Help! Party Planning


 
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Trevor Blohm

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So, with all of your help, I have made great chicken, pork shoulders and ABTs. Thank you! (The Chicken was the Terry Rockney's recipe from the Legends of Texas Barbeque book)

My wife took some of the chicken to work with her, and I found myself volunteered to smoke an extra chicken last weekend. Now I am cooking for a party-maybe 15 to 20 adults.

What do you suggest for a menu? How many chickens can 15 people eat? How much pulled pork can they eat?

I don't really know my wife's coworkers well, but I think they are all pretty big bbq aficianados.

I have been thinking of cooking a shoulder the day/night before, and after the shoulder comes off, cook the chickens for 3 hours before BBQ-hour. Maybe a few racks of babybacks for appetizers.

The recipe I used was for a whole butterflied and brined chicken, which maybe I could fit 4 on the WSM. I have wondered about just making chicken pieces, maybe I could fit more on. I don't know what that will do for cooking time, though, I will have to investigate.

I have been using apple wood, I am running out though. Can anyone suggest a good source of apple wood chunks? Ideally, it would be close to Michigan to reduce shipping costs.

Thanks again for all of the help!
 
Trevor,

Congrads on your new found fame! If you were only serving chicken I would tell you to cook 10 birds (3#average)as I would always prefer to have leftovers than not enough and that would give you 1/2 bird each if your guests were big eaters. But with butt and ribs also, I would recommend 5-6 birds (quarter them after cooking), that will STILL give you leftovers and ensure at least 1/4 per person +. If you set the chicken up beer butt style you can easily do six, three on each rack. I have done 4 on a rack but they are a bit crowded and I added additional cooking time.
You can do the ribs and the butt the night before, set up 5 racks of rolled ribs over your butt and reheat along with the butt. Double wrap in foil and refrigerate. I've reheated ribs at 350 for about 45 minutes, a 8 pound butt (pre cooked weight), took about 1-1/2 hours at 350.
Coleslaw is a quick and easy side and corn on the cob is a must this time of year and again, very little work. More work but worth it is some home-made corn bread. Chris has some great recipes this month you can access from the home page and Keri has her award winning recipe in the recipe section.
A fresh fruit salad for dessert is easy and good for a crowd. Just cut up a bunch of your favorite fruits...you know what, I'll post the salad in the recipe section.
Good luck!
 
Thanks for all of the help!

The fame is spreading fast, which is bewildering. Do others have a similar experience?

I am going to look into cooking the chickens beer can style, so I can fit the 6 on. The only reason I see for butterflying it is to fit it into the brine better. Maybe I can find some new 5 gallon buckets to brine the intact birds in my beer fridge.

Thanks again, the event isn't for a few weeks, but I already feel that it is a much safer proposition. I will let you know how it goes.
 
Trevor,

Let me qualify the chicken statement...I have gotten 4 chickens on the BOTTOM rack, and two on the top, might be able to get three on the top but it would be a stretch...
 
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