From time to time, you may be called on to cook a feast for a large gathering, or voluntarily want to. Good for you, but what if you’re on a time crunch? How do you cook for a large gathering the last minute?

Don’t panic! You can get this done without too much worry or exhaustion.

Plan the Menu

The first thing to do is pull a piece of paper out. You are going to need to plan the menu. Do not start cooking or go shopping without a plan.

Your menu should consist of larger items that are easy to cook. This is not difficult, it just takes a little bit of time to work out.

The easiest menu items are those that do not require a lot of ingredients, but can feed a ton of people. Think grilling, boiling, and baking, for example.

One option that you can use under this banner is making rice, beans, and grilling chicken. Chicken is inexpensive; beans and rice can feed a great deal of people; and you can add a plethora of spices for taste.

This is just one solution that you can start on.

Get People Involved

Let’s say that you’re called upon to cook for a large gathering. You only have one oven and stove, what do you do? You ask for help.

Call friends, family, and anyone you know. They will have a stove and oven to spare. You can prep things yourself, or ask for help with prepping items. Large scale items can be baked by having several people around.

For instance, you could get three friends to bake corn bread, and that collectively provides 3 different trays of corn bread, The same can be said about a main dish, such as a chicken roaster or boiling potatoes, which can be made into mashed potatoes and gravy.

Make Soup and Salad

When in doubt, make soup. Soup can be made fast boiled in a few hours.

Salad can be purchased pre-mixed, and all you need to do is add a protein, get salad dressing, and that’s it. Of course, you can always spruce this up by adding bread sticks, baguettes, or just about anything else you can think of.

Soup can be made from scratch, or you can get large cans of concentrate, add water, add a protein, some vegetables, and boil down a bit.

It’s fast, inexpensive, and doesn’t take a lot of work.