First Catering Job

belly,
well since no one else is taking a shot at this i guess i will.
ok you have an fe as a cooker and that's good so let's try this and my answers may be a little out of sequence.
chicken 1st.
for goodness sakes don't parboil them. if you are afraid of fires then try what i do after i almost burnt my rig down around my ears. get diaposable full size hotel pans and french fry grids to go into them. spray the grid with food release,put chicken on, crank the fe to max and let rip. no fire worries ever that way.
on the beef if you can get them to drop beef ribs and get bottom round flats. these look like briskets on steriods. treat them the same as you would brisket but they do have a lot of give room. you can pull them off as low as 140 internal temp if you are machine slicing and as high as 185 if doing it by hand. if you start slicing from the thick end you are going to find about 2/3rds of the way down a piece of connective tissue about as thick as a piece of papper. just treat it the same as the junction of the flat and deckle on a brisket. matter of fact the meat grain will change directions just like it does on a brisket. they make really nice presentation slices and have a really heavy beef taste.
ok that was the fun part now to the part of quanities.
your count is 50
an idea might be 1/4 chicken per person and 4 oz beef just to get in the ballpark and you can decide the final later this is just to get you going.
based off of that you will need
chicken;
13 whole and just break them down into quarters. will save a lot of money and will take about 15 mins tops to do. backbone out is 2 cuts and then dividing is just 2 more cuts.
beef;
you will need about 25 pounds raw weight.
the beef will shrink about 50% and give you 12.5 pounds cooked or 50 servings at 4 oz per.
ok now we gotta cook this and lets see where this goes.
the beef i would cook 2 hours on smoke and then bump to 225 or thereabouts to minimize shrinkage. figure around an hour per pound for the lower temp and 75 mins per pound for the upper.
but here comes the rub chicken you are going to do at max temps.
solution;
cook the beef the day before. wrap in commercial film and then in heavy gauge foil and chill it down fast.
on the day of the event fire off your chicken and then kill your heat. the fe will hold it like no bodies business and put your beef in to reheat. that is going to take around 2 hours to come to temp you have to hit 165internal on your reheat for safety. sounds complicated but it is only 2 steps and i gave it in this order since you didn't mention a way of holding the beef at temp. if you have a way of doing it then just set your fe at 225 for 2 hours to heat the beef and remove to your holder. crank the fe to max and cook the chicken.
as far as sides go based off of beans, slaw and corn i would go with 4 ounces of beans and the same on slaw per person of course.
if you want to be on the really safe side just add the chef's golden fudge factor--10%
there ya go.
sorry no one else hit your post before i did but dude it for sure is a good one. thanks. it is hot. i am cooking for tomorrows event and was on the virge of getting heat exhaustion. your post made me take a break in air conditioned comfort!!!!
jack

wow! i dont know why we didnt see your post before today. sorry. when is you picnic?
i agree with jack, try to drop the beef ribs. i have done them a few times, and they are not very meaty, and real finiky, to get tender.
top round is ok, but brisket would be much better. you could chop it day before, and just warm it the day of, in a full size pan.
jack's chicken sounds delicious. if you have space, its easier to smoke the chickens whole, then they will almost fall into quarters on their own for the reheat day. you can sauce them a bit when reheating. dont forget their deoderant..... (pineapple wedge under each wing)
we do 50count parties all the time. we always allow 12 pounds of each side dish( we are in the south....folks here can eat.)
mike

Thanks for the great reply's I will be doing this next weekend. Wow what a reply I really appreciate your help on this. The final menu is going to be chicken which I will ¼ and they decided on the bottom round, beans and slaw. Also going to include a very large sheet cake for desert. Where would I get the French fry grids? You say to treat the bottom round like a brisket would you rub it with the brisket rub or not. I must say I am a bit nervous with the menu I'm much better with butts and ribs. just a note on my rig I converted large step van into a catering rig. I would like to post some pictures is there a way to do this here? Took me about three months to get this thing finished. I would like to get some opinions on the layout. Thanks again for your help.
Cousin Belly

Cousin Belly, Hi.

On posting pictures, see the post in the professional forum (this one) titled Picture. I didn't know how either, but they told me how there.

Good Luck with the upcoming job.

Kate

Just wanted to say that all went well with my first job, the costumer ended up wanting ½ chicken a piece and some London broil that I cut from a top round. I had forty chicken halves in my FEC100 and the came out perfect. I sprinkled them lightly with cookshack chicken rub and cooked them at 325 the oven never reached 325 cooked mostly at 245 probe temp and I have a digital Taylor thermometer that gave me an oven temp of about 195 took about 2 ½ hours to cook to an internal temp of 175 to 180. (no grease fires) I sauced them at the very end and let them rest in the oven for about 15 min to set the sauce; the skin was nice and crispy. Put a little brisket rub on the London broil and grilled them on the charcoal grill, perfect. Served with coleslaw and macaroni salad. Charged $10.50 a head and everyone was happy. Thanks to all who help with advice, Ken

Ken,
What did you do for dessert? I get all side-tracked on the mains and sides and lose track of dessert.
Thanks for your help.
Peggy

I served a sheet cake and pudding both are very easy for me to do.