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 small kitchen, and now I can share all of my key takeaways with you. To start, here are a few tips:
Sign of a good time
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.
To see what’s on the full menu + logistics and other tips, head over to…
