How many Main Dishes for Potluck? (10 Helpful Tips!)
Main Dishes are kind of like the star of the show and that is no different for a potluck. You can have a theme based on the main dish or you can have multiple versions of the same main dish.
Today we will discuss main dishes at a potluck including how many you need, what they should be, and tips for main dishes. This will help ensure that the potluck meal is a huge success and not a flop!
What is considered a main dish at a potluck?
When referring to a main dish, this is typically an item that has a meat or protein if it is a vegan/vegetarian potluck. Main Dishes can be tricky, so we are going to go over the tips and tricks you will need to have a fantastic potluck breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
1. Centerpiece
When planning a potluck, you can make the main dish become the centerpiece for the meal. This dish will usually set the theme for the rest of the dishes that the guests will bring. For instance, the theme could be Mexican Fiesta so the main dish would be meats for tacos. These could include ground beef, pulled pork, and grilled chicken.
2. Variety Matters
Keeping with the above example of a Mexican Fiesta Potluck, notice that we included 3 different meats of beef, pork, and chicken. This helps to ensure that every guest will have at least one option that they like to make their own tacos.
This is also a great way to include all dietary restrictions and lifestyle choices. If you know that you have guests that are vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, or keto; it would be very important to make sure that they would have something to eat as well.
3. Host Provided?
As a good host of a potluck, you will be the cornerstone that the whole meal is based off so it is essential that you not only have a good plan but also contribute to the main dish. It would be considered rude to not at least help with the main dish. For example, if you host a outdoor barbeque potluck, the host should at least provide the main meat like hamburgers or hotdogs. At bare minimum, they should be in charge of having the grill to cook the meat.
In the case of the Mexican Fiesta, the host should provide one of the meats and suggest to the guests other meats that would be complimentary.
If the host does not provide a main dish, you will run the risk of having a lot of side dishes and snacks, and not having a filling meal for the guests.
4. Cost
While I don’t believe you should account for every penny spent on a party, it would be a little off to be the host and not provide value to the party. The main dish or meat item tends to be the most expensive option, so it would be odd to expect an invited guest to also be responsible for that cost.
An example of this would be a Friendsgiving Potluck, where the host would provide the cooked turkey and everyone else would bring complimentary dishes and desserts.
5. Cook Off Style
In the case of a work potluck lunch, a lot of offices choose to do a cook off style main dish. This could be where they have multiple people all bring different versions of a main dish like chili.
This lets people taste test multiple versions and then vote on which dish was the best! Sometime people take competition too far, so if you opt for this style you may want to make very clear rules for all participants to follow.
6. Number of Main Dishes
If your potluck gathering will include less than 10 people, I would suggest having 1 main dish that everyone will enjoy. This could be a lasagna, a pot roast, or even a soup or stew. These are all main dishes that would not need a lot of side dishes and desserts to go with it.
If you are going to have more than 10 guests at the party, I would suggest having at least 2 meat or protein options. This could be like having a white meat and a red meat option.
7. Number of Servings
Main Dishes are items that everyone will typically eat so you will want to make sure there is enough for everyone. For example if you have 40 guests and 3 different main dishes, then each main dish needs to serve at least 1/3 of the guests.
I usually like to err on the side of caution and make sure each main dish could serve half of the guests. This ensures that there will always be enough of the main dish and that no one gets skipped at the buffet line.
(Pro Tip: We treat main dishes as regular servings, and not like side dishes. A typical guests will have multiple side dishes and use smaller portion sizes so they can be smaller. A guest will usually have a full serving of a main dish though, so you will need to accommodate that.)
8. Assigned Dishes?
When planning your potluck, you may want to assign dishes to your guests to ensure that the meal is well rounded. The typical dishes brought to a potluck fall in multiple categories like appetizers, salads, side dishes, and desserts.
If you want to try to make sure plenty of each category is brought, you can divide your guest count by 4 and this will be the number of dishes needed for each category. For example, if you have 20 people coming over, you can have 5 people sign up for each category. This will make sure you end up with 5 appetizers, 5 side dishes,5 main dishes, and 5 desserts.
You can adjust your categories as needed. For instance, if this is a birthday potluck you will not need a lot of desserts. If it is a outdoor barbeque potluck, you may not want lots of main dishes/meat and you may want more salads or side dishes.
9. Space Available
Remember that most main dishes need to be served hot or at least warm. This means you will need to have enough space, electrical outlets, oven/grill space, and room to serve these items.
You would not want to have a soup cook off and only have enough electrical outlets for 2 crockpots while having 45 guests coming to eat. Keep your surroundings in mind when you pick your theme or main dishes.
(Pro Tip: if needed use a power strip or extension cords to make sure there is a enough power for crock pots. You may want to have your guests inform you if there are going to be bringing a crockpot or similar device that needs power. To keep everyone safe, consider making sure all cords are close to the walls, or tape cords to the floor to prevent tripping over them.)
10. Keep it Simple
The most important thing to remember when organizing a potluck is to keep the main dish simple. If the main dish is too complicated it will limit the number of options for side dishes or complimenting food choices.
As a host, I like the set the stage with a plain main dish that allows for lots of pairing options and let’s each guest make their own. For example, I really like potlucks with a baked potato bar. This allows multiple guests to bring things that go well with baked potatoes like chili, nacho cheese sauce, chopped bacon, sour cream, and shredded cheese. Plus, there are lots of good pairings like veggies and dip, fruit salad, macaroni salad, and tons of sweets.
Other options for a make your own could be chili bar, tacos/ nacho bar, salad bar, sandwich bar, etc. This way each guest can make their meal according to their own taste and each guests has lots of options for food to bring as well!
How many main dishes for a party?
Depending on the number of guests and the theme of your potluck, will determine exactly how many main dishes you will need. At a minimum, you will need at least one main dish and this will typically work for parties will less than 10 people attending. This would be similar to a dinner party, where the host will more than likely provide the main dish.
Once you guest count goes above 10 people, then you will want to offer more main dish options. This will help ensure that certain meat or protein preferences can be accomodated.
For example, you would not want to host a potluck where the main dish will only be fried catfish. You will have to take into account that not everyone likes or can eat fish, not everyone likes catfish, and not everyone wants to eat fried cat fish.
Unfortunately, you cannot please everyone with just one main dish, so having multiple main dishes assures that every guest will like something and have something to eat.
When inviting your guests to a potluck, you will need to keep in mind any lifestyle or dietary restrictions. For instance, if you know someone has a peanut allergy, then you would want to let everyone know this is a nut free potluck.
Another example would be if you know that someone is a vegetarian, you will want to let your guests know that some attendees don’t eat meat. This lets your guests decide on if they want to include meat in their dish or to offer meat on the side. For example, if I am going to a potluck with a vegetarian and want to make loaded potato salad, I will put the chopped bacon in a bowl on the side so the vegetarian can have some too!
For more helpful information about potlucks, check out “Can you bring Store Bought Food to a Potluck?” and “Can I bring Drinks to a Potluck?“
