When Feeding Chips And Dip To A Crowd, Here's How Much You Actually Need

Tortilla chips and salsa. Ruffles and sour cream and onion dip. Pita chips and hummus. There is a seemingly endless variety of chip and dip pairings worth exploring. Because of this variety, chips and dips are an excellent appetizer to serve at your next party, whether it's a more casual, movie night affair with friends or an office mixer. The toughest part isn't finding a pairing that works, of course: It's deciding how many chips and dips to buy to feed your hungry guests. 

You should generally expect to stock up on a pint of dip (you can find a lot of great, large-portioned Costco dips for this) and a pound of chips for every 10 guests you have. This figure assumes you are serving other light bites, like pigs in a blanket or homemade mozzarella sticks, and that your party is going to last a few hours. If you are serving a sit-down meal on top of this, you may be able to buy less — but, when hosting, it's always better to have too much food on hand than not enough. 

Since chips and dips vary widely in heartiness, knowing how much each of your guests will eat is difficult. For example, cowboy caviar is more filling than salty potato chips, which means your guests may eat less of it. You may also have to know your audience for a dip like this; children don't always like beans, so you may want to prepare less of it than chips and guacamole, which is always a crowd favorite. Children, as a whole, also tend to eat smaller portions than adults, so you may not need to follow the 1 pint of dips to 1 pound of chips ratio for a youngin's birthday party. 

Another question you might be wondering about is the variety of chips and dips that you should have. You don't need a ton; If you're feeding 10 people, a pound of potato chips and two or three dip options is usually safe, especially if you're also serving crudités, which can be dipped in place of the chips. That said, stick with the tried-and-true classics. Considering that some people may also forego the dips entirely, you may want to stock up on plain potato chips and pair them with well-loved and simple dips like green onion dip and creamy Buffalo chicken dip.