How Much Meat Do You Need Per Person At A BBQ?

Hosting a barbecue can be a great way to bring together family and friends, enjoy nice weather, and eat incredible food. But it takes a lot of planning. One of the most important details to plan is how much food to cook, and one of the mistakes you want to avoid when hosting a barbecue is not buying enough food. So, how much meat do you need per person?

The general guideline is that you should buy about eight ounces of boneless meat or 12 ounces of bone-in meat per person. For children, you can halve the amount. This rule of thumb works for just about any barbecue meat, including burgers, chicken, steak, and so on. If you're still worried there won't be enough, then you can always buy an extra portion or two to ease your mind. After all, it doesn't hurt to have leftovers for yourself at the end of the barbecue.

There are a few other factors to consider, keeping the specific guests in mind. For example, if you know your guests well, then you may be able to predict how much they may want to eat — perhaps a family member always eats two burgers or a friend likes to try a bit of everything. So, you can start with the general rule of thumb for meat per person and go from there.

There's also one more major factor to consider: the sides. If you plan on having a large variety of sides, then you may need less meat. On the other hand, you may want the meat to be the main event and only prepare one or two sides — in this case, you may want to buy the recommended amount of meat (or a little bit more, if you want to play it safe).

If you're offering multiple sides, you can also consider how filling those sides are. Something like a watermelon and goat cheese salad is the perfect summer barbecue side, but it's not very filling. You shouldn't count on most salads filling up your guests before they get to the meat. On the other hand, something like mac and cheese is a bit easier to fill up on, especially if it's an especially tasty recipe (like our best mac and cheese ever) that guests won't want to stop eating. Plus, if the sides are available for guests to eat before the meat is ready, they may fill up before the meat is even served. In this case, it's much more likely you'll need less meat.

All in all, the sides play an important role. So, next time you're hosting, be sure to consider what your plan for the sides is before you decide on exactly how much meat to buy.