feeding 60 people, how much meat to buy?

Good luck to you man. 60 people is a lot to prepare for. I may be way off here, but I believe that a pound of barbecue will easily feed 7-8 people. A whole young chicken should feed at least six as well (assuming you get an equal number of people who like light and dark meat).
If it were me, I'd go with at least two pork butts (7-8 lbs) and six whole chickens. That way there should be a no food for everyone as well as those who want to go back for seconds.
Again, I could be way off on these portion sizes. The best of luck to you. Should make for a great post.
- Ryan

HardwoodAlchemy said:

I wish I'd seen the Catering and Large Groups forum ... found most of my answer the "How much meat per person?" thread, so I'll take my question over there.

Click to expand...

That'll work too!

With butts, I would go with 1/3 lb person...so 1lb = 3 people. 60 people, I would do at least 3 - #10 butts. Some will eat more some will eat less....but better a little extra than not enough.

On butts you will experience a 40-50% loss in cooking. I figure 4-6oz per person, really depends on demographics and menu. Based on what you said I would go with 5oz (1/3#) per person finished weight. Sticky Fingers is a good number, but for me I like to be safe and would do 4-10# butts. Besides I would hold off on reheating all of it and save some for later.

Chicken is a bit more of a crap shoot. It really depends on the size of the birds on how many people you get out of one. At work we seem to get the little birds, so we go through a lot, home seems to be the bigger ones, even the friers are big. If you go to Sams or a store like that you can usually get a case and it is a lot cheaper by the pound. A standard case here has 12 birds in it and that should be more than enough. You could hold off on cooking a couple of them and save for later if you wanted too, but I dont like to run out, so I would do them all. Besides if you have any left you can pull them and save for chicken sandwiches later. Our church is usually doing a meal for some type of group a couple times a week, so never a shortage on ways to burn out the leftovers.