I need some ideas

[BigBrother]

Your menu choices will be dictated by your prep facilities.

You aint cooking for 500 folks on your kitchen stove.

[BigBrother]

Oh, fudge puppies are a good choice.

[HARV]

Apple pie.

[marsh chicken]

I got a bunch of old deer meat in a freezer that went out last week. You can have that. Should feed about 10 people before folks start getting word not to eat at your tent.

[DJP]

I mean you guys would probably put up a cheese plate, grapes, and a juice box like y'all are feeding kids and shit. Chicken fingers, I mean really. Buying three hundred Mcdonald's cheeseburgers and cutting them into quarters is better than that.

I was not promoting serving chicken fingers. I was just using it as an example of an item cooked to order vs something bbq that is cooked for hours ahead of time. But, like you said, people do like fried stuff. I think the fried catfish you recommended would be at the top of my list assuming I had the proper equipment to serve 500.

[Biggie1976]

Mountain oysters!!!!

[FHF]

I have access to about any type cooker, but not interested in frying or smoking anything, too messy and takes too much time. We were going to cook red chicken stew, but some one else beat us to it. Now I am leaning toward cooking 3 or 4 different flavors of wings. We can cook on site with pull type gas grill.

[Saltydog235]

Wonderbread, fried loney, and durkee sauce. Make little gizzle steak sammiches.

[thunderchicken]

I hear Santee11 has an award winning chilli recipe.....if he could only remember what it was. hahaha

[trash2]

pimento cheese sliders w bacon and tomatoes

[benman]

mater pies

[Bownut]

Popcorn.

[BCR3]

Some kind of tater casserole maybe? Big sheet pans, thin sliced potatoes, butter, and heavy cream or sour cream. I also add Hidden valley ranch powder to the concoction from time to time. Aside from slicing the potatoes, (unless you have a mandolin) pretty easy and not a ton of work. Bake it at 350 covered with foil for 90% of your cook time and then uncovered for the rest. Add some kind of cheese here if you like.

[2thDoc]

FUDGE PUPPIES!

[FHF]

There is a lot of good info here, but one thing is for sure, it is not about cooking! I will consider all opinions : mater pies, fried baloney, popcorn, fudge whatevers, mountain oysters.

[Big D]

Salsa mixed w/mayo. Serve in small plastic cup w/ 4 or 5 scoop type chips. You need something quick and easy, that you can send someone out to the store for more ingrediants when you realize there are more than 500 people showing up.

[holdin down the fort]

crawfish??

[willk]

crawfish??

That would get pricey.

[baldpate]

Santee 11 has a BBQ sauce recipe that would be sure to limit people to only a bite or two! One little piglet would feed a thousand as hot as that stuff is.

[kquinn]

Grits with blackened catfish and crawfish gravy. Easy to fix, Rock the house good and you can prep a lot off site