How Much Baked Beans Per Person?

For a family meal or large party or event, you may be wondering how much baked beans to make per person. Learn to calculate and cook for a single serving or up to 100. Whether you are serving canned baked beans or making it from scratch with dried navy beans, here is all the information on how much to cook and serve.

When serving Boston baked beans, cowboy beans, or chili pinto beans, knowing how much to make is important. So whether it is a small backyard BBQ with 6 people or a party with over 50 guests, you never want to run out of food. There is nothing worse than not having enough to feed guests or cooking in the kitchen and missing all the fun. Be prepared and know exactly how many cups, ounces, or gallons of baked beans to make.

Making enough relies on understanding how much makes a serving of baked beans. There are a few things to take into consideration when doing your calculation. If the beans are the star of the meal or a side dish, how much to serve will be different. Also, take into account how hearty the main course is and what other sides are being served.

If you are having a big event and serving chicken, check out how much chicken to make per person for all you need to know. I also have a great article about how much rice to make per person.

How Much to Make Per Person

A good rule of thumb is to follow this quick guideline. Below is a sampling of how I will calculate most of what you read about today. This includes both store-bought ready-to-eat beans as a bbq side dish or dried navy beans that need soaking before making a baked beans recipe. Here are a few simple rules of thumb to go by throughout this article.

Here is how many ounces of cooked baked beans to serve per person.

• 10oz or 1 ¼ cup per person - when beans are the main/star of the meal
• 6oz or ¾ cup per person - when baked beans are a side dish

Here is how many ounces of navy dried beans to buy to serve baked beans per person.

• 3oz per person - when baked beans are the main/star of the meal
• 1.5oz per person - when baked beans are a side dish

Buying Canned Baked Beans or Dry Beans

When you are buying canned baked beans or dry beans to make homemade, here is what you need to know in calculating how much to buy. It can be hard to figure out a large quantity for parties and events.

To figure out how many people a can of baked beans will feed, first look at the size of the can you are buying. The most common size of store-bought baked beans is 16-ounce and 28-ounce sized cans. The 16-ounce can feed about 3 people as a hearty side. The larger 28-ounce can of baked beans feeds about 5 people.

When buying dry beans to make baked beans, ensuring you have the right about is key to making a great recipe. The easiest calculation is that 1 pound or 16 ounces of dried navy beans yields about 10 side dish servings of baked beans.

How Much Baked Beans for a Crowd

Wondering how much for 20, 50, 100, or 200 people for a big party, event, family reunion, BBQ, wedding, or any big catering job? When serving 2-3 entrees choices at a buffet/party/wedding/event you need less per person. But for a simple meal at home such as having smoked pulled pork, cornbread & baked beans, the serving will be more.

Baked Beans for 20 People

For 20 people, buy about 3 ½ lbs. of dry beans or 8 cans of navy or northern beans.

One gallon of baked beans is 128 ounces. Perfect for 20 people as a side like with beef short ribs & bread & salad. Also just enough for 12 people like for serving frank & beans as a main course.

Baked Beans for 50 people

Wondering how many ounces of canned baked beans for 50 people? Or you may want to know how many pounds of dry beans are needed to cook enough Boston baked beans for 50. It is easy to figure it out.

For a crowd of 50 people, buy 8 lbs. of dry beans or 16 cans, each 28-ounce in size. This is enough to feed 50 people as a side for your meal. In the end, this will yield about 2.5 gallons of baked beans needed to serve 50 people as a side dish.

Baked Beans for 100 people

Cooking baked beans for a crowd as big as 100 people sure seems like a lot. You will need a large stock to cook this large amount. For 100 people, you need 5 gallons of cooked baked beans to cater a big event. If cooking a recipe using dry beans, you will want to start with 16 pounds of dry beans which will be 5 gallons once cooked and ready to eat.

Baked Beans by the Gallon

Here are the quick breakdowns when making gallons of baked beans. Here is how many gallons will feed how many people. This assumes it is served with 1-2 main dishes and 2 or more other side dishes.

Baked beans are a great recipe to make ahead of time, especially when making it from scratch with dried beans. So plan your party well and get them done the night before and then just warm on the stove just before your guests arrive.

This is the ideal amount to serve for large parties, buffets, weddings, and events.

2 ½ gallons of baked beans feed 50 people as a side dish.

5 gallons of baked beans feed 100 people as a side dish.

10 gallons of baked beans feed 200 people as a side dish.

Baked Beans Calculator

If you want to figure out how much to serve based on any measurement, try a baked bean calculator. It allows you to put in as many people, serving size, and type of measurement.