were thinking of doing some BBQ for a crowd.  I have my old cheap electric water bullet smoker and my new UDS and have made several great meals, for 4...  I would like to up-size this to possibly 50 or so people.

I was thinking pulled butt for sure, chicken legs and thighs, and possibly some ribs.  And of course some burgers and dogs.  I saw SmokinAl's beans this morning, they will be there too, yumm.  The thought was to pre-cook as much as I can beforehand.  My experience with the butts are they are done when they want to be done, not when you want them to be done so I will be pre-cooking these for sure.  Both of those are easy enough to re-heat, the chicken I can throw on the grill and the pulled pork can sit in the ol' crock pot.  I guess the ribs I can throw on the grill to re-heat as well.  First off, does anyone see any flaws with this plan?  Second, does anyone have an easy way to calculate how much will be needed for a group?  An excel spreadsheet would be awesome, but I know that is asking too much...

   I would like to possibly start purchasing some of the meat now, I have 2 quality butchers locally and a membership to a restaurant supply house that run sales weekly.  If I can start getting the meats now and freeze them, it would be much less of a hit when the party comes.

Any help you fine folks could provide would be awesome!

Mark

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Keep it simple. Too many meats and you are going to end up with lots of leftovers. Pick one or two and do just that. Cooking ahead of time and reheating is the best.

When serving pulled pork or pulled chicken figure 1/3 pound finished cooked weight per person when serving with sides. A pork butt yields about 50%. For chicken I'd do boneless skinless thighs and chop or pull it for sandwiches too. boneless skinless thighs yield about 95%.

The problem with serving chicken parts and ribs is that its hard to determine whose going to eat what. If you are stuck on doing them go for ribs only or chicken (thighs again would be best) only. Figure 3 ribs per person or 1 thigh per person. Then do either pulled chicken or pulled pork.

All of this can be made ahead and reheated. Which will keep you off the cook line and allow you to enjoy the party.

 

[link]

I did my sons grad party last year and it came out pretty well. I expected about 55 people and had lots of leftovers but I was ok with that.

look here to see my menu.

I hope it helps

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/249071/grad-party-smoke

 

[bmudd14474]

Keep it simple. Too many meats and you are going to end up with lots of leftovers. Pick one or two and do just that. Cooking ahead of time and reheating is the best.

When serving pulled pork or pulled chicken figure 1/3 pound finished cooked weight per person when serving with sides. A pork butt yields about 50%. For chicken I'd do boneless skinless thighs and chop or pull it for sandwiches too. boneless skinless thighs yield about 95%.

The problem with serving chicken parts and ribs is that its hard to determine whose going to eat what. If you are stuck on doing them go for ribs only or chicken (thighs again would be best) only. Figure 3 ribs per person or 1 thigh per person. Then do either pulled chicken or pulled pork.

All of this can be made ahead and reheated. Which will keep you off the cook line and allow you to enjoy the party.

I agree 100% with what Dirtsailor said. Its hard sometimes because you want to do so much for everyone to enjoy but it starts to cause you a big headache. Now if you want tons of leftovers then go for it but I would do most if not all the cooking ahead of time if you don't have a pit big enough to handle it.

Good luck with it all.