I recently made 3 dinners each for 11-12 guests: one veal roast, two roast chickens, roasted potatoes or room-temp potato salad with vinaigrette, steamed asparagus topped with minced herbs and lemon zest. Glazed lemon-almond cake and a toasted hazelnut torte with chocolate glaze, a platter of strawberries and raspberries for dessert.
If you want a vegetarian option or entree, I think chickpea curry, black bean chili, and vegetarian lasagna (( like a sauce with lots of mushrooms or a layer of thinly sliced pieces of eggplant, pieces of eggplant, not big slices because they are so hard to cut if its not a sit down dinner), also have had succes with a very simple entree of stuffed baked potatoes with a big chopped salad, could add grilled lamb burgers (great recipe in Food52's first book) for omnivores.
One meal we cook often for large groups (I just made it for my niece's wedding with 125 guests!) is a carnitas taco bar. I make a version similar to this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tacos-of-Carnitas-Roasted-with-Orange-Milk-and-Pepper-358749 and serve beans, avocado/tomatillo salsa, fresh corn tortillas, crema and cotija as well as mix of roasted sweet potato/zucchini/corn for a vegetarian option. The meat and salsa can be made the day ahead and the leftovers are great.
I had 13 for dinner last weekend and made a double batch of duck ragu the day before. The morning of the dinner party I made egg pasta dough and let is rest all day. When guests arrived, I reheated the ragu, made a simple salad of bitter greens and blood oranges, and we all rolled out the pasta together. Dessert was gelato from the store with huckleberries from last summer stashed in the fridge.
The orzo and lambstew recently highlighted in the columns looks great and like something that would easily feed a crowd. It covers all your food groups, too. Maybe serve it alongside some roasted carrots, with something for crunch. A cold soup starter would be great and crowd friendly too: http://www.marthastewart.com/315413/chilled-cucumber-basil-and-mint-soup?czone=food%2Fsoup-recipes%2Fsoups&gallery=275145&slide=315413¢er=1009537
http://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/cold-minted-pea-soup
I agree with the pork shoulder. My go-to large meal is a slow roasted pork shoulder (try Serious Eats' Ultra Slow Roasted Crispy Pork Shoulder); Caramelized onion and apple cornbread (search on Bon Appetit); Apple Cabbage Slaw with Brown Sugar-Cider Vinaigrette (this site); and some baked beans. You can make the baked beans meatless, and a few days ahead. You can size this whole meal up or down as you like it.
http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/10/slow-cooker-thai-chicken-soup/. You can just double the recipe and amaze everyone w your cooking. It's so easy, yet delicious and flavorful. I'd cook a bunch of white rice. To serve, form a mound of rice in a soup bowl with a half cup and pour soup over w garnish. The presentation looks great. And plenty of Kirin to complete it.
The menu might depend on how many vegetarian or vegan eaters are in the group. This is a hugely personal and broad observation, but I've found that vegetarian and vegan choices are important to the under 40 range and nearly expected by the under 30 range.
This is a good reason to use free dinner e-invites. It's an easy way to ask people what they can and cannot eat in a quick, online invite, rather than having to make dozens of phone calls and keeping lists.
I second Julie's idea. You can never go wrong with roast or grilled chicken with a few sides. A few other ideas are slow-cooking a pork shoulder for pulled pork bbq, or buying some good quality brats or other sausages and grilling them + peppers and onions. You could make a few salads ahead of time and serve at room temperature. This is one of my favorites: http://food52.com/recipes/9110-radish-and-pecan-grain-salad
I like to spatchcock and roast a couple chickens when I have a lot of people to feed - you can cook them all at once, and since they're flattened out they should cook in only 30-40 mins at 450. Really moist, and delicious served with some cornbread and a bright slaw. For dessert, I like to make some nice cookies and serve them with ice cream - you can serve a lot of people that way.
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http://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/cold-minted-pea-soup
This is a good reason to use free dinner e-invites. It's an easy way to ask people what they can and cannot eat in a quick, online invite, rather than having to make dozens of phone calls and keeping lists.
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