Belizean Rice and Beans

Easy·30 min active + 45 min resting

Belize's national dish — red kidney beans and rice simmered together in coconut milk until creamy and faintly sweet, served with recado-stewed chicken, fried ripe plantain, and coleslaw.

Belizean rice and beans cooks the two together in coconut milk (distinct from 'stew beans and rice', cooked apart). The Sunday plate, served with stew chicken, potato salad, and fried plantain.

Spoon up Belizean rice and beans — glossy rice and tender red beans bound in coconut milk, faintly sweet and rich, beside a piece of dark recado-stewed chicken and a slice of caramelized plantain. Bite: the rice is creamy and coconut-sweet, the beans soft and earthy, the chicken deeply savory-red from achiote, the plantain sweet. The Belizean Sunday plate, comforting and complete.

Cooking the rice and beans together in coconut milk (not water) is the defining move — each grain absorbs the coconut's fat and sweetness, and the bean liquor colors the rice. Recado rojo (achiote paste) gives the stew chicken its deep red color and earthy flavor.

Variations

With stew beef or fish instead of chicken. With black-eyed peas. Richer with coconut cream. With a habanero in the pot. As 'stew beans and rice' (cooked separately). With pig tail for flavor.

On the Palate

Where Belizean Rice and Beans sits in the Belizean flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Cook the rice and beans together in coconut milk, not water — that single move is the whole dish, letting each grain drink up the coconut fat while the bean liquor tints and flavors the rice.

Techniques

Simmering Braising

Ingredients

Serves 6

400 gRice

250 g red kidneyBeans

How it's made

8 steps · 30 min active + 45 min waiting

1
52 min
Soak 250 g red kidney beans overnight; simmer until nearly tender, 50 min.
2
32 min
Marinate 8 chicken pieces in recado rojo (achiote paste), garlic, onion, and salt 30 min.
3
35 min
Brown the chicken in oil with a spoon of sugar for color, then add water and stew 35 min until tender.
Watch out
Brown the chicken with a spoon of sugar until it takes on deep color — that caramel is the base of the stew.
4
4 min
To the beans, add 400 ml coconut milk, 1 chopped onion, garlic, and a sprig of thyme.
5
3 min
Stir in 400 g rinsed rice and enough bean liquor to cover by 2 cm.
6
20 min
Simmer covered on low 20 min until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
Watch out
Liquid should sit about 2 cm above the rice, no more, or it'll go mushy.
7
10 min
Rest off the heat 10 min, covered; fluff with a fork.
Watch out
Done when the liquid is fully absorbed and the grains are tender but separate.
8
3 min
Serve the rice and beans with stew chicken, fried ripe plantain, and coleslaw.