Cooked red beans in a bowl under ground beef, chicharrón, sausage, ripe plantain, corn, avocado and a handful of shoestring potatoes. The bandeja paisa served in one dish.
A bandeja paisa in a bowl
Everything on the ingredient list of this recipe is on the bandeja paisa: beans, ground beef, chicharrón, sausage, ripe plantain, avocado, arepa, rice.
The difference is that a bandeja spreads them across a platter so wide that it barely fits on a table, and a cazuela stacks them in a bowl. Ground beef at the bottom, beans to about half the depth, and then everything else arranged on top in sections.
It is the same food and it is a great deal easier to serve, which is why it is what turns up in restaurants at lunchtime while the bandeja is what comes out on Sundays.
The order of the frying
This is not a dish where things can go in the pan in any order, and the reason is fat.
The chicharrón goes first, with three tablespoons of water to start it off, and as it browns it renders enough fat to cook everything after it. The sausage goes into that fat, and then the ripe plantain, which comes last because it leaves the pan sweet and sticky.
The ground beef is the exception: it goes into a dry skillet with no oil at all, because it releases its own and adding more makes it greasy in a dish that already has plenty of fat in it.
The potato was a contradiction
The ingredient list asked for a cup of potato chips. The fifth step said to grate a potato, fry it, drain it and set it aside.
Both cannot be true. Anyone who bought the bag arrived at step five with nothing to grate; anyone who followed step five had bought a bag they did not need.
The recipe makes its own, which is what papas ripio are: potato grated fine, fried until crisp, and scattered over the top. The list now asks for the potato. If you would rather buy them, the shoestring kind in a bag does the same job.
Crisps last, and then straight to the table
The final instruction scatters the potato over everything, and it should be the last thing that happens before the dish leaves the kitchen.
Anything crisp sitting on hot beans stops being crisp within about a minute. Buried under the other toppings it never had a chance in the first place.
This is a dish to assemble when everyone is already sitting down.
More paisa food
- Colombian beans — the base of it.
- Chicharrón — the piece that renders the fat.
- Colombian white rice — on the side.
- Cheese arepas — the arepa that comes with it.
Cazuela de Frijoles FAQ
The arrangement, not the ingredients. A bandeja paisa is spread across a large flat platter; a cazuela puts the same things in a bowl or an earthenware dish, layered rather than side by side. It is the same meal, easier to serve.
Yes, and in order. The chicharrón goes first because it renders the fat that the sausage and the plantain are then cooked in, and the ground beef goes in a dry pan on its own.
You make them. Grate a potato, fry it in hot oil until crisp and drain it. The ingredient list used to ask for a cup of ready-made chips while step five had you making them from scratch, which was a contradiction.
Yes, the shoestring kind sold as papas ripio. They go on at the very end either way.
Because they soften within a minute of touching the beans. They are the last thing to go into the dish and the dish should go straight to the table.
The recipe assumes they are already cooked, which is how it is usually done, because beans are made in a big pot and used across several meals. Soaked overnight and pressure cooked, they take about an hour.
Usually, alongside rather than underneath, with a small arepa or a wedge of avocado. The cazuela is already substantial, so plenty of people skip it.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 gr red beans (cooked)
To accompany
- 1 ripe plantain (diced)
- 2 pounds chicharron (pork belly, chopped into small pieces)
- 1 large potato (grated, for the shoestring potatoes on top; a cup of ready-made ones also works)
- 1 cup corn kernels (cooked)
- 4 sliced sausages
- 2 avocados (cut into squares)
- 1 pound ground beef
- White rice (salad or a small round arepa, to accompany)
Notas
Instructions
- Cook the beans the way you usually do, or follow the recipe linked from this page.
- Fry the chicharron in its own fat, adding three tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt, until it browns. Stir continuously and drain it on kitchen paper.
- In the fat the chicharron left behind, fry the sausage and then the ripe plantain, and drain those on paper too.
- Brown the ground beef in a dry skillet, with no oil, and set it aside.
- Grate the potato, fry it in hot oil until crisp, drain and set aside. These are the shoestring potatoes that go on top.
- To serve, put a little ground beef in the bottom of a bowl or earthenware dish, then the beans to about half the depth. On top of the beans, in equal portions, arrange the chicharron, the sausage, the ripe plantain, the corn and the avocado. Scatter the shoestring potatoes over everything last.
- Serve with white rice, salad or an arepa.
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