BBQ - How much food to allow?

[skankingpiglet]

My PFB turns one next week and having lost my mum last month I had a bit of a 'sod it, just do it' moment and have organised a BBQ for DD. I know she's too small to remember it and I wasn't going to bother with a party this year, but I think we all need a bit of a lift and TBH I'm probably hoping I can hide Mum's absence in numbers.
I wasn't expecting many to be able to make it as it's last minute but have been (very pleasantly) surprised with the number of people coming. I am now however completely freaking out about how much food I need to get in as I've never hosted this many people before (currently at 20 adults and 9 kids, with more replies coming in). Is there a rough rule of thumb how many pieces of BBQ each person would have? I certainly don't want to be stingy, but also don't want to be left with a mountain of food/waste money either.

I personally go for 1 burger and 2 sausages per adult, half that number of baps with maybe some chicken skewers. children really depends on age. This is usually too much but sausages are always useful.

Buy lots of jacket potatoes and make salads so people eat less meat.

I allow loads. A shameful amount really
1 piece of chicken ( whether thighs, or skewers)
1 burger
1 sausage
1 veg ( corn on cob and or halloumi and pepper skewers )
Per adult

1 burger 1 sausage 1 veg per child

Plus a new potato salad, green salad and a batch of spicy chicken wings for everyone to pick at.

I always provide burger baps, sausage rolls, pittas and or flatbreads so people can have a flatbread salads and halloumi or stuff chicken skewers in pittas, etc.

Even though it's loads I very rarely have cooked leftovers, but there's always bread leftover. I host bbqs fortnightly through summer

Thank you everyone
I've planned a fair few sides which are all vegan (we have a few attending), including filling ones (pasta salad, potatoes, butterbean salad). Got some big mushrooms and veg for kebabs for the BBQ. Just about to do the meat shop. Think I will plan safe and go for one piece of chicken, burger and sausage per adult then as there's no way I want a mid-afternoon dash to the shops in a taxi as I'll be too passed to drive. Maybe hold back on throwing some of the sausages on to cook until the end so I can freeze instead if it looks like we've over-done it.
Good thinking on the pittas pregnantpause, and I like the idea of jacket potatoes littlef00t.

To save room on the BBQ what we've done before is put a few tins of hot dogs in the slow cooker to warm in the kitchen, this is great for feeding the kids and more than a couple of adults enjoy them too!

It depends entirely on how old the kids are. If you have sport-loving teenage boys there, they may eat more than the adults.

You can also freeze the uneaten cooked meat for another day - eg mixing in with pasta or pasta sauces, rice etc.

In my experience people don't take many sausages, but it lots of hamburgers. Plus not much green salad as it's very fiddly

Do not serve tinned hotdogs they are disgusting

I love having big BBQ get togethers! no matter how many you are catering for, always cook your burgers/sausages/etc through in the oven so they are just cooked. This prevents food poisoning and speed things up on the grill as you are just finishing them off and giving them that lovely BBQ flavour. If you do it that way, then you can do them the morning of the party and fridge them. You can always cook more through later on if needed.

Don't forget it its a charcoal grill the coals will only last for so long before the heat dies right down and they need replacing. This can be a 30-50 minute wait so factor that in. If its gas then make sure your bottle is at least half full.

I completely second the person that said heat (decent quality) hot dogs in a slow cooker, saves ages and keeps kids away from the grill. Keep kids cup drinks near it too and that saves kids doing your head in asking for drinks too! Only put 6-12 drinks out at a time though or they will get power drunk and you will find dozens of half drunk cups all over the place. You will need something for the kids to do to keep occupied. Maybe a paddling pool/water sprinkler (make sure towels are clean/dry) if its warm other than that whack a movie on for the older ones and give them the wifi password. Younger kids maybe let them to decorate digestives with a few tubes of writing icing and a bag of sweets etc.

Other than that make it easy on yourself with paper plates, plastic cups, serviettes, plastic trays with buns pre cut and cling filmed, and buy bin bags for all the rubbish to go in. Get a crate/bin for empty cans and bottles and point it out to people. Hopefully you will have a manageable mess instead of Armageddon at the end of it!

I understand why you might start chicken off in the oven but I couldn't be bothered to cook everything twice. Surely the whole pint of a BBQ is the cooking is done outside.