Easy Bulk Baked Chicken Recipes for Wedding Buffet

Let's learn how to cook enough chicken for a large group or party. Ok, it is not Cooking For Two but still useful, and you can do this at home.

Introduction

This is something you can do, and it wasn't that hard. We were hosting a large retirement party for several family friends. It was a potluck type affair, but we felt we should provide a "main course" of meat.

So my "what I wanted" list:
1) Not to make anyone sick. Any "mass cooking" can easily lead to food poisoning. Well, not at my house!
2) Not too much work. There were a lot of other things that needed attention also.
3) It had to have good taste and be able to be kept warm.

After flirting with several plans that involved:
1) Grilling only - maybe not safe enough to get the right temp on all the chicken without a lot of continuous attention.
2) Oven baking the day ahead and then crisp up on the grill the next day. This was too fussy but did work out well in trial runs.  It would work well for 20 to 30 but not 100. The grilling took too much direct time.
3) But finally, the oven won the day. Easy to control the outcome, be sure to get to a safe internal temperature, and stay moist.

My Rating

I was quite happy with the results. Tasty and moist.

👨‍🍳Method

The Plan:
1) Start with 45 to 50 pounds of chicken. Half split breast and half drumsticks.
2) Trim the breast and cut into hand-eating-friendly sizes (thirds or quarters).
3) Spice with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a little cayenne.
4) Oven bake the breast pieces to 165° and the drummies to 180°.
5) Keep warm in a large roster. You will need a rack in the bottom, or the draining moisture will pool with the bottom layer will be affected.

I had tried the drumsticks at 165°-170°, and the connective tissue was still intact, and they were not tender. 180° gives good results. The chicken breasts are good at 165°.

It took about ½ hour to trim and cut the chicken. The breast had to have the rib section cut off, any visible fat removed and then cut into 3-4 pieces each depending on the size.

I did about 50 pounds that make about 150 pieces. I did this earlier in the day, so it would be ready when needed.

I cooked on racks to get as much crispness as possible. I did two pans at a time in the convection oven and one at a time in the regular oven.

I consider racks almost required for this.

🍽️Serving

Safety First:

Once cooked, the chicken needs to be kept above 140° or below 40°, or you are risking food poisoning. If your chicken is in the food danger zone (40° to 140°) for 2 hours, it should be considered contaminated and discarded.

From the USDA

What you need is a "roaster."

Think of a roaster as a cross between a countertop oven and crockpot. Roasters are first much bigger than the crockpot. Most are 16 to 24 quarts, so they hold masses of food. The traditional picture of roasters always has a huge turkey in them cooked to perfection.

It is the size that makes this appliance both very useful when you need the size and why you don't see them much anymore since most people don't need that size. Most but not all, roasters go from 150° to 400° plus. Some will have an even wider range.

Second and most important here, the temperature control is totally different. In a crockpot, you have low and high. The low usually aiming for 205°-210° (just under boiling) and gets there in 5-8 hours. High is the same temperature but faster, so more aggressive. Plus, some crock pots run hotter than that. Both of those settings would continue cooking the chicken. Not what we want.

Some crockpots have a "keep warm" setting that might do, but the exact temperature varies by manufacturer. Some will be 145°-165° (good kind of) Some will be 185 (bad for us here). Cooking will continue in the chicken if above 155°.

We want to keep the chicken in "the safety zone," which is above 140° for safety. Also, you want to serve hot chicken. But you don't want it to continue to cook. So 150° is a great setting for our needs, and the chicken can stay there for hours safely and not continue to cook.

Most roasters cost $25-$50 and are quite useful if you have parties. Many use them as an oven during the summer due to low energy consumption. Some newer roasters don't go under 200 degrees, so check out the product closely before you buy.

This recipe has lead to several other recipes.

Oven Baked Chicken Legs – The Art of Drummies

Grilling Chicken Drumsticks – The Art of Drummies

Crispy Baked Split Chicken Breasts

Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs

Easy Grilled Chicken Thighs

Large Group Recipes

Pizza Dough for a Pizza Party

Oven Pulled Pork from Pork Butt

Kansas City Oven Baked BBQ Beef Brisket

This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

Trim the breast of the rib section and then cut into 3-4 pieces each. Check the drumsticks for any loose bone and extra skin.

Pat dry the chicken. We do not wash chicken anymore. See Chicken… To Rinse or Not To Rinse?

You can now cover and refrigerate or proceed to cook.

Preheat ovens to 425°. Use convection if you have it but use 425° either way. It will be a little faster with convection. Prep cooking pans. Line the pans with foil. Use a rack if you have them and spray heavily with PAM.

Mix seasoning and place in a shaker with large holes. I'm not hand sprinkling 150 pieces of chicken. I  now use my Homemade Everyday Seasoning Salt – 7:2:1 Mix (and 7:2:2). Add a touch of cayenne pepper if you want. The 7:2:2 stands for kosher salt:pepper: granular garlic powder.

Place on prepared pans and sprinkle seasoning on all sides. Season to your taste.

Place in 425° oven. I put two trays in the convection oven and one try in the non-convection oven. Both are set at 425°. Check the temp at 30 minutes. Aim for 165° on the biggest breast pieces and 180° plus on the drumsticks. Most of the time this was 35 minutes.

If using two trays in an oven, at about 20 minutes into cooking, rotate the trays from top to bottom and 180 degree rotation.

Place in a large roster preheated to 150° with a rack in the bottom.

📖Recipe

Chicken for a Hundred

Let's learn how to cook enough chicken for a large group or party. Ok, it is not Cooking For Two but still useful and you can do at home.

Tap to leave a Rating

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours

Servings #/Adjust if desired 150

• ▢ 45-50 pounds Split chicken breasts and drumsticks
• ▢ seasoning of your choice - see notes

• Trim the breast of the rib section and then cut into 3-4 pieces each. Check the drumsticks for any loose bone and extra skin.

  

• Pat dry the chicken. We do not wash chicken anymore. See Chicken… To Rinse or Not To Rinse?

  

• You can now cover and refrigerate or proceed to cook.

  

• Preheat ovens to 425°. Use convection if you have it but use 425° either way. It will be a little faster with convection. Prep cooking pans. Line the pans with foil. Use a rack if you have them and spray heavily with PAM.

  

• Mix seasoning and place in a shaker with large holes. I'm not hand sprinkling 150 pieces of chicken. I  now use my Homemade Everyday Seasoning Salt – 7:2:1 Mix (and 7:2:2). Add a touch of cayenne pepper if you want. The 7:2:2 stands for kosher salt:pepper: granular garlic powder.

  

• Place on prepared pans and sprinkle seasoning on all sides. Season to your taste.

  

• Place in 425° oven. I put two trays in the convection oven and one try in the non-convection oven. Both set at 425°. Check the temp at 30 minutes. Aim for 165° on the biggest breast pieces and 180° plus on the drumsticks. Most of the time this was 35 minutes.

  

• If using two trays in an oven, at about 20 minutes into cooking, rotate the trays from top to bottom and 180 degrees rotation.

  

• Place in a large roster preheated to 150° with a rack in the bottom.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Pro Tips

1. Chicken thighs will cook similar to the drumsticks.
2. You must be aware of food safety to serve this safely. The chicken must not be in the food danger zone of 40° to 140° for 2 hours or it should be discarded.
3. Baked chicken is safe to eat at 165° but you will be happier with the drumsticks at 180°.
4. I suggest prepping the chicken ahead and refrigerate.
5. Season as you want but some salt, pepper, and garlic powder is the basic.
6. I got a large shaker at a restaurant supply store for the seasoning to save time.
7. If you use a convection oven to cook two trays, rotate them half way through.

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Calories : 160 kcal (8%) | Protein : 13 g (26%) | Fat : 9 g (14%) | Saturated Fat : 3 g (15%) | Polyunsaturated Fat : 1 g | Monounsaturated Fat : 2 g | Cholesterol : 44 mg (15%) | Sodium : 470 mg (20%) | Potassium : 111 mg (3%) | Vitamin A : 50 IU (1%) | Calcium : 10 mg (1%) | Iron : 0.7 mg (4%)

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Main dish

Cuisine : American

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Editor's Note: Originally Published June 12, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

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