Grad Party

pat

pat

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I have a college grad party for 40 people I am doing at the end of the month for a coworker's daughter. She doesn't eat any meat but chicken so she has requested...you guessed it..pulled chicken! Her father wants brisket so I will be doing that as well. This is a simple cook and drop off deal. They are responsible for all sides etc.

So I am trying to gauge the amount of chicken I will need. I am thinking of smoking whole fryers and then pulling. Any idea how many of those little suckers I will need? I am guessing I can get around 4-6 sammies (1/4# or so) from each bird. Am I way off base?? Any better way to do pulled chicken?

Thanks for reading :biggrin:
 
Hi Pat,

I'd say you're right on with the 1/4 pound per sammie estimate. But you might want to figure 1/3 pound finished pulled chicken per person just to be safe.

I've never done "pulled chicken" before so I can't help you with how many birds to cook. I always do parts. Mostly legs & thighs.

If it's gonna be mostly girls, that 1/4 might be plenty. But if there are going to be guys... Well, you know...

Have fun!
 
No experience with a lot of pulled chix, Pat! However, I did do some pulled chix in Texas for some tacos for about 20ppl. I used leftover thighs and breastes, I would guesstimate about 20 pieces of both. The breastes were considerably bigger than the thighs. Not sure about whole fryer amounts!
 
Thanks for the responses guys! Never done pulled chicken for 40 people before so kind of at a loss. Maybe I can talk them into thighs, legs and breasts instead. Would be much easier. Thanks again.
 
Never pulled any chicken. 1/4lb per person sounds good for an estimate. Since you have brisket too you really don't need to cook for 40 on each of the meats.

I saw at Aldi's yesterday, they were selling skinless and boneless chicken thighs and breasts. Frozen, but they would save you time on having to remove all the bones.
 
Thanks Ray. That Aldi's deal sounds good to me.
 
my .02
I get the boneless/skinless thighs marinade them over nite......grill them then cut em
in 1/2 inch strips.....
 
Give Brewers a call. They have bonless/skinless thigh meat ... cost varies but always good stuff. Smoke chop and serve.
 
Marinating might help from drying out too (after its chopped). THat is a concern of mine.

Balls thanks for the Brewers thought. Always forget about them!
 
I will add that about 2 weeks ago I did pulled pork and pulled chicken for 50. I smoked whole fryers and found them very easy to pull/shred for the pulled chicken meat. Also was some of the best chicken meat I've ever cooked. Rubbed with Blues hawg and smoked at 300-325 until 180 in the thighs. I think I cooked like 6 fryers and had plenty.

Who all is eating brisket, just the dad or is it a 50/50 split? That question would determine how much chicken I'd cook and I'd also figure 1/3lb serving.
 
AlabamaGrillBillies said:
Who all is eating brisket, just the dad or is it a 50/50 split? That question would determine how much chicken I'd cook and I'd also figure 1/3lb serving.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input! I think it will probably be a 50/50 split. Got a call last night and the total is now pushing 60 people. So did you cook an even amount of pork and chicken or go heavy on the pork? Any idea of the average weight of the fryers you used?
 
pat said:
Thanks for the input! I think it will probably be a 50/50 split. Got a call last night and the total is now pushing 60 people. So did you cook an even amount of pork and chicken or go heavy on the pork? Any idea of the average weight of the fryers you used?
Click to expand...

Probably around 3.5lbs or a little bigger. I just bought what they had at walmart.
 
Hey I went and checked my records. (I try to keep them on of my for money cooks) I bought 4 whole fryers and they averaged 5.5lbs each. It turned out plenty of pulled chicken. I was suprised at the yield of meat. I'd estimate I got 75% of the raw weight in pulled chicken. And that is exactly what SoEzzy's catering spreadsheet figures.
 
THanks man! That sounds a little closer to the size of ones around here.
 
Stick with legs and thighs for pulling. Buying a whole bird will only give you two extra boobs so I bet the cost of buying legs and thighs will work out cheaper and lessen the chance of having any dry meat in the batch. Use quarters if you can get them.
 
Dr_KY said:
Stick with legs and thighs for pulling. Buying a whole bird will only give you two extra boobs so I bet the cost of buying legs and thighs will work out cheaper and lessen the chance of having any dry meat in the batch. Use quarters if you can get them.
Click to expand...

Actually whole birds will give everyone what they want, plus an added surprise - a pan full of nothing but wings. Now everybody's happy!
 
I'll add that the meat I got from smoking whole fryers was better tasting than any chicken I've smoked before. I'm seriously thinking about from now on always smoking whole fryers for pulled chicken. The whole birds were actually very easy to pull and yielded a good bit of meat.
 
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