Help, hamburger for a crowd...?!
Answers: I'm going to be serving 28 ppl a taco salad type meal, most of them will be children, the rest, their parents. My question is how many pounds of hamburger should I get? considering most people will probably take about a 1/2 to 1 cup worth of meat, or more.
figure 4 ounces per person, which will be less for kids and maybe more for adults - 28 x 4 = 112 ounces divided by 16 ounces to a pound, you will need 7 pounds. You don't want to run out so I would cook 10 pounds of beef and you will be good to go! If you want 1 - 8 ounce serving per person which would be one cup, you would need to cook 14# of beef. Use a better grade, ground chuck, ground sirloin. Good luck!
Depending on how much groundbeef the salad requires, try about 5 lbs, and put in extra veggies and tortillas.
If you figure a half pound per person, then you should get about 14 pounds of meat, but I really don't think people (even kids) will eat that much meat.. Half a pound is 4 ounces and that's an awful lot in a taco! I'd get something like 5 pounds of ground beef, stretch it out with refried beans, if you think you need to. Don't forget you'll also be serving tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, etc.
Taco salad for a big crowd:
It's all in the proportions. Assume about 5 meals per pound of meat. One packet of taco seasoning uses one pound, so prepare 6.
Provide chopped lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, shredded cheeses, and tortilla chips so each (or in the case of the kiddies, their folks) can make their own.
Enjoy!
Taco salad actually requires very little meat because of all the other things you put into it. Plan on approximately 5 lbs of ground beef and several cans of kidney beans, shredded cheese, sliced tomatos, olives, and crushed tortilla chips. Not sure if the kids are up for taco salad, though, so you might consider some hot dogs or hamburgers for them.