How to Host a Dinner Party for 6 for $50
By Anna Stockwell, Epicurious
It’s make-ahead. It’s impressive. And it won’t break the bank.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there are two reasons you aren’t throwing more dinner parties.
The stress.
The money.
(We’ll leave that other reason—3. Your dusty dining room—out of the conversation for now.)
While those dinner party concerns are real—they can be stressful and expensive—they’re not impossible to overcome. I know, because over the past few weeks I’ve developed an exciting and fresh four-course menu for six that costs only $50 and can be made almost entirely in advance. I’ve even mapped out a timeline to help you pull it off without a hitch.
This dinner is full of fresh herbs, tart Greek yogurt, salty feta, ripe tomatoes and peaches, and the sweet, rich spice of curry powder. It’s perfect for a warm summer night, happens to be entirely gluten-free, and—maybe best of all—is designed so that you, the host, actually gets to enjoy the evening, too.
THE SECRETS TO MENU PLANNING ON A BUDGET
While creating this menu in the Epicurious Test Kitchen, I quickly discerned that the key to keeping a dinner party on budget is to use a single set of ingredients in many different ways. This limits the amount of ingredients you need to buy, and ensures that you waste less of the ingredients you do buy, making the dinner party not only affordable but #wasteless (the two often happen simultaneously).
Get the Recipe: Crispy Curry-Roasted Chickpeas
Yogurt
When looking for ingredients I could use throughout the menu without repeating flavors or textures, yogurt immediately came to mind. I love the versatility of this stuff, how it can take the place of cream in some dishes, act as a marinade for poultry, and also serve as a base for sauces. I use almost all of a 32-ounce container of Greek yogurt between three dishes: the soup, the chicken, and the dessert.
Get the Recipe: Garlic-Curry Chicken Thighs with Yogurt Sauce
Herbs
Buying full bunches of several kinds of fresh herbs for a dinner party and then only using a little bit of each can get expensive and wasteful, so I knew I wanted to incorporate full bunches of herbs into the menu if using them at all. I limited the menu to using just two herbs—parsley and mint—and used all of each bunch. One third of the bunch of mint goes into the dessert, while the rest goes into an herbed olive oil along with the whole bunch of parsley. That herbed olive oil becomes a flavor powerhorse that gets used in three ways: to garnish the soup, dress the rice, and to brighten up a vegetable dip.
Eggs
Three egg whites go into the semifreddo, but to be extra #wasteless, you can use one of the egg yolks leftover from making the semifreddo to make homemade mayonnaise, which you will then use for that vegetable dip. Save the other two egg yolks for making more mayo later in the week, or combine them with some whole eggs for scrambled eggs in the morning.
Lemons
Two lemons get used between three recipes: the zest of both lemons goes into the herbed oil, while some of the juice goes into the semifreddo and some goes into the sauce for the chicken.
Curry Powder
This powerful spice blend is used twice: once in the crispy-roasted chickpeas, and once in the chicken.
THE $50 GROCERY LIST
The $50 food budget doesn’t include some basics that we assume every household has, such as cooking oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, and pepper. When we priced out the list at some of our local grocery stores though, our total tally was closer to $46, so you still have a little room in the budget to pick up some of these basics if needed.
2 lemons $1.78
2 ripe peaches $3.29
1 head garlic $0.80
1 seedless greenhouse cucumber $2.29
1 bunch fresh mint $1.99
1 bunch fresh parsley $2.49
1 pint cherry tomatoes $3.99
2 (16 ounce) bags frozen peas $4.78
12 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 6 pounds) $9.55
½ dozen eggs $2.29
8 ounces feta cheese $4.19
1 (32 ounce) container plain Greek yogurt $4.99
1 (16 ounce) bag long-grain white rice $0.89
2 (15 ounce) cans chickpeas $1.98
1 small jar curry powder $1.19
TOTAL: $46.46
Prices may vary depending on where you live and shop.
The other thing this list doesn’t have? Booze. A $50 budget just doesn’t allow for wine. So this is where your friends come in. When they ask what they can bring, tell them the menu pairs best with dry rosé and crisp minerally whites. Assuming your friends aren’t flakes, you can focus on cooking your fabulous 4-course menu:
APPETIZERS
Greet your guests with a spread of addictive and crunchy curry-roasted chickpeas along with some cucumber spears and an herbed mayo dip. You can set this up on your kitchen counter for people to nibble while you put the finishing touches on dinner, or bring a tray out to the patio or living room for snacking while you all enjoy your first (donated) glass of wine together.
FIRST COURSE
Serving a beautifully plated first course is key to making a dinner party feel special. The way to do this without stress? Make a cold soup, which you have no choice but to make in advance (unless you plan on serving your cold soup warm). This sweet green pea soup with yogurt is especially refreshing in warm weather, and the swirl of herb oil adds a deep punch of flavor. Plus—who are we kidding?— it looks devastatingly pretty.
Get the Recipe: Cold Pea Soup With Herbed Oil Swirl
MAIN COURSE
It’s nice to include at least one family-style element in every dinner party: the communal act of passing and sharing food is what gets your guests to interact with each other. A generous platter of garlic-curry chicken thighs with a tart yogurt sauce and a big bowl of herbed rice with tomatoes and feta will keep everyone happy.
DESSERT
Dinner parties are the time for show-off desserts. You want to end the night with something your guests will remember, and they will most certainly remember this gorgeous peach-swirled semifreddo. The mint-studded and lemon-infused yogurt base is an airy, tart, and totally refreshing contrast to the sweet peach swirl, and the whole thing is exactly what you’d want to eat at the end of a meal on a hot summer night.
THE GAMEPLAN
Follow this timeline, spreading the prep work out over the course of four days, and you’ll be left with only one hour’s worth of cooking to be done on party night.
Get the Recipe: Yogurt-Peach Semifreddo
UP TO 4 DAYS BEFORE YOUR PARTY
Get your grocery shopping done.
Wash and pick leaves off parsley and mint, let dry completely, then store loosely wrapped in a damp paper towel or dish towel in a plastic bag or container.
Do any major house cleaning you know you want to have done before you have guests over.
UP TO 3 DAYS BEFORE YOUR PARTY
Make semifreddo, making sure to reserve the lemon zest from the lemons to use in the herb oil.
If you’d like to make your own mayonnaise to use for the herbed dip, use one of the egg yolks leftover from making semifreddo to make 1 cup of mayonnaise.
UP TO 2 DAYS BEFORE YOUR PARTY
Make pea soup, and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Make herbed oil, and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
1 DAY BEFORE YOUR PARTY
Make marinade and marinate chicken in the fridge.
Set the table for six, and make sure you have all the serving platters and utensils you’ll need.
1 HOUR BEFORE YOUR PARTY
Make the herbed rice and let it sit at room temperature until ready to serve.
Cut the cucumber into spears and make the herbed mayo dip: Whisk 1 cup mayo with ¼ cup of the herb oil, and thin with a little water if it’s too thick to form a dip.
The chicken and the chickpeas take the same amount of time to cook, both in a 425°F oven. Put them both in the oven at least 45 minutes before your guests are scheduled to arrive. Serve the chickpeas fresh out of the oven, and transfer the chicken to a serving platter, turn off your oven, and store the chicken in the still-warm oven until ready to serve. Meanwhile, assemble the yogurt sauce for the chicken and keep at room temperature until ready to serve.
Get the Recipe: Herbed Rice With Tomatoes and Feta
More from Epicurious:
12 Lightning-Fast Chicken Dinners to Make Now
ALL PHOTOS BY CHELSEA KYLE, FOOD AND PROP STYLING BY ALI NARDI
