• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Belize Travel and Country Guide

Belize Travel and Country Guide

Belize guide for vacation, diving, caving, fishing, scuba, the Caribbean sea, Maya temples, friendly people, islands, snorkel, best tourist attractions, what to do..

  • Home
  • About Belize
    • Where Is Belize?
    • Retirement Options
    • Fact Sheet
    • Top 10 Reasons To Live Here
    • Medical Care
    • Real Estate
    • Currency
    • Garifuna People
    • Cuisine
    • Education System
  • Destinations
    • Ambergris Caye
    • Placencia
    • Corozal
    • Orange Walk
    • Cayo
    • Belize City
    • Stann Creek
    • Caye Caulker
    • Toledo
    • Belmopan
  • Things To Do
    • Top 10 Things To Do
    • Top 10 Maya Sites
    • Top 10 Things To Taste
    • Honeymoons
    • Ambergris Caye Activities
    • Scuba Diving
    • Great Blue Hole
    • Activities For Cruisers
    • Birding
    • Dating in Belize
  • Hotels
    • Gold Standard Hotels
  • Tips & Articles
    • Best Time To Visit
    • Banking
    • Travel Maps
    • Bus & Transport
    • Driving In Belize
    • Public & Bank Holidays
    • Border With Guatemala
    • Border With Mexico
    • Living In Belize eBook
    • How To Get Belize Passport
  • Search Belize

Belizean Recipes

These Belizean recipes were compiled by a former expat living in Belize. They are quick and easy.

Belizean Stew Beans

Belize Stew Beans and White Rice with Fried Shrimp

Fresh Red Kidney beans
Oil – For best results use Coconut Oil.
1/2 Onion
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
* If the beans float, they’re not totally fresh!
Clean the beans and cover with two inches of water.  Boil an hour.  Add Onion, Pepper, and Oil.  Simmer until tender, adding water as required to keep the beans well covered.

Tip:
Soak the beans overnight, or bring water to a boil, turn off the stove and let the beans sit for an hour.  Discard that soaking water and wash beans thoroughly.  Heat pot, coat the bottom of the pan with a little oil, and refill with water.  (The oil helps to prevent sticking. )

In addition to onion, add 1/4 to 1/2 diced small green pepper.  Add 1 TBSP Chili Powder (Gebharts, if possible)  Optionally, add 2 TBSP Tomato Paste.  Add 2 Tsp chicken granules.   (All of this adds lots of flavor and body to the beans.). Cook the beans until really soft.  Turn off the fire, cover and let stand for an hour.  In the tropics, the beans will continue to cook!

For Refried Beans:  Coat the inside of an iron skillet or aluminum roaster  with coconut oil.  Add beans and cook until the mix begins to thicken.  Smash up the beans with a potato masher, or in a blender / food processor.  Add 1 can Salsa Casera, and continue to cook until the beans thicken to the right consistency.

NOTE:  If you pour off the water on BLACK BEANS (Frijoles Negros) you will pour off most of the colour!!  Don’t do that.  Keep the water.  Also, don’t put green pepper or tomato paste in black beans! If you have Apasote (a local herb), add this. It will make the beans taste better and have less gas.

Belizean Stew Beans and Rice

Belizean Beans and Rice are simply that.  Beans, served over White Rice.  Here’s a foolproof recipe for white rice.

White Rice
1 Cup Rice
1 1/2 Cups Water

Add the rice to the water and bring to a hard boil.  Turn down to a gentle boil and PAY ATTENTION.  The water will cook down until it disappears in the holes in the rice.  (The water will be about 1/4″ below the surface of the rice.  If it’s lower than that, add a little water.)  Turn the flame down as low as possible (I use a comal –a big aluminum disk– to cut the heat even more) and cover the pot.  Cook, without looking, for 20 minutes.  Turn off the fire.  The rice can stand for up to 15 minutes more before serving.    Serves 3.

Tip:  As soon as you’ve served all the rice, run cold water in the pan.  It will lift the stuck rice right off the bottom!

Belizean Stew Chicken

One chicken, whole or cut up
1 Packet (1 Tbsp) Chicken Granules
2 TBSP chopped Onion OR MORE!!
1 Ball Red Recado

Newer.  If it’s cut up, pepper the chicken well and brown it in some oil. Take out the pieces and brown the onion.  Make broth with the granules, add it to everything, and bring to a boil.  In a little dish, dissolve the recado.  (CAUTION:  This will stain your clothes, fingers, towels, etc.]  Use your fingers to work it into a paste or soup.  It will wash off your fingers eventually.  Add recado and cook chicken until it’s starting to fall of the bones. Use in other recipes or serve bones and all.

Tips:  When the chicken is done, but not off the bones, separate the chicken meat from the bones, skin, and feet.    Use the meat for Taquitos and other dishes.

Conch Fritters

These are a lot easier to make if you have a food processor  If you have one of those, you just put the conch in and it beats it to smithereens.  Without it, you have to lots of pounding and cutting, to get the conch to be tender.  (Conch tastes like abalone, but it’s a lot tougher!!)  Here’s the combination, courtesy of the Hospital Auxiliary Cook Book.

Step 1.     Put all of this in the food processor.

1 lb Cleaned Conch  (drop this in, a piece at a time, while the machine is running)
1 oz. sweet green or red pepper
1/2 habañero pepper (or equivalent Marie Sharp’s Habañero Sauce)
1 oz. tomatoes
1 oz. onions

Step 2:  Sieve this together and then add to blend from Step 1.
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Step 3:  Add as much of this liquid to form a stiff consistency.
1. cup water
1 TBSP lime juice

Fry in deep fat by dropping spoonfuls.   Fritters will be golden to deep brown.  Big spoonfuls for a main dish; small spoonfuls for an appetizer.  Dry on absorbent paper.
Serve with sections of lime, cocktail sauce and/or tartar sauce

Flour Tortillas

Belize Flour Tortilla (left) with Belizean style fried chicken.

2 Cups Flour
1/4 Cup  Shortening
1 tsp Baking Powder (prove)
About 3/8 Cup Water
1/4 tsp Salt

Mix dry ingredients well.  Cut in shortening with a fork until it disappears.  Add water & knead until you have dough.  (Add water, one tsp at a time, if it’s too dry.)  Cover & allow to rest for 10 minutes.   Cut into six equal pieces and knead each piece until you can make a nice round ball.  Coat the inside of a flat bottomed bowl with shortening.  Flatten each ball into a round tortilla on the bottom of the bowl. (Sebastiani, our housekeeper, greases the countertop with Crisco and uses that.)  Fry tortillas on a hot comal until they are slightly brown on both sides.  The comal should be VERY hot, and if you cook too long, the tortillas will be tough.

belizean fry jack
Belizean fry jacks stuffed with ham and eggs make a scrumptious breakfast on the go.

Fry-Jacks

These are perfect in place of plain old bread at breakfast.  Use the recipe above, but form the dough into an apple turnover shape (triangular) and fry in fairly deep fat until they brown and puff up.  Wonderful with honey or Gallon Jug jams.

Plantains

You can fry the green ones in oil or fat, but they don’t taste like much to me!  A plantain is an essential part of every Belizean meal. Here’s the way they taste REALLY GOOD.

1. Choose plantains that are really ripe.  (If these were bananas, they’d be ready to throw away.)
2. Slice them into long skinny slices.  There are lots of ways to do this, and I am still experimenting.
3. Fry them on the grill or in an iron skillet in a) real butter, b) extra virgin olive oil or c) margarine.  Fry them until they are brown on both sides.  This doesn’t take long, and they can burn or overcook if you don’t pay attention.
4. Serve them with sour cream.  Plantains and Sour Cream is a dish fit for the gods.  Fried Plantains are good; Plantains and Sour Cream are GREAT.

Potato Salad

Boiled potatoes (red are best)
1 can Mixed Vegetables,
Heinz Salad Creme,
salt and pepper
Milk (canned or fresh)
several boiled and sliced eggs.

Slice & cube potatoes as preferred. Stir in Mixed Veggies & Salad Creme.  If you can’t get Heinz Salad Creme, use Kraft Miracle Whip or Lime Mayonesa, Moisten with milk until creamy & garnish with sliced boiled eggs.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
cancun beach

ADO Bus To Belize Trip Report

The ADO Bus run to Mexico has grown in popularity with tourists and locals wishing to bypass the exorbitant air travel prices to North America. The following trip report by a Belizean American businesswoman who lives between Houston and Caye Caulker, was posted on our discussion mailing list. It gives a first hand account of […]

New US Chargé d’affaires in Belize

The United States Embassy in Belize via it’s official social media presence announced the arrival of Keith Gilges, the Embassy’s new Chargé d’affaires. Mr. Gilges is a career Foreign Service Officer. Most recently, he was detailed to the National Security Council at the White House where he served as the Director for North America overseeing […]

Belize Relaxes COVID19 Restrictions

The government announced new regulations under the public health and safety act. The changes go into effect on 1 February 2021, along with some other small adjustments in the regulations. The Ministers of Health and Wellness and Home affairs held a joint press conference to outline the new regulations. Michel Chebat, Minister of Health & […]

National Geographic Recommends Visiting Belize In 2019

National Geographic has declared Belize to be a Must Go Destination Best Trips 2019, the first time Belize has been placed on the prestigious year end list. For over 130 years National Geographic has been one of the best names to trust when it comes to travel recommendations. It describes Belize as: “One of Central […]

Toledo Cacao Fest Renamed Chocolate Festival Of Belize

Cacao is native to the Americas and the seeds, or “beans”, are used to make cocoa products and, of course, chocolate. Cacao is a major export crop in Toledo. Richly prized for its quality and distinctive flavour – and Belize produces some notable chocolate products of its own. Every Commonwealth Day holiday weekend the Toledo […]

Footer

Our Partners

Belize.com is the first website established in Belize, 1995. As a pioneer Digital Media Company, we provide expert content and advice for locals, expats and tourists.

Recommended Resources:  Belize Ministry of National Security – Ghan Eden Belize – Belize Newsletter

Recent

  • Belize Moves Ahead With More Cruise Tourism Investment
  • Belize Government Moves To Digital Transformation of Judiciary
  • Exotic South American Fish Species Found In Belize
  • Expat Heroic Stand Against Marauding Sea Pirates
  • US State Department Issues Travel Belize Advisory February

© 1995-2050 ITM Ltd. · Reproduction without explicit permission prohibited · All Rights Reserved · Contact · About · Privacy Policy ·