How Much Meat Per Person? A Chart for Any Crowd

For a main course, plan on about a third to a half pound of cooked meat per adult — call it 1/3 lb when there are several substantial sides and 1/2 lb when the meat is the event. Then buy more than that, because meat shrinks as it cooks. Most cuts lose somewhere around a quarter of their weight between the raw package and the serving platter, and cuts that are cooked long and slow lose considerably more.

Nearly every “we ran out of food” story comes from confusing those two numbers. The chart below keeps them separate.

Cooked weight, then raw weight

Two figures, in this order, every time:

Decide the cooked portion. A third of a pound is a normal helping alongside a couple of sides. Half a pound is a generous plate, a barbecue, or a crowd of teenagers.
Work backwards to what you buy. Divide by the yield for that cut. Boneless roasts and steaks land near 70-75% of their raw weight. A bone-in cut has to lose the bone as well. A slow-cooked shoulder, which renders a lot of fat and water, comes out closer to half.

The arithmetic is short: 20 adults × 1/3 lb cooked = about 7 lb of cooked meat. If you are serving pulled pork at roughly 50% yield, that is around 14 lb of raw shoulder. Serving steak instead, at about 75%, you need under 10 lb.

Getting the yield wrong is the expensive mistake, because it always goes the same direction — you buy the cooked number, and half the guests get half a portion.

The chart

Raw weight to buy, per adult, for a main course.

Cut	Buy per adult	Notes
Boneless chicken breast	6-8 oz	Halve thick ones so they cook evenly
Bone-in chicken pieces	10-12 oz	Roughly two pieces
Whole chicken	1 lb	A 4 lb bird feeds about 4
Ground beef, tacos or chili	4-5 oz	Stretched by beans and toppings
Ground beef, burgers	6-8 oz	One generous or two small patties
Boneless steak	8 oz	6 oz if there is a starchy side
Bone-in steak	12-16 oz	The bone is a third of it
Beef brisket	1/2 lb	Heavy shrink; do not skimp
Pork shoulder, pulled	1/2 lb	Detail in the pulled pork post
Bone-in ham	1/2-3/4 lb	Bone-in weight, not meat
Boneless ham	1/3 lb
Sausages	6-8 oz	Two to three links
Meatballs	5-6 oz	About 4-5 medium
Fish fillet	6-8 oz	Skinless
Shrimp, peeled	1/3 lb	Double it if it is the whole meal

Kids under about ten eat roughly half an adult portion, and toddlers rather less than that — but count every teenager as an adult and a half.

The four adjustments that move the number

The chart is a starting point. These change it more than the cut does.

Buffet versus plated. People serve themselves more than you would serve them. Add about 15% for a self-serve line, and expect the first twenty guests through to take more than the last twenty. If it is a build-your-own bar — a taco, baked potato or hot dog bar — the toppings do a lot of the filling, and you can hold the meat closer to the low end.

How many sides you are running. Three or more substantial sides and you can drop the meat by roughly 15-20%. Bread, rice, potatoes and a heavy pasta salad all displace meat directly. One green salad does not.

Time of day and length. A two-hour lunch eats less than a five-hour afternoon. Anything that runs into a second wave of grazing needs the higher figure.

Whether you want leftovers. Deliberately over-buying by 10-15% on a slow-cooked cut is often the right call, because brisket and pulled pork reheat beautifully and portion straight into the freezer. Over-buying steak does not pay the same way.

Worked examples

A 12-person Sunday roast, chicken, four sides. 12 × 6 oz boneless breast = about 4.5 lb, or two whole chickens if you would rather roast birds. Four sides means the low end is safe.

A 25-person barbecue, pulled pork, buffet, three sides. 25 × 1/2 lb raw = 12.5 lb of shoulder, plus 15% for self-serve = about 14-15 lb. Buy two shoulders rather than one enormous one; they cook faster and more evenly. The pulled pork serving math has the yield detail.

A 40-person taco bar, half of them children. Count it as 30 adult portions. 30 × 4 oz = 7.5 lb of ground beef raw, which cooks down to somewhere near 5.5 lb. Toppings and tortillas carry the rest.

A 50-person open house with no single main. Stop thinking per-cut and think per-person: about 1/2 lb of total protein across everything on the table, spread over two or three items so nobody is stuck if they do not eat one of them.

Buying and cooking at scale

A few things that only bite at volume:

Big cuts do not fit. Fifteen pounds of shoulder is not one slow-cooker job — it is two, or an oven. Check your equipment before you check the recipe.
Order ahead. Brisket, large hams and anything over about 8 lb usually needs a day or two of notice from a butcher counter.
Cook in batches, hold warm. Meat holds fine at low temperature for an hour or two, and cooking in two batches beats crowding one pan. Our keeping food warm without chafing dishes post covers the household methods.
Round up on the cheap cut, not the expensive one. If the budget is tight, buy the full amount of chicken thighs and let the beef be the smaller half of the table.

For everything that goes around the meat, our feeding a group hub is the place to start, and the potato quantities chart covers the side that most often gets under-bought alongside it.

FAQ

How much meat per person for a buffet?

Start from the chart and add about 15%, because people serve themselves more generously than a host would. If the buffet includes a build-your-own bar with plenty of toppings, you can skip that addition.

Does the per-person amount include the bone?

Only where the chart says bone-in. Bone can be a third or more of a cut’s weight, so a bone-in steak or ham needs a noticeably bigger raw number than its boneless equivalent for the same meat on the plate.

How much do kids eat compared with adults?

Plan on about half an adult portion for primary-school ages and less for toddlers. Teenagers are the exception and are safer counted as an adult and a half.

How much meat should I buy for 20 people?

At a third of a pound cooked each, that is roughly 7 lb cooked. Raw, that is about 9-10 lb of a boneless cut with normal shrink, or around 14 lb of a slow-cooked shoulder or brisket.

Can I use the same numbers for a plated dinner?

Yes, and you can usually shade slightly lower, because you control the portion. The buffet uplift exists precisely because guests do not.