What's the most you've ever cooked at once? By yourself or with others.

[brute]

1024 chicken halves for my boys scout troop fundraiser.

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• brute
• Nov 9, 2015

 

[noboundaries]

HOLY MOLY!  You win!

Most I ever cooked at one time was for a church fundraiser and Philippine Festival.  I'm not Filipino but they needed someone to make Arroz al la Valenciana.  I volunteered.  I had no idea what I had volunteered for.  I ran a half marathon that morning with my wife, then started cooking AND had company visiting to watch an airshow.  I remember lots of veggies, spices, sausages, boneless chicken thighs, a 50 lb bag of rice, and a bunch of large aluminum roasters.  In a rather small kitchen in Navy housing with restaurant sized equipment I got a rhythm going and wouldn't let anyone help other than prepping the veggies.  Cooked it all in about 6 hours and took it in batches over to a walk-in cooler.  It was about 20 aluminum roasting pans as I remember. 

Then I cooked two large lasagnas for about twelve family members who were visiting. 

I was unfit for duty come Monday.  I bit off about ten times more than I could chew that weekend, but it is a memory we cherish.    

 

[mike5051]

WOW!  That is a lot of chicken!  I've never smoked  for a huge crowd, but I have boiled hundreds of pounds of crawfish and cooked huge pots of jambalaya for some large crowds.  Not quite the pressure of needing smoked food ready for a hungry crowd.

Mike

 

[mowin]

3 chickens, a pastrami, dozen hardboiled eggs and 10 lbs of cheese. Yep.. lame.. but it's the best I can come up with. :biggrin:

 

[bbqbrett]

Not nearly that much. I just did 24 chicken thighs, 2 racks of baby backs a small brisket and pork butt.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

I think you get the atta-boy pat on the back for that cook!!! Good cause for a fundraiser, too. I guess my biggest, simultaneous cook would look like a drop in the bucket. Smoke Vault 24 loaded up with 6 pork butts, 3 briskets, or 8 whole chickens...that's about the most I can remember, but I have had 2 vertical smokers, my SnP 40" and 2 charcoal kettles rolling at the same time with various foods. Maybe that would be about the same challenge, managing that many different cookers by myself, but you had a big spread to watch over.

EDIT: I guess to could really add to the challenge and fire up a couple camp dutch ovens along with the smokers and grills...that would be FUN!!!

I bet that was a one huge fire when you went to bun all that hardwood down to coals!!!

Keep up the great work!!!

Eric

 

[4pogo7]

How do you even manage that much meat at once, let alone tending the fire?!?! Wow, very impressive!

 

[jirodriguez]

I think that's the chicken version of 9/11... lol.

Most I ever did in one cook was about 90 lbs. of meat for a party my folks were throwing. The impressive part was I got it all into my 22.5" WSM in one load - 4 pork butts and 3 briskets.

 

[smokesontuesday]

Helped my cousin with 6 whole hogs plus 5 or 6 briskets and a dozen pork butts but that's not even close to 1,000+ chicken halves. That's craziness.

 

[oldschoolbbq]

I dob a load of Butt , now and then , and Brisket also . . .

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• oldschoolbbq
• May 14, 2015

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• oldschoolbbq
• May 14, 2015

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• oldschoolbbq
• May 30, 2015

Not a big feast , but nice. I love big cooks , and Hog roast too ! ! !