So all you smoking experts out there please chime in and help me out. I plan on smoking some meat for my daughters birthday party and have a few questions. First how many pounds of meat will I need? I will have 40-50 people there ranging from toddlers to elementarty age kids to teenagers to old people. I will have some potatoe salad, cole slaw, and chips also plus cake afterwards. Also what should I smoke? I was going to do meats that can be shredded up to make sandwiches with them as I think it will be easier. Was thinking a couple chickens and a beef briskett or pork shoulder but not sure what would be best. Any advice is helpful. Thanks!
Smoking meat for a party???
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Gonna have to ask my girlfriend. She does all the meat smoking.
Seriously though, can you go wrong with any of the above?
Seriously though, can you go wrong with any of the above?
You may want to consider doing a big turkey or a couple turkeys instead of doing chicken with that many people. They will take longer to smoke, but you'll get more meat. Doing a pork shoulder or beef brisket would be good too, but if you want to keep it simple, almost everyone I know likes smoked turkey.
Also, if you do chicken or turkey, I would recommend brining the meat in the refrigerator the night before - you won't regret it and there are a lot of good brining recipes on the internet to choose from. This will give the meat good flavor and help keep it moist.
I'm no expert but I will say that you need to know what you're doing to pull off briskett. If not cooked correctly it will come out very tough. If you've got the experience, then more power to you.
I've had a lot of luck with pork loin. It's not too tough to cook and it makes for great leftovers. How much you need is hard to guage. I'd GUESS somewhere between 1/3-1/2# of meat per person. Good luck.
I have a escort service on speed dial that may help with this question.....
Oh that kind of smoking of meat. Nevermind then.
Oh that kind of smoking of meat. Nevermind then.
Pork shoulders are pretty easy and fool proof. I like to inject mine with a combination of onion, garlic and water mixed well in a blender, coat with a lite amount of a rub. Smoke for 2 hours and wrap in foil and cook for 6-8 more hours at 200 degrees. Cook about 1/2 pound per person.
I've smoked all the meats I've listed before so have a good idea of what I'm doing just not sure what would be best or how much to buy.
I really considered turkey also! I've always had good feed back when I've smoked them for small Thanksgiving dinners
I prefer pork loin over a shoulder just cause the shoulder has too much fat.
So id go with a whole brisket, not just the point, and ay least 3 whole loins, and whatever for chicken, maybe a bunch of hind quarters. And def. Brine the chicken.
We have a bbq every spring, not this year for some reason tho, and I do a brisket, 2 loins and several(10 or so) racks of spare ribs for about 25 adults and sometimes that's barely enough.
So id go with a whole brisket, not just the point, and ay least 3 whole loins, and whatever for chicken, maybe a bunch of hind quarters. And def. Brine the chicken.
We have a bbq every spring, not this year for some reason tho, and I do a brisket, 2 loins and several(10 or so) racks of spare ribs for about 25 adults and sometimes that's barely enough.
+1 on pork loins. All you have to do is put a good rub on them an let them go. I like to do several, and put different rubs on each one. Slice it up and it goes great on sandwiches. Cooks more evenly (read: less time) than chicken or turkey.
That said, you could maybe even do something like this the day before, put it in a roaster, and do a turkey or something the day of.
That said, you could maybe even do something like this the day before, put it in a roaster, and do a turkey or something the day of.
I would go with 2 of the largest pork shoulders you can get, Rub with any good rub and let sit for about 45 minutes then inject with Cajun Buttor, half a jar each, Cook at 225 until internal temp is 190, maybe 6 hours pull off smoker, let sit for about 30 minutes. The last 20 or so degress always seems to take the longest, so you can finsh off in the oven at 300 until temp is reached, your just trying to get up to temp, will not affect the flavor, Pull and enjoy, Really easy , plus Pork shoulder freezes really well, I'll two at a time and and pull both and freeze one
