How Much Boerewors Per Person?
The short answer: 200 grams of boerewors per adult when wors is one of several meats on the fire. That is the number we use in the calculator, and it is the number most SA butchers will give you if you ask without overthinking it.
The questions that actually come in are more specific: how many boerewors rolls from a kilogram, how much wors sits in one roll, and whether a 2 kg pack is enough for Sunday. Those are answered below with the same maths the calculator uses.
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The 200g rule
200 g is the right number when:
- You are cooking two or more meats (wors + steak, wors + chops, wors + chicken).
- Sides are present: pap, salads, rolls, anything starchy.
- It is a normal afternoon braai, not an all-day session.
A typical supermarket coil is about 500 g, so one coil feeds roughly two and a half adults as a supporting meat. A 1 kg pack feeds five. Shop in those units and you will not stand at the counter doing mental arithmetic.
Boerewors quantities by guest count
| Guests | Wors needed (200g/person) | If wors is the only meat (300g/person) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0.8 kg | 1.2 kg |
| 8 | 1.6 kg | 2.4 kg |
| 12 | 2.4 kg | 3.6 kg |
| 16 | 3.2 kg | 4.8 kg |
| 20 | 4.0 kg | 6.0 kg |
| 30 | 6.0 kg | 9.0 kg |
How many boerewors rolls per kg?
This is the most-asked follow-up, and the answer depends on how long you cut each piece.
A standard South African hotdog roll is about 15 cm. If you cut the coil into pieces that fill the roll without a huge overhang, you get:
1 kg of boerewors ≈ 5 boerie rolls (about 200 g of raw wors per roll).
That 200 g figure is not a coincidence. It is the same per-person serving. One adult, one proper roll, if wors is the main event. If you cut shorter “snack” pieces of about 12 cm, you can squeeze 6 rolls from a kilogram, but people will come back for a second.
| Wors you buy | Boerie rolls (~200 g each) | Snack rolls (~160 g each) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 g coil | 2–3 | 3 |
| 1 kg | 5 | 6 |
| 1.6 kg (8 adults) | 8 | 10 |
| 2 kg | 10 | 12 |
| 5 kg (butcher pack) | 25 | 30 |
| 10 kg (bulk / club) | 50 | 60 |
Buy rolls one pack ahead of the wors. A 6-pack covers a 1 kg coil with one spare. For 8 rolls you want 1.6 kg of wors and two 6-packs of hotdog rolls. The calculator rounds the buns up if you tick both wors and rolls.
How much boerewors per roll?
Fill the roll, do not thread a pencil of sausage through it. 180–220 g raw is the comfortable range. Below 150 g the roll is mostly bread and sauce. Above 250 g the wors hangs off both ends and is awkward to eat standing up.
Cooked weight is lower. Wors loses fat on the grid; a 200 g piece comes off closer to 150–160 g. That is still a full roll. Do not “make up” the lost fat by buying more unless you already know your crowd eats two each.
Does it matter which boerewors you buy?
For portion sizing, no, 200g is 200g. For taste and price, very much yes:
- Pick n Pay Country Classic wors, around R125/kg (September 2026 shelf check). Fine for a casual braai, sometimes a bit fatty.
- Checkers Championship Boerewors, about R130/kg in our October 2026 check. Award winner, the safe bet.
- Woolies Drakensberg Beef Boerewors, about R120/kg in October 2026. A beef coil, not the old free-range line we used to list at R199/kg.
- Local butcher, typically R140–R200/kg depending on the shop. Best flavour if you've got a butcher you trust.
Supermarket numbers above are estimates from the month shown, not a till price.
For SA expats overseas: imported boerewors lands at about $42/kg in the USA (Aubergine Foods, November 2026), £18/kg in the UK and around A$28/kg in Australia. Those shop figures are estimates on the dates shown. See our expat guide for shop links.
Wors-only braais
If you are doing wors only, a “wors and pap” lunch, a kids’ birthday, a quick weeknight fire, you need 300 g per adult, not 200 g. People eat more of it when nothing else is competing on the plate. For 8 adults that is 2.4 kg, not 1.6 kg.
Kids under 12: count 100 g each if there are also sides, or 150 g if the roll is the meal. Eight adults and four kids on a roll-only lunch is (8 × 300 g) + (4 × 150 g) = 3.0 kg.
How we cook it (so the portion still works)
Portion maths assumes the wors is cooked through, not incinerated. Medium-hot coals, not flames. Turn it so the casing colours evenly. A 500 g coil takes about 15–20 minutes. Pricking it lets the fat out and dries it; we do not prick. If the coil is thick, butterfly the last few minutes rather than burning the outside.
Done looks like this: casing browned, juices run clear if you nick the end, no pink in the middle. Rest it two minutes off the grid before you slice for rolls, or the first cut dumps the juice onto the board.
Storing leftovers
Cooked wors lasts 3 days in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer. Slice it into rounds for Monday pap-en-sous, or freeze the leftover raw coil if you never lit it. Over-buy by about 10%. Leftover wors is useful. Running out at 16:00 is not.
FAQ
How much wors for 4 people?
800g, a single 1kg pack (with a tiny bit left over for breakfast).
How much wors for 12 people?
2.4kg, three 800g coils, or a 2.5kg butcher pack.
What if half the guests are kids?
Count each child as 100g. So 8 adults + 4 kids = (8 × 200) + (4 × 100) = 2.0 kg.