Spit Braai Catering › How Many People Does a Spit Braai Feed?
How Many People Does a Spit Braai Feed?
One whole lamb on the spit feeds about 45 adults with two sides and rolls. A whole pig of 25 to 30kg feeds 50 to 60. Chicken works out at roughly two adults per bird. Here is the full table from 20 guests to 200, and how much raw meat to allow per head.
The short answer
One whole lamb on the spit feeds about 45 adults with two sides and rolls. A whole pig of 25–30kg feeds 50 to 60. Chicken works out at roughly two adults per bird. Those are serving numbers for a main meal, not optimistic catering-brochure numbers, and they assume people come back for seconds because they always do.
Work out what your spit braai costs
R7 50050 guests × R150 a head for whole lamb — chef, equipment, gazebo, cooking, carving, set-up and clean-up included.
An estimate, not a quote. Minimum 25 guests. Salads (from R15 a head), extra service staff (R850 each) and cutlery and crockery (R15–R25 a head) go on top, and travel is free within 30km, then R500–R1 500 by distance. Nothing is sent until you tap through.
By headcount
| Guests | What that takes | Lamb at R150 a head |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | Half a lamb, or chicken. Our minimum | R3 750 |
| 30 | Half to three-quarters of a lamb | R4 500 |
| 50 | One whole lamb, or one pig | R7 500 |
| 100 | Two lambs on two spits | R15 000 |
| 150 | Two spits, two chefs | R22 500 |
| 200 | Two spits, two chefs, staggered carving | R30 000 |
How much meat per person, in kilograms
Allow 350–400g of raw whole lamb per adult. That sounds like a lot because it is bone-in and undressed — a whole lamb loses roughly 40% of its raw weight between the carcass and the carving board, so 400g raw is closer to 240g on the plate. For a crowd of 50 that means a lamb of about 20kg. The how much lamb per person guide works through the arithmetic properly.
What changes the number
- Time of day. An evening main meal eats more than a long lunch with grazing.
- The sides. Two substantial sides and rolls stretch a lamb noticeably further than salad alone.
- The guest list. A rugby club and a christening are not the same headcount in practice, whatever the invitation says.
- Whether there is a second meat. Two spits means people take some of each, not double.
Below 25 guests, don't. A whole spit stops making economic sense under about 25 people and a normal braai will feed them better. We will tell you that rather than sell you a spit.
At the other end, the largest headcounts we cook for are almost always work functions — company year-end events run from about 60 to 250, which is two to four spits and staggered carving. How those are quoted, invoiced and planned for dietary requirements is on corporate and year-end function catering.
Headcount decides the meat, and the meat decides everything else on the table. Once you have the number, how much braai salad per person and how many sides to make follow straight from it — roughly 150g to 200g of salad a head, across two or three salads rather than six.
The other thing that quietly caps the number is the ground. A spit needs about three metres square of level space clear of the house, and how much of that you get depends on where you are: Northern Suburbs and Helderberg stands are usually generous enough for two spits, Atlantic Seaboard properties often are not, and Cape Flats halls and clubs are where the 150-plus headcounts actually happen.
If you would rather not size it yourself, that is the job — send the headcount and the date and we will tell you what it takes. See spit braai prices, or read what a spit braai chef does on the day.