Have you ever looked at where you can go with your Southwest frequent flyer miles, and noticed Costa Rica? It’s a pretty accessible foreign destination in the Mountain time zone, it has a great tourist infrastructure, and it’s a fantastically different than the United States. We took a quick 9 day trip last July and had a great experience. And whenever we travel, I’m always interested in the local food. For Costa Rica that means rice and black beans, both in the restaurants and in the grocery stores. We ate out every lunch and dinner. I’m not proud of that. But it did give us a lot of samples of Costa Rican cuisine. As all the tour books will tell you, Casado is always on the menu, and gives you the most food for your money. I’m doing my best here to recreate what we ate using ingredients I can find in my local grocery store. Plantains are key, but the Salsa Lizano is what really makes it pop. I searched for weeks to find it, and finally discovered it at my local Smith’s in the hot sauce section, even though the website didn’t list it. But Salsa Lizano is not hot sauce. It’s more like Worcestershire sauce with more citrus. It was worth the search. As a funny aside, we saw Salsa Lizano in the grocery stores in Costa Rica and were frustrated because we wanted salsa to go with chips. That’s not a thing in Costa Rica.
Casado consists of rice, beans, meat, a simple salad, and fried plantains. Top with Lizano if you can. And dream of rainforests, macaws, toucans, monkeys and sloths and your next trip to beautiful Costa Rica.
Costa Rican Casado
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups rice
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 cans black beans
- 1-2 plantains sliced diagonally into disks
- Chopped raw salad vegetables of your choice lettuce, tomatoes, fruit, cabbage, etc.
- Vinegar, salt, and neutral oil to dress the salad
- 1 ½ – 2 lbs. chicken thighs cut into bite sized cubes
Chicken Marinade
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder or minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried minced onion optional
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper optional, for a spicier version
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper or to taste
Instructions
- Mix together the chicken marinade ingredients in a small glass measuring cup or bowl. Place the cubed chicken into a large ziptop bag, and pour the marinade over the chicken. Let the chicken marinate for 30 minutes to overnight.
- Start the rice and cook according to package directions using the broth. Or cook in a rice cooker – my new favorite kitchen appliance.
- Dump the black beans into a small saucepan or bowl. Heat on the stovetop or microwave. Add garlic salt to taste.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Dump the chicken and marinade into the skillet, and cook until cooked through, stirring from time to time. It should take about 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your cubes.
- Peel the plantains, and slice into diagonal slices. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a skillet on medium to medium high heat. Add the plantains in a single layer and sprinkle with salt. Cook until lightly browned, then flip and continue cooking until the second side is also browned.
- Chop the salad vegetables. Dress the salad with a swirl of olive oil, a sprinkle of vinegar, and a shake of salt to taste.
- To serve, fill your plate with a scoop of rice, a scoop of black beans, a scoop of chicken, and a scoop of salad. Add the fried plantains around the edge, and top with Lizano sauce if you can.
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