My wife and I were both in the military and spent twenty years overseas. We have some business associates coming from Thailand. I’ve invited them to dinner at our house. My wife recommends we offer a traditional American dinner. We’re afraid, however, that our dining habits are influenced by the different countries we’ve lived in. What, would you recommend, is the typical American dinner?
Steak and potato with green veggie.
Growing up in Minnesota in the 90’s:
Meat, potato, peas/carrots/corn/mix, bread and butter, and milk. For dessert, a couple cookies.
Potential menus:
Classic
salad with ranch dressing
fried chicken
mashed potatoes with gravy
corn on the cob
sauteed broccoli
pecan or apple pie
Thanksgiving
butternut squash soup
turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce
chestnut stuffing
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
pumpkin pie
Backyard barbeque
grilled cheeseburgers and hotdogs
potato salad
cole slaw
baked beans
cold pasta salad
fruit salad
chocolate chip cookies
Christmas Dinner
Baked ham
Scalloped potatoes
Wild rice
Brussel sprouts or green beans
Yeast rolls
Cheesecake or chocolate cake
Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with a side of peas and carrots. Chocolate cake for dessert.
Steak and baked potato and a tossed salad (iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, thinly sliced carrots and red onions with perhaps thinly sliced radishes and green peppers thrown in also). Jello with whip cream for dessert.
Pork chops and applesauce, rice and a side of green beans with slivered almonds. Apple pie for dessert.
If you want something distinctively American, you can’t get much more American than chili and cornbread.
The Typical American Dinner can be many things, but generally takes the form of either the Casserole (which would include things like Macaroni and Cheese and Lasagne and Enchiladas) or the Three Point Landing. Protein, Starch and Veg(etable). “What are we having for dinner?” gets you the name of the Protein. “Ham.”
I still think of my dinners like this, although now I try to make it Protein, Starch and 2 Veg, to increase the Veg intake.
Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Carrots
Ham, Mac&Cheese (here serving as the Starch) and Peas
Roast Chicken, Rice Pilaf and Green Beans
Pork Chops, Spaetzle and Cabbage
Corned Beef, Cabbage and Red Potatoes
As the others suggest, meat, starch, vegetables would be considered typical for a home made meal. But this a pretty diverse and adaptive country, so a pizza is pretty typical, as is a burger and fries, or leftovers.
Oh, man, don’t feed your guests leftovers!
[mandatory nitpick]This is a Backyard cookout, not a barbeque[/mn]
You asked for “traditional”, but you’ve been getting a lot of “typical”. The first is more what I’d serve to visitors …
Yeah, the usual pattern would be a first course (maybe soup), meat, some kind of sauce or gravy, some kind of bread, potatoes, cooked vegetable, salad, and a (nice! guests coming!) dessert.
I would load up the menu choices with foods of New World (Western hemisphere) origins – corn, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes (white and sweet), squash, peanuts, chocolate, etc.
You could do standard dishes or mix in regional or ethnic favorites. Your local library will have plenty of cookbooks that you can take out for a test drive.
Menu suggestion:
tomato bisque (home-made! with fresh tomatoes!)
roast chicken (or broiled chicken parts)
pan gravy
corn muffins (with kernel corn)
baked sweet potatoes
some fresh green vegetable (whatever is in season), steamed
Waldorf salad (apples, celery, raisins, walnuts, mayonnaise)
chocolate (or chocolate-frosted) cake
I agree with meat+starch+vegetable (the most quintessentially American meal of all, Thanksgiving dinner, is the same formula on steroids) and specifically might suggest pot roast, mashed potatoes and green beans…I’d also add a simple salad (lettuce/tomato/cucumber) and dessert (fruit cobbler?)
So, when are you inviting me over?
As is demonstrated by this thread, there’s a LOT of “typical American dinner.”
I’d say think back to you or your wife’s growing up years. What meals were typical in your house? Which of those do you remember as being really good?
That’s what you should serve.
You should NOT serve them a stew made of hobos, no matter what the name of the people posting in this thread.
Garden salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, kidney beans, black olives)
roast beef
mashed potatoes
gravy
corn
cake for dessert
The real typical American dinner:
Delivery pizza.
Preferably served on paper plate or paper towels, while sitting on the couch and watching TV.
Something that goes well with flava beans and a nice Chianti.
Waldorf salad? 
American, yes. Typical… not so ‘yes’.
Tossed salad with ranch Dressing
Pot Roast (Chuck Roast) with potatoes, carrots, and onions cooked in with the roast.
Ice cream and toll house cookies for dessert