Eid Dawat Menu for 10 People: Quantities and a Cooking Plan

Ten guests, one oven, and a doorbell at 1 p.m.

The classic Eid dawat mistake is a menu with five dishes that all need the stove in the last hour. Somebody is frying kababs in a good kurta while the biryani goes cold. If you are cooking an Eid dawat menu for 10 people, the real job is deciding which dishes can be finished the day before.

This plan has four dishes plus a chaat starter. Everything is scaled from the recipe pages on this site, which give metric and US amounts and a servings scaler. Treat the numbers as a starting point: appetites at Eid lunch tend to run higher than on a Tuesday, so the totals below lean generous.

The menu and what to buy

Kheer scales almost perfectly. For the sugar, 150 g (0.75 cup) is in the one-batch recipe, so go to about 250 g (1.25 cups) and taste before the last handful.

Biryani is where people go wrong. Do not double the recipe in one pot unless you own a pot that holds it with the lid fully closed. A crowded pot steams unevenly, and the rice at the bottom turns to paste while the top stays hard. Two batches in two pots is easier to control. If you only have one big pot and one small one, make one batch at 60 percent and one at 140 percent rather than forcing an even split.

The two-day schedule

Day before (about 2.5 hours of actual work, spread out)

1. Marinate the chicken for both biryani batches in yogurt, biryani masala, ginger and garlic. The recipe asks for at least 30 minutes; overnight in the fridge is easy and gives the spices time to work.
2. Mix the seekh kabab mince: grated onion, ginger-garlic, green chilli, coriander, garam masala, roasted crushed cumin, chilli powder, gram flour and salt. Shape the kababs onto skewers or into logs, cover, and refrigerate. The recipe lists a resting step, so this fits naturally.
3. Boil the chickpeas for the chaat, about 45 minutes, or rinse tinned ones well. Refrigerate.
4. Make the kheer. It can be served warm or chilled, and the milk-and-rice base holds its body overnight. Keep it covered in the fridge.
5. If you are making dahi baray, soak the lentils for about 3 hours, fry the fritters and drop them into the yogurt. The recipe notes they get softer the longer they sit, so this is one of the few dishes that likes being early.

Eid morning

• Ninety minutes before guests: start the rice soak and bring the biryani pots to the cooking stage. Each batch of the recipe lists about 75 minutes of cooking.
• Forty-five minutes before: put the kababs on the grill, griddle or oven. Poultry should reach 74 C (165 F) and mince dishes 71 C (160 F) in the middle, so cut one open to check. Keep cooked kababs covered in a low oven, about 90 C (200 F), while the rice finishes.
• Thirty minutes before: toss the chaat. Add the lemon juice only at the last minute, or the chickpeas leak water into the plate.

What to cook on the day, and what not to

The kababs are the only dish that is clearly better fresh, and they are also the fastest. Everything else is happy to wait. If your oven is small, grill the kababs in two rounds, because crowded skewers steam and turn grey.

Some things worth skipping: a second meat curry. If you want one anyway, chicken qorma is forgiving, serves 4 from 800 g (1.75 lb) chicken, and reheats well. But with biryani and kababs on the table, a second gravy is mostly leftovers.

A few numbers that stop arguments

• Plates, not just pots. Count one big serving spoon per dish and one for the rice. People eat faster when they do not wait for a spoon.
• Rice safety. Cooked rice should not sit at room temperature. Cool leftovers within about an hour, refrigerate, and eat them within a day, reheated until steaming hot. Hot dishes on the table are fine for a couple of hours at an ordinary lunch, but do not leave them out all afternoon.
• Kheer on a hot day. Serve it from the fridge in small cups and top up, rather than leaving the pot on the counter.
• Halal and diet check. The recipe uses mince; check which meat suits your guests before you buy. Dairy appears in the biryani marinade and in the kheer.

Your shopping list, in one place

Chicken 1.6 kg (3.5 lb), mince 1.25 kg (2.75 lb), basmati 900 g, milk 2.5 L, dried chickpeas 750 g, yogurt about 600 g (2.5 cups) for the marinade plus extra for the raita or dahi baray, 8 onions, ginger and garlic heads, green chillies, a big bunch of coriander and mint, lemons, ghee or oil, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, and a handful of almonds and pistachios for the kheer.

Open the recipe pages on the day to follow each step with its timer. If you track what you already have, Degchi can mark pantry items as Have or Out so the shopping list only shows what is missing; there is a small try-it pantry on the home page. For storage advice on dried fruit and ghee before you start, see our guide on nuts, ghee and dry fruit before Eid baking.