Cooking
How much meat per person for a BBQ?
Meat, bread and charcoal needed for your barbecue based on adults, kids and appetite level.
Quick answer
The eternal barbecue question — how much meat? — has a boring, reliable answer: 400 g raw per adult for a normal mixed grill with sides, 300 g when salads and bread do the heavy lifting, 500 g for a meat-first hungry crowd. Kids under 12 count as half an adult. Raw weight matters because meat loses 20-25% of its weight on the grill; the 400 g you buy becomes roughly 300 g on the plate.
Raw meat to buy
3.8 kg
- Per adult
- 400 g
- Bread
- 1 kg
- Charcoal
- ~4 kg
Figures are raw weight — meat loses 20-25% on the grill. A good mix: a third sausages and wings (cheap, everyone eats them), a third ribs or pork, a third burgers or steak. Kids count as half an adult. Charcoal estimate is ~1 kg per kg of meat with a classic kettle; a chimney starter lights it in 15 minutes with no fluid taste.
How it works
Composition beats quantity. The formula that never fails: one third sausages and chicken wings (cheap, cook forgivingly, everyone eats them), one third pork ribs or shoulder, one third burgers or a couple of steaks to slice and share. This spreads cost, gives early finger food while the rest cooks, and covers every taste. The calculator also estimates bread (100 g per person) and charcoal — about 1 kg per kg of meat with a kettle grill. The one tool that upgrades every barbecue for a few euros: an instant-read thermometer, which ends both the burnt-outside-raw-inside chicken and the shoe-leather steak.
Frequently asked questions
How much meat for 10 adults at a BBQ?+
About 4 kg raw for a normal barbecue with sides — for example 1.3 kg of sausages, 1.3 kg of ribs, 1.4 kg of burgers or steak. Add 1 kg of bread and roughly 4 kg of charcoal. With big eaters or few sides, go to 5 kg; leftovers grill fine the next day, running out mid-party doesn’t.
How much charcoal do I need and how do I light it?+
Roughly 1 kg of briquettes per kg of meat for a single grilling session on a kettle; lump charcoal burns hotter but faster, so add 20%. The chimney starter is the single best purchase: fill it, stuff two sheets of newspaper underneath, and in 15-20 minutes the coals are uniformly grey and ready — no lighter fluid, no chemical taste, no cold spots.
What internal temperatures should grilled meat reach?+
The numbers worth memorizing: chicken 74 °C always; sausages and burgers 71 °C (ground meat must cook through); pork ribs are safe at 63 °C but only get tender at 90 °C+ after hours of low heat; beef steak is rare at 50-52 °C, medium at 57-60 °C. Measure at the thickest point, away from bone, and rest the meat 5 minutes before cutting.
What sides work best and how much per person?+
Per person: 150-200 g of salads (potato salad, coleslaw, rice or pasta salad — things made hours ahead), 100 g of bread, plus grilled vegetables that cook on the same fire (peppers, zucchini, corn). Sides that wait patiently are the secret to a relaxed host: everything except the meat should be done before the first guest arrives.
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