Casado

Ingredients

• Chicken breast600 g
• Rice350 g
• Black beans — cooked400 g
• Plantain — ripe2
• Chayote or courgette300 g
• Carrot2
• Cabbage200 g
• Tomatoes2
• Salsa Lizano2 tbsp
• Lime2
• Garlic4 clove
• Coriander30 g
• Vegetable oil60 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Marinate the chicken in lime juice, garlic, Salsa Lizano, salt and pepper for twenty minutes.

   22 min

2. 2

   Cook the rice loose and warm the beans with a spoon of their liquid.

   22 min

3. 3

   Dice the chayote and carrot small and stew them with garlic for ten minutes; that is the picadillo.

   14 min

4. 4

   Fry the chicken over medium heat, six minutes a side.

   14 min

5. 5

   Fry the ripe plantain slices to a caramel colour.

   8 min

6. 6

   Toss the shredded cabbage with tomato, coriander, lime juice and salt.

   6 min

7. 7

   Build the plate in sectors: rice, beans, chicken, picadillo, salad, plantain — unmixed.

   5 min

About the dish

Casado is not one recipe but a format for a plate. What is on it varies from place to place, but the structure is fixed: starch, protein, vegetable, something sweet.

The name means "married", and there are two explanations: either the dish marries its components on one plate, or it is what married labourers ate from the food their wives packed.

Picadillo — chopped vegetables cooked with meat — is a usual part of a casado, and every soda, the small home-run diners, makes its own: with chayote, potato or green beans.

Worth knowing

• — The sectors are not mixed at serving. That is the whole format: each person builds their own combinations.
• — The plantain has to be overripe, black-skinned. A yellow one stays starchy and gives no sweetness.
• — The chicken swaps easily for fish, steak or a pork chop — the plate is still a casado.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

740 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

20 g

Carbs

92 g

More from Costa Rica

• Gallo pinto — Yesterday's rice fried with black beans and Salsa Lizano. The Costa Rican breakfast, every day.