Cooking for 200, wish me luck

[jdefran]

Our church is doing an evening deal for church in January and our bible study group is providing a meal one night.

We are going to do a taco bar consisting of pulled pork and chopped chicken (thighs). For simplicity, I am going to do 100 servings of each and assume each person will take 1 of each. There will be beans, rice, etc as well.

From my math, I'll need about 50-60 lbs of raw pork shoulder/butt and about 30 lb of chicken. Does this sound good to you guys?

Now..can my 18" WSM, 26" kettle and 22" kettle handle it? I think between WSM and larger kettle I can do all the butts. I'll time it such that they're off and resting at least 2 hours before the event so they can rest in cooler. For the chicken, I can either time it to come off the grill right before we leave home or transport kettle to church.

Since initially drafting this post on WKC, I have found a local grill fella that has graciously offered to let me borrow his 22" WSM!

Any insight is appreciated! As many of you have experienced, these opportunities are exciting yet nerve wrecking. I'm grateful to provide this service and am thankful for my grill skillz 8)

 

[Steve S]

The 2 WSMs should handle that. Ive cooked about 70 lbs of butts and 50 lbs of chicken in 2 - 22 WSMs.

 

[Steve S]

You are cooking the chicken thighs in pans I assume?

 

[jdefran]

You are cooking the chicken thighs in pans I assume?

Hey Steve, I actually wasn't planning on it. Should I?

 

[sudsandswine]

So are you expecting each person to have 1 serving of pork and 1 serving of chicken a piece, or that they will either do one or the other?

 

[jdefran]

So are you expecting each person to have 1 serving of pork and 1 serving of chicken a piece, or that they will either do one or the other?

My assumption is that each person will have one chicken taco and pork taco. Some may have two chicken and the next guy two pork..some might just have beans; can't plan for each scenario.

We'll have someone serving each to expedite and ration portions. Once everyone get through the line once they can have whatever they want for seconds.

 

[sudsandswine]

Gotcha...normally for pork I go for 1/4lb cooked per person, but since you're doing tacos maybe it'd be more like 1/5lb cooked? so for 200 people at 1/4lb each you'd need 50lbs cooked, 40lbs if 1/5lb servings. My bone in Boston butt yield is usually around 50%, so at those portions I'd be looking at 80-100lb raw. I've never done pulled chicken before, which I assume you are since it's tacos, but my wild guess would be about 50-60% yield for bone in thighs or legs. I'd rather have too much than not enough personally, but maybe my numbers are on the high end for tacos.

 

[mcyork28]

I have never cooked for that many people but that amount of raw meat seems a little on the low side to me. I would rather have a little to much as opposed to not enough.

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[Jason TQ]

The last 2yrs we've done a charity cook at a local competition and aim to feed around 300-400 people. We've done ribs and pulled chicken tacos each year so I'm familiar with the chicken taco route.

I love boneless skinless thighs. Yield is higher than butts or brisket at around 60% for the boneless skinless thighs (bone in will be different and closer to 45-50%). We did 80lbs of chicken last year. Cooking in full pans is awesome because you can easily move them around and they get good smoke and also all the juice is still in there. Last year we did 80lbs in 6 pans. I was doing 2oz of meat per taco, but you can do whatever you like of course.

Here's the cook with some pics. Chicken starts on page 5
https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243352

We've been lucky enough to have done the large groups a good amount to we typically (but not always) plan well :-D. Biggest advice is get things done an hour or more (2hrs is nice) ahead of time. That way plenty of time to pull meat and get ready for when people show up.

 

[Steve S]

Hey Steve, I actually wasn't planning on it. Should I?

It'll make it much easier, and as someone said above, it helps keep them moist.

 

[jdefran]

Gotcha...normally for pork I go for 1/4lb cooked per person, but since you're doing tacos maybe it'd be more like 1/5lb cooked? so for 200 people at 1/4lb each you'd need 50lbs cooked, 40lbs if 1/5lb servings. My bone in Boston butt yield is usually around 50%, so at those portions I'd be looking at 80-100lb raw. I've never done pulled chicken before, which I assume you are since it's tacos, but my wild guess would be about 50-60% yield for bone in thighs or legs. I'd rather have too much than not enough personally, but maybe my numbers are on the high end for tacos.

So by assuming 1 pork taco and 1 chicken taco, I was thinking of simply making 100 pork servings and 100 chicken servings. So I think our math is similar just doubled/halved.

For chicken I was gonna do boneless/skinless thighs marinated in mojo. I figured only 10-15% loss there.

 

[jdefran]

The last 2yrs we've done a charity cook at a local competition and aim to feed around 300-400 people. We've done ribs and pulled chicken tacos each year so I'm familiar with the chicken taco route.

I love boneless skinless thighs. Yield is higher than butts or brisket at around 60% for the boneless skinless thighs (bone in will be different and closer to 45-50%). We did 80lbs of chicken last year. Cooking in full pans is awesome because you can easily move them around and they get good smoke and also all the juice is still in there. Last year we did 80lbs in 6 pans. I was doing 2oz of meat per taco, but you can do whatever you like of course.

Here's the cook with some pics. Chicken starts on page 5
https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243352

We've been lucky enough to have done the large groups a good amount to we typically (but not always) plan well :-D. Biggest advice is get things done an hour or more (2hrs is nice) ahead of time. That way plenty of time to pull meat and get ready for when people show up.

Glad to know the chicken is 60% yield, I was estimating 10-15% waste. I was thinking of doing 4 oz for chicken. What would you say is the volume equivalent...like a 1/4 scoop?

 

[Steve S]

Just my 2 cents, but boneless thighs arent very big. I would assume you would get at most 2 tacos per thigh. Have you though about cooking some breasts as well?

 

[Jason TQ]

Just my 2 cents, but boneless thighs arent very big. I would assume you would get at most 2 tacos per thigh. Have you though about cooking some breasts as well?

I don't think that necessarily matters if you are buying large quantities. Total meat is total meat. It's about the end weight needed vs mass of each individual. They aren't much smaller than breasts.

 

[jdefran]

Just my 2 cents, but boneless thighs arent very big. I would assume you would get at most 2 tacos per thigh. Have you though about cooking some breasts as well?

I totally could do breasts. I had just settled on thighs since they're usually cheaper and more flavorful. I think I'm just gonna go to town with a cleaver and chop it so wasn't too concerned about quantity/piece of meat. That would be helpful if I don't cook in pans to minimize how much I need to rotate/flip. Thanks for the insight

 

[jdefran]

They aren't much smaller than breasts.

That's what he said. Softball..had to

 

[Steve S]

Good luck with your cook.

 

[Jason TQ]

That's what he said. Softball..had to

I did toss it gently into the air :clap2:.

I'm a thigh/dark meat guy too. More flavor and moisture. Never had anyone complain there wasn't white meat. But boneless breasts mixed in if folks wanted that would work. I just don't do bone in anything as it does cost more, but you don't have the bone weight loss and also threat of missing a bone and also just removing them is a pain.