Potluck Ideas: The Best From Your Guests

Potluck parties are the best of all worlds – easy for the host, a fun way to contribute for all the guests, and a feast for everyone. Potlucks allow you to taste the best from a variety of good cooks.

Party Ideas for a Perfect Potluck

• Set a theme and give assignments to your guests to bring something that fits the theme. Instead of making a familiar dish, you’ll all be stretching your creativity and experimenting with new recipes and ingredients. Circle of Food has some fun suggestions for an Oscar party potluck buffet, which can be adapted for the current year’s Academy Awards nominees.
  

• Have a cook-off or contest for the best dish at the potluck. Pick a food that most of your guests love to make and challenge them to bring their best! A chili cook-off is fun, especially in the fall and winter months when comfort foods are welcome. Are peaches in season? Tell your guests to bring their favorite peach dish to the potluck and award a prize to the best.

• Any party with a buffet can be turned into a potluck, simply by asking your guests to bring a dish.

• The same goes for a cookout. When you host a cookout, make burgers and dogs, or another grilled main dish, and ask your guests to bring side dishes, salads, appetizers and desserts.

• If your potluck is successful, you may want to keep it going. A gourmet dinner club is much like a standing potluck party that is held every month.

What to Take to a Potluck

If you’re hosting a potluck, give some suggestions to your guests on what to bring. Give some direction and avoid having seven tuna casseroles and nothing else. You may want to suggest that guests contribute something they love to make or a dish that they’re known for.

The best potluck dishes are those that transport well, can be cooked ahead and reheated in the host's oven or that can be served room temperature, and that are versatile and delicious, of course!

You don’t have to bust the budget to contribute to a potluck. Some cheap potluck dishes are deviled eggs (less than $2 for a dozen eggs makes 24 deviled eggs, with a few more inexpensive ingredients) and bread (less than $1 per loaf for homemade bread, which always popular at a potluck).

Here are some potluck recipes that are perfect for a get-together:

Taco Dip
Layered Cobb Salad
Super Summer Coleslaw
Cool Fruit Salad
Pretzel Jello Salad
Italian Confetti Pasta Salad
White Bean Pasta Fagioli
All Day Meatballs
Unstuffed Cabbage
Cheesy Potluck Potatoes
Potluck Baked Beans
Plum and Almond Cobbler
Lemon Bars

What Not to Include in a Potluck

Ice cream or anything that needs to be kept frozen. You’ll have to rush it to the party and may find that the host’s freezer is full. Limit your dessert contributions to dishes that are versatile and not so sensitive.

Ingredients that the host has to prepare. The last thing a party host needs is one more thing to prepare after guests have begun to arrive. If a guest is asked to bring a dish to a potluck, it’s rude to expect the host to do anything other than uncover the dish and set it on the buffet.

Delicately assembled dishes that don’t transport well. The word ‘potluck’ assumes that what you’re bringing is in a pot or something equally sturdy and transportable. If your favorite dish is one that requires a delicate assembly and picture perfect presentation, save it for when you're hosting the party at your own house.

Foods that few people will like. You and your family may love your liver-and-onion casserole and your limburger anchovy sandwiches, but that doesn’t mean they’re welcome at a potluck. Stick to dishes with ingredients that most people like.

Cookbook Suggestion