How much turkey for 5 adults and 3 young teens?

[Anonymous]

Is 18 pounds too much? I was thinking I would like leftovers. This is my first time cooking for more than 4 for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the advice!

[Anonymous]

Rule of thumb is a pound per person so that should be plenty and will give leftovers.

[Anonymous]

If everyone eats turkey, that's fine. People do generally like leftovers and if you have a plan for those, I'd rather go too big than too small.

But you could probably go down to 15-16 lbs and be ok too.

[Anonymous]

That’s a huge amount for 8 people. 1-1.5 lbs is plenty. Large turkeys are harder to cook correctly, I’d get 13 lb max.

[Anonymous]

It depends if you like leftovers.

For us, I over-buy on weight bc we are huge turkey leftovers lovers.

And I started buying just the turkey breast bc too much bone and dark meat (not big on dark meat, but YMMV) otherwise.


Also it depends on how many delicious sides you have and how filling they are. Going heavy on carb sides verse going heavy on veggies.
So your teens may graze more on turkey (therefore will need a bigger bird) if the only other options on unappealing sides.

[Anonymous]

I’m doing 18 lbs for 5 adults and 1 teen with enough for leftovers for one dinner and sandwiches.