Lasagna

Dinner for a Crowd

Whether you're cooking for a big Sunday dinner or a holiday gathering, try these easy, crowd-pleasing recipes perfect for any occasion.

Dinner For A Crowd
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5 Tips for a Dinner Party Buffet at Home
I love having friends over for dinner, and I’m lucky enough that I have the space to have six people around the table in my Brooklyn kitchen. But six people can still be a tight squeeze, so I almost always set the food up buffet-style. It gives everyone a little more room at the table, and it makes it easier for me to clean up later. We’ve shown you how to plan a buffet for a large gathering, like a wedding, but I have a few tips that are important for smaller dinner parties.
Kristin Appenbrink
May 22, 2015
The Real Reason I Don’t Want You to Help with the Dishes
You probably think I’m rude when I sneak away from the table, taking a few plates to the kitchen, trying and failing to go unnoticed. You probably think I won’t let you help because I’m too uptight about the way things are done. (You would have been right about that 10 years ago, but I’ve recovered, and will happily let other people clean these days.) Worst of all, it might seem like I want the party to end, and for you to go home. But none of that would be true.
Anne Wolfe Postic
May 19, 2015
Recipe: Balsamic-Marinated Stuffed Flank Steak
Flank steak is a fairly popular cut of beef, and for good reason — it’s flavorful, inexpensive, and incredibly versatile! Unfortunately I’ve had my fair share of tough ones over the years; the lean meat almost seems to overcook if you just look at it the wrong way. Thankfully this recipe for balsamic flank steak stuffed with prosciutto and cheese has renewed my faith in the often-too-tough meat.
Nealey Dozier
Feb 13, 2015
Hot Tea Is the Best Way to End Thanksgiving Dinner
We spend a lot of time planning and cooking the Thanksgiving meal, but what happens when the feast is over? The late afternoon hours at the table are my favorite part, after the rush of the meal, lingering over a last bite of pie and talking with relatives I rarely get to see. But if you just can’t handle one more pecan bar and another glass of wine is a bad idea, cup your hands around a hot cup of tea instead — and make enough for everyone as they sit back and digest.
Faith Durand
Nov 22, 2014
The Thanksgiving Happy Hour: Our 5 Tips for Appetizers & Drinks
Setting out appetizers before Thanksgiving dinner can seem almost perverse: Why nibble when you’re about to consume the heartiest, richest holiday meal of the year? But there are good reasons to consider the lead-up to turkey time as a proper happy hour. Here is how I think about the drinks-and-apps portion of the day, with a few tips for keeping it easy, fun, and — above all — light! Appetizers and drinks — happy hour!
Faith Durand
Nov 13, 2014
How I Calculated the Amount of Food Needed to Feed 200 People at a DIY Wedding Reception
Yesterday I explained how I catered a friend’s wedding earlier this spring, and I offered up the five questions I think you should ask yourself before tackling a project like this. I should have added one more criteria: Are you good at math? Because catering takes a lot of it. Here’s the first piece of math required — estimating and calculating how many bites per person you are going to need.
Faith Durand
Jun 17, 2014
5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Deciding to Cater a Wedding or Other Large Event
This week I’m sharing the wedding I catered for a friend last month — a big shebang with drinks and appetizers for about 200 people. It was a lot of work, and while I love catering weddings from time to time, I honestly don’t recommend it as a one-size-fits-all solution for a budget wedding. You need to make sure you have a few things in place and are up for the challenge. To that end, I always recommend people ask these five questions — ready to take the quiz?
Faith Durand
Jun 16, 2014
Recipe: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
A good pulled pork sandwich makes me happy down to my toes. It’s porky and rich, tossed with just enough sauce to tickle the ol’ taste buds. Top it with some coleslaw or leave it plain, I don’t care as long as I have a napkin to wipe my face. Come summer, pulled pork sandwiches are definitely on the menu. You can get your pulled pork any way that works for you.
Emma Christensen
Jun 4, 2014
What I Cook: Abby’s Favorite Cookbooks & Her Tip For a Stress-Free Dinner Party
Last week we showed you Abby Ruettgers’ sweet South End kitchen, a gorgeous, well-edited space with rows of cookbooks, soapstone countertops, and a big chopping board. Abby loves to entertain, and her kitchen is perfectly set up for it: in colder months friends hang out at the counter or lounge around her dining table; in the summer they head out to the patio, which is in near-constant use in grilling season.
Cambria Bold
Mar 17, 2014
Ten Ways to Make a Pork Butt Last All Week (Or Just All Day)
Though it’s one of my favorite big-party dishes, a slow-roasted pork butt is also an ingenious way to get food on the table all week long, or parsed out over a month or two. A typical five or six pound boneless pork butt will yield a nice pile of cooked meat. Once you have your mountain of shredded pork, the possibilities are almost limitless. Let’s pause for a quick pig anatomy lesson. A pork butt is not, in fact, the hog’s rear end. If anything, that’s the ham.
Sara Kate Gillingham
Feb 20, 2014
5 Tips for Setting Up a Better Holiday Buffet
Setting up a buffet table like the one for our Cozy Holiday Potluck Make things easy on yourself and on your guests: have a post-it note with their name or the name of their dish already on the buffet table. This way, no one has to finagle for space between the macaroni salad and the dinner rolls, or wonder if the host wants their dish in a particular spot on the table.
Emma Christensen
Dec 13, 2013
6 Tips for Creating a Seating Plan
Assigned seating for dinner parties was de rigueur back in the day and had very prescribed rules of etiquette. Nowadays, you might occasionally see a dinner party seating plan, especially at weddings but also big dinners like Thanksgiving. Sometimes I suspect that this practice has survived because we want to use all those pretty/cool/interesting place cards more than any excessive need to control the table, but it can also be a hospitable gesture to offer each guest a named place at the table.
Dana Velden
Nov 18, 2013
Make-Ahead Recipe: Lamb Korma
Autumn is all about the warming, stick-to-your-ribs dishes that sound so good as the weather cools down, but comfort food doesn’t have to mean heavy and cheesy. For the fall pumpkin-carving party I hosted for our latest Gatherings From The Kitchn, I wanted to serve a meal that was fresh and healthy as well as warm and comforting, so I planned a buffet centered around an Indian-themed baked sweet potato bar.
Anjali Prasertong
Oct 22, 2013
Recipe for a Crowd: Honey & Chili Chicken Thighs with Creamy Cilantro Sauce
When I started planning my All-American Beer Bottling Party, I knew I wanted a main dish that would come together easily and quickly, that would feed a crowd of hungry beer bottlers, and that would go with — or be made with! — beer. These chicken thighs have it all. They’re tossed with honey, chili powder, and a splash of amber ale and then quickly roasted in the oven, where the honey and beer bake down to a sticky glaze.
Emma Christensen
Jun 24, 2013
Recipe: Creamy Watercress Soup with Lemon-Goat Cheese Dumplings
When Cambria asked Faith and myself for some help coming up with a main course for her Spring Vegetarian Dinner Party for Six, at first we couldn’t decide. Faith thought it should be creamy and green. Cambria wanted a vegetarian dish that wasn’t just another platter of pasta. I advocated for something satisfying and hearty, but still light enough for a spring meal. The final vote was unanimous: a pureed soup of peppery spring watercress served with warm goat cheese dumplings.
Emma Christensen
May 14, 2013
Reining in Ambition: 3 Tips for a Successful Dinner Party
Being able to consistently cook successful meals at home can provide a lot of confidence — the kind of confidence that makes us think we can manage a dinner party event, no sweat. The kind of confidence that challenges us to try a whole new recipe for the occasion. The kind of confidence that makes us think ” Oh, that? That’ll just take 10 minutes to prepare.
Chris Perez
Apr 4, 2013
Holiday Recipe: Brown Sugar & Dijon Mustard Glazed Ham
For me — and for many Southerners, I presume — Easter is the first real mark of spring. We dress our houses and tables (and even ourselves) to impress, pulling out all the stops from the freshest flowers to the fanciest flatware. We join together to celebrate a time of joy, renewal, and life. And then we eat! Here’s a look back at my own Easter weekend celebration, with a recipe for a classic Southern ham, warm and glossy with a mustard glaze.
Nealey Dozier
Apr 1, 2013
Tips for Throwing a Polenta Supper Party
Here is our last installment of this week’s series on throwing a winter dinner party with a big, lavish board of polenta. It’s the first in our new Gatherings from The Kitchn columns. We’d love to be a resource for you in gatherings large and small, from intimate dinner parties to fabulous fetes — and we have plenty more planned for this year. (Tell us if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see! Any requests for gatherings inspiration?
Faith Durand
Mar 22, 2013
Recipe to Feed a Crowd: Pulled Pork Tacos
Oh my goodness, I am only going to say this once. I am so freakin’ glad Thanksgiving is over. Why might you ask? Because five days in San Francisco, Marin County, and beyond have really done a number on my waistline me. Between a complete Thanksgiving dinner in Georgia and another in Cali, plus a dreamy turkey noodle casserole, multiple bowls of white turkey chili, not to mention the barbecued oysters overlooking Tomales Bay, cheese straight from Cowgirl creamery in Pt.
Nealey Dozier
Nov 26, 2012
Recipe: Enchiladas de Pipián Rojo
Every Halloween I like to cook something warm and pumpkin-y for dinner. This year I’ll pair my favorite pumpkin tortilla soup with enchiladas de pipián rojo, a smoky, nutty, spiced (but not too spicy) sauce made with pumpkin seeds, chile peppers, and roasted vegetables. In Mexico, pipián is a type of mole or sauce served with meat or over enchiladas. Made with ground seeds or nuts, it may be green (verde) or red (rojo).
Emily Han
Oct 31, 2012
5 Tips for Hosting a Soup Party
My favorite kind of gathering to throw this time of year is a soup party. Hands down. It encourages a very informal mingling that I’m always drawn to far more than stuffy, plated dinner parties and it gives me a chance to flex my soup muscles and try a few new recipes. But I’ve found that, while casual, a soup party does take a little tending and planning.My family has a long history of soup parties in the fall.
Megan Gordon
Oct 17, 2012
Recipe: Baked Eggs With Creamy Polenta, Spinach & Garlic
I had my first experience of the Nickel Diner in downtown Los Angeles a few weeks ago, and you can bet I zeroed right in on the “Eggs Baked on Polenta with Spinach.” My decision did not go unrewarded. In fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about this dish and its divine trifecta of savory breakfast treats, even after I’d boarded my plane and flew home. The creamy polenta was the first piece of the puzzle.
Emma Christensen
Sep 3, 2012
Entertaining Guests from Another Country? Make The Food You Know and Love
A friend called the other night, panicked. “Help! I’m having some people from our Tokyo office over for dinner tomorrow night and I don’t know a thing about Japanese food!” My response? “Great. Don’t make Japanese food.”For some reason, we have this funny notion that when we have guests from another country over to dinner, we need to serve them food from their homeland.
Dana Velden
Mar 9, 2012
Mardi Gras Recipe: Pepper Weenies with Smoked Bacon & Vidalia Onion Marmalade
Mardi Gras is on Tuesday. Do you have plans? We’ve got a fun, super easy recipe for an impromptu party—hot dogs! But they’re gussied-up hot dogs, boiled in a spicy broth and served with saucy onions.This recipe comes from chef David Guas, a New Orleans native who owns the Bayou Bakery in Arlington, Virginia. David says these spicy dogs are a classic Mardi Gras food; people serve them along the parade route or at parties.
Elizabeth Passarella
Feb 16, 2012
Recipe to Feed a Crowd: Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef
There are very few foods that feed a large crowd with little effort. Tacos may be the simplest option for feeding a lot of people, and today we are bringing you one of our favorite taco stuffings: barbacoa beef, tender and full of rich, complex flavors. Yes, did you know you can make that tasty stuff you buy at Chipotle in your own kitchen — and in your slow cooker, no less? I have a serious thing for barbacoa.
Sarah Rae Smith
Jan 31, 2012
How Frequently Do You Invite People Over to Share a Meal?
People often imply that summer is the time to entertain and have dinner parties, but personally I feel like winter is the high point of sharing meals with others. Everyone is in town, working hard, and sharing a home-cooked meal with friends or family can be a treat on a cold winter evening. So we are curious and wanted to ask: How frequently do you have people over in your home to share a meal?Note that I did not ask how often you have dinner parties or entertain.
Faith Durand
Jan 17, 2012