Summer Dinner Party Guide
A recommended menu, tips and logistics for a large group
A recommended menu, tips and logistics for a large group
Last summer, a friend and I threw a dinner party for her birthday— there were 13 of us, and we landed on six appetizers (salads, roasted veggies, crispy smashed potatoes, etc.), two main dishes, and one dessert. It was quite an undertaking: we were roasting two whole chickens in the oven while simultaneously trying to figure out how to wrap up some of the other sides that needed oven time and figure out how to course everything out in equal intervals, and it was ultimately an amazing learning experience. I loved seeing what we were able to produce in a tiny kitchen, and now I can share all of my key takeaways with you. To start, here are a few tips:
A slow-roasted (2-3 hour) chicken is the perfect choice for a main if all of your other dishes are stovetop or fresh (salads, fruit and/or cheese-based dishes, cast-iron potato dishes, and the like) since you’re able to time it well, serve your starters and go enjoy the party without constantly tending to the oven.
If you’re doing more of a coursed-out dinner, a 45-minute roast chicken is the way to go. Ideally, you’ll be able to fit another dish in the oven simultaneously if needed, and you can pop the chicken in the oven after you’ve served your second dish, give or take, and it’ll be ready after you’ve made your way through half of the meal with enough time to rest, carve and plate.
To keep it simple, if you have a larger group (around 10-15), choosing one salad or main and making a few servings of the same will save you a lot of energy. For our dinner party last summer, we did a few different baked veggies and I think that it would’ve saved us a bit of stress (what with the two chickens in the oven) to have only chosen one and made several more servings of it. For our 13-person dinner party, we ended up doubling the ingredients on every recipe we chose (which usually served 4-6 to begin with) and it ended up being the perfect amount of food.
On the menu:
A dip and griddled bread for the table as everyone arrives
Cheese and citrus: blue, goat, or burrata paired with orange and/or grapefruit wedges, olive oil and flaky salt for passing around
A bright, punchy salad (little gems are my go-to, a little gem Caesar in particular: this one is my favorite)
A baked veggie: fennel is fairly foolproof, gets deeply caramelized, and is so good topped with melty parmesan or pecorino
Another baked veggie, like carrots or leeks, if you’d like, or a double portion of the dish above
A whole roast chicken: walkthroughs on YouTube make the carving process a breeze: it’s much less intimidating than I originally assumed, don’t let the whole chicken scare you :-)
Crispy smashed potatoes, to serve with the chicken. I’d also recommend making a green dressing or an aioli to serve alongside the potatoes
A pasta dish of some sort: I absolutely love orzo— it’s so easy to make perfectly and there are all kinds of elevated mac-and-cheese adjacent directions to take it that make it the crowd-favorite dish of the night. Of course, you could also opt for something green or more refreshing. You can do small plates / dainty servings of this if you ended up making two chickens, or more regular portions if you just made one
Dessert: sorbet is the perfect dinner party closer, IMO, because it’s so light and refreshing after the many dishes you just consumed. See sorbet in citrus rinds: my personal gold standard. They’re cute and effortless— all you’ve got to do is buy some good sorbet and place it in the empty lemon or grapefruit peels, and if you plan ahead, you can use all of the lemon or grapefruit in a recipe for the party. You could always make it from scratch, but it’s not super necessary and will likely be just as good (and save you lots of time!) to buy sorbet from the store.
Logistics
I start by making a big .pages document with each recipe’s ingredients, double the recipe if needed, and add everything to the AnyList app: it sorts everything into categories for you and makes a huge grocery trip so much easier
I print out each individual recipe for easy viewing the day of and make any notes based on tips I might’ve learned from the comments section of the recipe, and I make notes on the order in which everything needs to be prepped and go into the oven and so forth. If I’m making lots of coursed-out dishes, I’ll write out a timeline from arrival to when the last dish should be served to try to get as precise as possible
I do the grocery run the day before and prep everything I can: washing herbs, slicing veggies that won’t brown, grating cheese, and measuring out spices to make assembly a bit easier the next day
Day of, I run through each recipe and make sure I know what order each dish needs to be done and sort out tasks to delegate to friends if needed
All that’s left is to execute! I’d recommend serving everything family style unless you’ve got lots of counter space to do individual plating. Happy hosting :-)