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Hey,
A colleague of mine directs an amateur orchestra in my city, and he contacted me about doing a concerto together. I'm wondering which concertos have the least challenging orchestral parts. The Chopin concertos, Mozart no. 12 & 13, Haydn D Major, and Bach all spring to mind, but I'm curious what others think....

Depends what you mean by "easy." And I'm not (just) being cute.

A lot of people would say "Mozart," but for the kind of thing you're talking about, I think Mozart is the hardest, and I'd say whatever you do, don't make it Mozart. Anything but Mozart.

I faced just about the same choice myself. The concertos that I most wanted to play at the time were Mozart, but I thought it would be too much of a challenge for the orchestra to get it good enough not to sound lousy. (Not to mention a challenge for me too, but never mind.)
So, would you believe, what I picked was Beethoven's Emperor. A lot of people would think it's ridiculous to think the Emperor is "easier" than Mozart concertos, but in terms of what I was thinking of -- and maybe you too -- it was so. Assuming a certain basic capability with the instruments (piano as well as orchestral) -- and since you're mentioning the Chopin concertos, I'm figuring that you do have this basic technical capability -- stuff that is superficially "harder" is still doable, and can cover sins better than Mozart, which doesn't cover them at all.

If I were you and the concertos you mentioned were all the choices, I'd go with one of the Chopins. I suppose Bach would be second choice, although maybe with trepidation, and on Haydn, we're almost in Mozart territory but not as severely.

I agree, bad performances of Mozart and Bach are particularly painful. For some reason the Russian concertos seem pretty performer-proof. I heard some ridiculously bad performances of Tchaik 1 and Rach 2 (orchestras fault, not the soloists), but the audience didn't seem bothered, weirdly.
Maybe I'll suggest Bartok 1 or Schönberg nobody would know the difference....

Joking aside, Emperor is a good suggestion! Should probably learn it one of these days anyway haha

What instruments are available in the orchestra? This may be more important than difficulty. For example, the Emperor Concerto needs a really good bassoonist, but if your orchestra doesn't have one, then it's a poor choice.

Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and early Beethoven work best for smaller orchestras. Mendelssohn 1 and Grieg might also work if you have the winds and brass.

Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2 seems to be the most accessible, that I know of, and still sound really awesome. Mozart/Bach/classical can be so painful intonation-wise, and Russian works often have orchestrations that are too large for non-professional orchestras.

Goethe ran the court theater for years, and he said, 'When you have an amateur company, you must choose a great play.'

Yes -- but I think rhythm is an even bigger issue with that repertoire -- not only crispness and precision, but even merely being together -- orchestra and piano being together, and the instruments of the orchestra being together. Mozart is too naked for mush. Nothing is great for mush but Mozart is the worst, and I think it's usually too much of a task for an amateur orchestra.

I've never felt overwhelming love for either Saint Saens' or Mendelssohn's g minor concertos, but Saint Saens 4 would be a cool option!

Anybody know how tricky Shostakovich 2 is for the ensemble?

I don't think the string parts are too bad, but you need awesome brass.

One option is to look for concerti written for students, as the orchestra parts tend to be written with amateur/school orchestras in mind.

Kabalevsky 3 and the Rowley Miniature Concerto come to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwyHA2WE2IA

Chopin Piano concerti.