My son's first birthday is coming up in June and I'm trying to plan food.
for his baptism we order trays of food primarily since we had the church service right before and couldn't cook. This time for his birthday, we can do the food ourselves. Some people think I'm a little crazy for wanting to cook for that many, but I feel like this should be doable, people have done it. However, I don't wnt to be chained to the grill for the entire party so simple and prepped cooking is key.
I'm looking for menu and portion suggestions. Its 40 people, maybe more, maybe less, but it shouldn't be 25 or 100. Keep in mind these are picky NYers so not everyone eats everything, specifically pork and beef.
Pulled Pork
I was thinking I could do pulled pork as one of the mains, maybe 2-3 butts in my smoker starting the day before.
that way that is done before anyone shows up.
Chicken
Definitely need to service chicken since there are non-beef/pork eaters. Debating about doing chicken drums/thighs or just grilled chicken cutlets or both. Cutlets are easy and probably preferable to some. Seems very uninteresting to me every time I do it. thoughts?
Beef maybe in addition to the pulled pork and chicken.
So the pulled pork and chicken may or may not be enough. I was debating about getting some flank steaks and grilling them up, cutting into strips. Not sure the work effort there or how much to do. grilling is probably easy, its the cutting up for that many people, and not sure on the cost.
Burgers and dogs
Haven't decided here, but I'd probably plan on doing burgers and dogs for the kids. Was trying to get away from doing it for the adults since again, everyone seems to do this in the summer and I feel its a bit boring.
Sausage
was debating about doing this instead of the steak as its easy to do for a large group. However, I'm not sure if this is too similar to the pulled pork and not a viable alternative. Maybe this helps me skip the burgers and dogs, I dunno.
As you can see from my sig, my current arsenal includes a WSM, a performer and a Genesis gold. I may be getting an SE-410 or LX440 before then. I think I have enough space to cook this stuff if I get the pork done before the party.
as sides I was going to do a cous cous salad, a tuna salad and a green salad.
Not that this is a competition, t other people in my area/family generally have these types of things in restaurants, or at least in a KoC hall with catered food. So I am trying to go a bit nicer than just burgers and dogs.
Anyone have any thoughts?
for his baptism we order trays of food primarily since we had the church service right before and couldn't cook. This time for his birthday, we can do the food ourselves. Some people think I'm a little crazy for wanting to cook for that many, but I feel like this should be doable, people have done it. However, I don't wnt to be chained to the grill for the entire party so simple and prepped cooking is key.
I'm looking for menu and portion suggestions. Its 40 people, maybe more, maybe less, but it shouldn't be 25 or 100. Keep in mind these are picky NYers so not everyone eats everything, specifically pork and beef.
Pulled Pork
I was thinking I could do pulled pork as one of the mains, maybe 2-3 butts in my smoker starting the day before.
that way that is done before anyone shows up.
Chicken
Definitely need to service chicken since there are non-beef/pork eaters. Debating about doing chicken drums/thighs or just grilled chicken cutlets or both. Cutlets are easy and probably preferable to some. Seems very uninteresting to me every time I do it. thoughts?
Beef maybe in addition to the pulled pork and chicken.
So the pulled pork and chicken may or may not be enough. I was debating about getting some flank steaks and grilling them up, cutting into strips. Not sure the work effort there or how much to do. grilling is probably easy, its the cutting up for that many people, and not sure on the cost.
Burgers and dogs
Haven't decided here, but I'd probably plan on doing burgers and dogs for the kids. Was trying to get away from doing it for the adults since again, everyone seems to do this in the summer and I feel its a bit boring.
Sausage
was debating about doing this instead of the steak as its easy to do for a large group. However, I'm not sure if this is too similar to the pulled pork and not a viable alternative. Maybe this helps me skip the burgers and dogs, I dunno.
As you can see from my sig, my current arsenal includes a WSM, a performer and a Genesis gold. I may be getting an SE-410 or LX440 before then. I think I have enough space to cook this stuff if I get the pork done before the party.
as sides I was going to do a cous cous salad, a tuna salad and a green salad.
Not that this is a competition, t other people in my area/family generally have these types of things in restaurants, or at least in a KoC hall with catered food. So I am trying to go a bit nicer than just burgers and dogs.
Anyone have any thoughts?
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