Birthday and baby shower catering that keeps you out of the kitchen

A birthday or baby shower at home should not turn the host into the help. My fix is simple: order food that arrives hot, goes into a chafing dish in its own husk, and serves itself for three hours without anyone standing at a stove. For a home party, plan two of our big tamales per adult and one per child, add your own rice, beans, chips, and salsas, and have the tamales delivered or picked up about an hour before the first guest. Then sit down. You are the host, not the kitchen staff.

The short answer: the easiest baby shower catering or birthday catering at home is food that is finished when it arrives. Plan two big tamales per adult and one per child, add your own rice, beans, chips, salsas, and a toppings tray, and have the tamales delivered or picked up about an hour before the first guest. Thirty adults is five dozen. Then sit down with your guests.

I say this as someone who cooks for a living and who still catches herself at family parties, standing over a pot while everyone else is laughing in the other room. It is a hard habit to break. Good catering breaks it for you.

The host who never sits down

You know this person. Maybe you are this person. The shower starts at 2, and at 2:15 she is still warming the enchiladas, at 3 she is refilling the queso, at 4 she is scraping plates, and the only photo of her from the whole party is one where she is holding a dish towel.

The cause is nearly always the same: a menu that needs tending. Anything fried, anything with a crispy top, anything that must be assembled or sliced or plated to order chains the host to the counter. The solution is not to cook less. It is to choose food that is finished when it arrives and stays finished.

That is exactly what a tamal is. It was cooked in its husk, it stays in its husk, and it waits in the steam for as long as you need it to. Nobody has to plate it, slice it, or babysit it. A guest peels one, spoons on salsa, and goes back to the conversation. You do too.

A menu that serves itself

This is the home-party table I recommend most often. Our tamales are the main course; everything else is simple food you pick up or make the day before. It matches what we describe on our parties and celebrations catering page:

• Pork tamales in red salsa and chicken tamales in green salsa, in their husks, in a chafing dish or a slow cooker on warm with a splash of water. That is the whole main course.
• Mexican rice and beans in a second chafer or two slow cookers. They stretch the meal and give the kids something plain.
• Chips, salsa roja, salsa verde, and guacamole, out before the first knock on the door.
• A toppings tray: crema, cotija, cilantro, lime wedges, pickled jalapeños. This is the part guests enjoy most, and it needs zero work from you.
• Drinks in a tub of ice in a different room from the food, so the two lines never cross.

Every tamal is made with gluten-free masa, the chicken is breast meat, and there is no cream sauce or cheese layer hiding in anything, so the guest with a gluten allergy and the guest who eats lightly both get a full plate without a conversation at the door. If you are hosting for someone with celiac disease, my article on what our masa means for gluten-free guests goes into detail.

For a birthday, add the cake and you are done. For a baby shower, add a fruit tray and the little desserts you were going to make anyway. Please do not add a second hot entrée. It doubles the tending and nobody finishes it.

How much to order for a home party

Home parties are smaller and the headcount is firmer than a graduation open house or a wedding, so the math is easy. Two big tamales per adult, one per child under ten, and one extra dozen for the plates that go home with the grandparents. I explain the portions in more detail in my guide to how many tamales to plan per person.

Those are the prices on our regular tamale menu, where a dozen is $60 and a half-dozen is $30. You order the dozens in our online store, choose delivery or pickup and the date, and pay online; the delivery fee is shown at checkout. The rice, beans, salsas, and serving pieces are yours to add. For a small gathering of a dozen people, two dozen tamales may be all you need, and our ordering page walks through each step.

Baby shower catering: the specifics

Most baby showers I cater are afternoon parties, mostly women, 20–40 guests, with games, gifts, and a mom-to-be who is tired and hungry and would like something more substantial than cucumber sandwiches. Tamales are that something. A few things I have learned:

• Lean toward chicken in green salsa. It is lighter and brighter than the pork, and the tomatillo salsa is mild. I send a 50/50 split for showers instead of my usual pork-heavy mix.
• Time the food for the middle of the party, after guests have arrived and settled but before the gifts. A buffet that opens while everyone is watching the gift opening is a buffet nobody visits.
• Plates and forks on the table, not in a stack across the room. Showers are crowded. Keep the walk short.
• Make a plate for the guest of honor first. She is not going to get up and make one herself, and she should eat.

Brunch showers work too. Tamales with eggs and salsa are a real breakfast in every Mexican household I know, and they hold in a chafer just as well at 10 AM as they do at 3 PM.

Birthdays: kids’ parties and grown-up parties

Kids’ birthdays

Children eat one tamal, sometimes half, and they eat the chicken in green salsa because it is mild. Order one per child and two per adult, because the parents who stay always eat. Put out rice for the picky ones. Skip the pickled jalapeños on the kids’ table. The cake is the point of the party and the tamales are the reason the adults do not leave early.

Milestone birthdays

A fortieth, a sixtieth, an abuela’s eightieth. These are the parties where the food carries the meaning. A tamal is a family food, made from recipes the women in my family passed down, and putting a platter of them on the table at a milestone birthday says something that a sandwich tray cannot. For these, I suggest both fillings, a full toppings bar, and enough extra tamales for the plates that get wrapped in foil and sent home. If you are in Richardson, our Richardson catering page covers the neighborhoods there, and the surrounding suburbs work the same way.

The hour before guests arrive

Here is the checklist I text to hosts the day before:

1. Clear a table for the food and a separate spot for drinks.
2. Have a chafing dish with fuel, or a slow cooker or electric roaster, ready with an inch of hot water in the bottom.
3. Put out plates, forks, napkins, and serving spoons before the delivery arrives.
4. When the tamales arrive, they go straight into the chafer, husks on. Rice and beans go into their pans. Salsas and toppings go on the table.
5. Lids on. Walk away. Go get dressed.

That is the entire job. The food stays at the same temperature when the last guest makes a plate as it was when the first one did, and you get to spend the party in the room with the people you invited.

Leftovers, reheating, and ordering

Whatever is left goes into the refrigerator in the husk and reheats in a steamer, a covered pan, or a microwave with a damp paper towel. My guide to reheating tamales so they taste fresh covers all the methods. Most hosts tell me the leftovers were dinner for two more nights.

To order, count the adults and children, work out the dozens with the table above, and place the order in our online store: chicken or pork, half dozen or dozen, delivery or pickup, the date, and payment online. Questions go to (469) 888-8398 by call or text; the kitchen is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 9 AM to 2 PM. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested. So order as soon as your headcount settles, and then, on the day, sit down with your guests. That was the whole idea.

Frequently asked questions

How much baby shower catering do I need for 30 guests?

Plan two of our big tamales per adult, so about 60 tamales or 5 dozen for 30 guests, plus rice, beans, chips, salsas, and a toppings tray. Lean toward chicken in green salsa for a shower crowd, about a 50/50 split with the pork. Add a fruit tray and the desserts, and skip a second hot entrée; nobody finishes it and it doubles the tending.

What is the easiest catering for a birthday party at home?

Food that is finished when it arrives and holds without attention. Tamales in their husks sit in a chafing dish or slow cooker on warm for hours and stay moist, so the host makes no trips to the stove. Add rice, beans, chips, salsas, and a toppings tray, put drinks in a separate room, and the whole spread serves itself while you enjoy the party.

How do I keep tamales warm at a party without drying them out?

Keep them in the husk and hold them over gentle steam: a chafing dish with hot water in the bottom pan, or a slow cooker or electric roaster on warm with an inch of water. Lids on between guests. The husk and the masa protect the filling, so they taste the same at the end of the party as they did when we delivered them.

Can I order tamales for a small birthday party?

Yes. A half-dozen, a dozen, or two dozen for a family dinner is ordered in our online store the same way as a big party order: pick chicken or pork, delivery or pickup, today or a date ahead, and pay online. Once you are feeding a room, order more dozens and add your own rice, beans, salsas, and toppings.

Are your tamales safe for guests who are gluten-free?

All of our tamales are made with gluten-free masa, both the pork in red salsa and the chicken breast in green tomatillo salsa. If you have gluten-free guests, check the labels on the sides and salsas you add yourself so the whole plate works for them, and call or text (469) 888-8398 with any question about the tamales. Many hosts pick tamales for exactly this reason.