Recipes

This is the full recipe collection: Belizean home cooking first, and the wider Caribbean and Central American kitchens it sits inside.
The Belizean core is stew chicken, rice and beans, fry jacks, panades, hudut and escabeche, built on recado, coconut milk, fresh seafood and corn.
Around it are the regional kitchens that share those ingredients and cook them differently: Jamaican jerk and brown stew, Puerto Rican pernil and mofongo, Cuban ropa vieja, Salvadoran pupusas, Guatemalan pepian and Haitian griot.
Browse by meal in the sections below, or by country and culture.

Tortillas topped with Honduran quesillo cheese and tomato sauce
Quesillo Hondureño HondurasSnacks

Quesillo Hondureño

Quesillo Hondureño is a soft, mildly salty, stretched-curd melting cheese made from whole cow's milk. It is the cheese that goes inside a baleada, that melts into an anafre, and that gets folded between two hot corn tortillas for the snack Hondurans simply call tortillas con quesillo. It is not the same as Nicaraguan quesillo, a corn-tortilla street snack wrapped around soft cheese and pickled onions, or Venezuelan quesillo, which is a caramel flan. Same word, three foods that have nothing to do with each other. Why Quesillo Hondureño Is…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A whole chicken simmering with vegetables for a caldo
Caldo Cax (Mayan Chicken Caldo) BelizeDinnerMaya

Caldo Cax (Mayan Chicken Caldo)

Cax is the Maya word for the hen. Caldo cax is the chicken soup we make from a yard bird, the way it is made all through the Maya country, in the north of Belize and across in the Yucatan and down in Toledo. A whole hen in the pot, achiote for color, the squash and the plantain going in near the end. You eat it hot, with lime and a piece of habanero, even on a day that is already hot. What is caldo cax? Caldo cax is a…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Golden baked corn and cheese cookie like a Honduran tustaca, served as a sweet coffee-time treat
Tustacas DessertHonduras

Tustacas

Tustacas are a sweet Honduran corn cookie made from masa harina kneaded with fresh cuajada cheese, filled with grated dulce de rapadura, and baked until dry and crisp. They are not a tortilla dish, not a savory snack, and not a catracha. They are a cookie — baked in a clay oven fired with ocote wood in the workshops of Sabanagrande, eaten at merienda with a cup of hot coffee. If someone hands you a tustaca and it is savory, they gave you the wrong thing. Honduras's tortilla snacks are…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Leaf-wrapped highland stew in the style of subanik, a Kaqchikel Maya ceremonial dish from Guatemala
Subanik Recipe DinnerGuatemalaMaya

Subanik Recipe

This subanik recipe follows the Kaqchikel Maya ceremonial stew from San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala: three meats (chicken, beef, and pork) bathed in a red recado of dried chiles and miltomate, then wrapped in maxan leaves and steamed until the sauce is thick and the meat falls tender. Why the Kaqchikel call subanik the meal of gods The name tells you everything before you taste a spoonful. In Kaqchikel, suban means a dish packed and wrapped in leaves. The suffix -ik marks any preparation that contains chile. Put them together and…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Plate of Honduran enchiladas: crispy fried corn tortillas topped with seasoned beef, shredded cabbage, and onion
Enchiladas Hondureñas HondurasSnacks

Enchiladas Hondureñas

Honduran enchiladas are an open-faced street food: a flat corn tortilla fried until crisp, then built up in layers — seasoned ground beef with cumin and potato, shredded cabbage, a thin tomato sauce, a slice of hard-boiled egg, and a heavy shower of grated queso seco. You eat them with your hands, and they share nothing with a rolled Mexican enchilada except the name. Honduras's tortilla snacks are easy to mix up. Here is how catracha, baleada, enchilada, and tustaca differ. Ingredients The list looks long, but most of it…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan chuchito, a small corn-masa tamale in an open corn husk, served with rice
Chuchitos GuatemalaSnacks

Chuchitos

Guatemalan chuchitos are small, firm corn-masa tamales filled with a simple tomato sauce and chicken or pork, wrapped in a soaked corn husk and steamed. Unlike the large, soft tamal colorado wrapped in banana leaf, a chuchito is a compact street snack — finished with fresh tomato salsa and grated dry cheese before you eat it standing up. The first time I had chuchitos, someone handed them to me still in the husk, hot enough that I kept moving them between my hands. That is the correct way to eat…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Anafre, the Honduran hot refried red bean and melted cheese dip, served bubbling in a clay brazier with crisp totopos
Anafre HondurasSnacks

Anafre

Anafre is the Honduran appetizer of refried red beans and melted quesillo cheese (often with crumbled chorizo) served bubbling in a small clay brazier at the table, kept warm over live coals, and scooped from a shared pot with totopos, crisp fried corn tortilla triangles. The clay pot is the defining object. When you order it at a Honduran restaurant, the brazier arrives first, still bubbling, and everyone digs in before the main courses come. That is the dish: a communal, fire-kept fondue, not a plated snack, not a topping,…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
A vendor pressing a marquesita on the round iron in Merida
Marquesitas DessertMexico

Marquesitas

In Mérida the marquesita carts come out at night. A man pours a thin batter onto a hot iron, presses it, and it crisps like a big wafer. Then the filling. The old one, the real one, is Nutella and grated queso de bola, the Dutch cheese. Sweet and salty together. He rolls it up tight while it is still hot and hands it to you in a paper. You eat it walking. What is a marquesita? A marquesita is a Yucatecan street dessert from Mérida. A thin batter is…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan revolcado, a pork-head stew in thick red recado
Revolcado DinnerGuatemala

Revolcado

Guatemalan revolcado is a hearty stew of simmered pork head and offal napped in a thick red recado of charred tomato, miltomate, and toasted chiles guaque, pasa, and zambo, colored with achiote and thickened with blended liver and corn tortilla. It is a weekend and fiesta dish, served with white rice and hot tortillas. Ingredients This makes a large pot, enough for about 8 people. In Guatemala the butcher halves the head for you; ask yours to do the same, and to score the skin. If the butcher includes the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan paches, potato-masa tamales steamed in banana leaf
Paches DinnerGuatemala

Paches

Guatemalan paches are tamales whose masa is mashed potato instead of corn, blended with a red recado of tomato, dried guaque and pasa chiles, and achiote. They are filled with pork or chicken, bell pepper, and olive, wrapped in banana leaf, and steamed. Quetzaltenango invented them; Guatemalans eat them on Thursdays. Ingredients The masa is the part that surprises people. There is no corn in it. You boil potatoes, mash them hot, and bind them with a little corn flour or breadcrumb so they hold their shape in the steam.…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A plate of huevos motulenos with tomato sauce, fried plantain, and a chile
Huevos Motuleños BreakfastMayaMexico

Huevos Motuleños

Huevos motuleños come from Motul, a town in the Yucatán. It is a breakfast built in layers. A fried tortilla, black beans spread on top, fried eggs over that, and then a tomato sauce with ham and peas poured on. Fried plantain on the side, cheese on top. You eat it on both sides of the border now, but the name keeps the town. What are huevos motuleños? Huevos motuleños are a Yucatecan breakfast of fried eggs on a corn tortilla spread with refried black beans, covered in a tomato…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Indigenous Guatemalan Maya women in traditional dress preparing typical highland food
Pulique DinnerGuatemala

Pulique

Pulique is a highland Maya stew of chicken or beef simmered in a tomato and tomatillo recado thickened with corn masa. Seasoned with the signature herb epazote, mild guaque chile, and achiote, this ceremonial dish from the Maya highlands around Sacatepéquez carries güisquil, potato, and green beans in a smooth amber broth. The first time you make this stew, the moment that matters comes near the end. You whisk masa into the pot, keep the spoon moving, and watch a thin tomato broth turn thick and golden in front of…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan enchilada: an open-faced tostada topped with beef, purple beet curtido, hard-boiled egg, and dry cheese
Enchiladas Guatemaltecas GuatemalaSnacks

Enchiladas Guatemaltecas

Enchiladas guatemaltecas are open-faced tostadas, not the rolled enchiladas of Mexico. A Guatemalan cook builds each one by layering escabeche — long-pickled beets, carrots, green beans, chayote, and cauliflower in a vinegar brine — alongside seasoned ground beef, a spoon of tomato sauce, a slice of hard-boiled egg, dry crumbled queso seco, parsley, and raw onion on a crisp fried tortilla. The beet-purple color and the egg slice are the unmistakable marks. The first time someone hands you an enchilada in Guatemala City, you wait for the fold. It never…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Three Guatemalan tostadas topped with refried beans, guacamol, and tomato salsa, finished with onion, parsley, and grated queso seco
Tostadas Guatemaltecas GuatemalaSnacks

Tostadas Guatemaltecas

Tostadas guatemaltecas are crisp fried corn tortillas, each spread with exactly one topping: frijol (refried black beans), guacamol, or salsa de tomate. All three are finished with thin onion rounds, chopped parsley, and grated queso seco. The custom is to serve them as a set of three, one of each spread, so that each tortilla shows off a single thing at its best. They appear at home as a light appetizer, at family gatherings, and at Guatemalan ferias (patron-saint festivals) sold from the same stands that serve atol. Ingredients For…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A plate of Guatemalan garnachas: small fried corn tortillas topped with meat, tomato chirmol, pickled cabbage curtido, and crumbled dry cheese
Garnachas Guatemaltecas GuatemalaSnacks

Garnachas Guatemaltecas

Garnachas guatemaltecas are small thick corn tortillas, two to three inches across, that get cooked on a comal, sliced in half, and then fried until the cut faces turn golden and crisp. That double-step — comal first, then oil — is what gives them the density to hold a topping stack of seasoned beef, vinegar-softened curtido, simple tomato salsa, and crumbled dry cheese without buckling. Sold at street stalls and ferias across Guatemala, they are a one-bite Ladino antojito eaten by the handful. What Makes Guatemalan Garnachas Different From the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Queso relleno yucateco, a ball of Edam cheese stuffed with pork picadillo
Queso Relleno DinnerMexico

Queso Relleno

Queso relleno is the dish you make when there is something to celebrate. A whole ball of Dutch cheese, the queso de bola, hollowed out and filled with seasoned pork, then steamed soft and covered in two sauces. The white one is the white k'ol. The other is tomato. It is a Yucatec dish, and the cheese came to us the way many things came, through the ports of the Yucatan. What is queso relleno? Queso relleno is a Yucatecan stuffed cheese. A ball of Edam cheese, called queso de…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Mole de platano: fried plantains bathed in sweet Guatemalan chocolate mole sauce, garnished with toasted sesame seeds
Mole de Platano DessertGuatemala

Mole de Platano

Mole de plátano is a traditional Guatemalan dessert of fried ripe plantains bathed in a sweet chocolate mole sauce made with cacao tablets, chile pasa, roasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and tomato. Syncretic in origin — Maya cacao and dried chiles in sweet sauce are pre-Hispanic, fried plantain is post-colonial — it was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guatemala in 2007. Ingredients For the plantains: 4 very ripe plantains (skin dark and soft, almost entirely black) 4 tablespoons neutral oil (for frying) For the mole sauce: 8 oz Guatemalan…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Rellenitos de plátano, fried plantain filled with sweet black beans
Rellenitos de Plátano DessertGuatemala

Rellenitos de Plátano

Short answer: Rellenitos de plátano are Guatemala's classic plantain dessert: very ripe plantains boiled skin-on, peeled, and mashed into a soft dough, then wrapped around a filling of sweetened black beans spiced with cinnamon and cocoa, shaped into smooth ovals, and fried golden. The skins stay on during boiling — they protect the flesh and deepen the flavor. They are sold warm from street stalls and home kitchens all over the country, year-round and especially during Lent. The trick that surprises people is the bean filling. Cooked down with sugar,…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Chaya leaves, the Maya spinach used in caldo de chaya
Ts’anchak (Caldo de Chaya) DinnerMayaMexico

Ts’anchak (Caldo de Chaya)

Chaya grows in every Yucatec yard, north of Belize and across in the Yucatan. The Maya call it the tree that feeds you. Ts'anchak is the white soup we make from it. A clear chicken broth, the chaya cooked soft in it, no achiote, no color. You finish it at the table with pepita, with egg, with habanero in sweet lime. Caldo de chaya is the name you will hear in Spanish. Ts'anchak is the name from before. What is ts'anchak? Ts'anchak is a Yucatec Maya chaya soup, known in…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Plated Guatemalan chiles rellenos with white rice
Chiles Rellenos Guatemaltecos DinnerGuatemala

Chiles Rellenos Guatemaltecos

Guatemalan chiles rellenos are roasted, peeled bell peppers stuffed with a picadillo of ground beef or pork and diced vegetables, then dipped in a whipped egg batter, fried golden, and served in a light tomato sauce. Unlike the Mexican version, they use no cheese and no chili-walnut sauce. Ingredients The pepper comes first, and it matters which one. Guatemalan cooks reach for the sweet bell pepper, the chile pimiento, not the dark poblano you would use across the border in Mexico. Everything else builds the picadillo around it. For the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan tamales colorados, the red-recado tamal served with bread and coffee
Tamales Colorados DinnerGuatemala

Tamales Colorados

Tamales colorados are Guatemala’s red tamal: soft corn masa sauced with a recado of tomato, tomatillo, guaque and pasa chiles, achiote, and toasted pepitoria and sesame, wrapped around pork or chicken with an olive and a strip of roasted red pepper, then steamed in banana leaf. What Makes a Tamal Colorado the Guatemalan Saturday Tamal In Guatemala, Saturday is tamale day. A small red lantern hung outside a tienda signals that the tamales colorados are ready that evening. This is not a special-occasion food in the way an outsider might…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Steamed tamales, the dish the cull (k'ol) fills
K’ol Recipe BelizeDinnerMaya

K’ol Recipe

K'ol is the sauce inside the tamale. In Belize it is spelled cull, sometimes col, and it is a Mayan word. It is the thick red gravy, a chicken stock seasoned with recado and thickened with masa, that goes between the masa and the meat in a Belizean tamale. The same sauce, cooked with the chicken instead of folded into the tamal, is pollo en k'ol. Cull, col, k'ol. One sauce, many spellings. What is k'ol? K'ol is a Yucatec Maya sauce, a thick red gravy built on chicken stock,…
Fili Post
August 4, 2026
Fresh loroco flower buds, the Guatemalan finishing ingredient for pollo en crema
Pollo en Crema DinnerGuatemala

Pollo en Crema

Pollo en crema is a Central American dish of bone-in chicken in a cultured-cream sauce built on tomatillo or tomato, with guisquil, carrot, and potato. The Guatemalan version is vegetable-forward, mildly seasoned, and often finished with loroco. It is everyday food — the kind of Sunday pot that feeds the whole table — and it won the 2011 AGEXPORT competition for most representative Guatemalan dish in the loroco variant. Every July, Chimaltenango hosts a festival celebrating it. That is not a country hedging about its cuisine. Ingredients The sauce is…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Dried red chiles in a stone molcajete, the recado base for hilachas
Hilachas DinnerGuatemala

Hilachas

Short answer: Hilachas is a Guatemalan home stew of beef shredded into fine threads and simmered in a tomato-and-tomatillo recado built on guajillo chiles, cinnamon, and cloves, with potato, carrot, and green beans cooked in. The name means rags or threads, for the way long-simmered flank steak pulls apart into strands. It is a ladino dish — everyday comedor food, not Maya heritage — and its signature is a double process: you cook the beef until it shreds, then separately build and fry a smooth recado before combining them. That…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Fresh tomatillos, the green base of the sauce for Guatemalan jocón
Jocón DinnerGuatemala

Jocón

Short answer: Jocón is one of Guatemala's four great Maya recados: chicken simmered in a bright green sauce of tomatillos, scallions, cilantro, epazote, and green chiles, with body from toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds ground fine and a little torn tortilla. The name comes from the K'iche' word jok'om, meaning mashed or ground — a direct reference to that seed-grinding step at the heart of the technique. It is a dish of the western highlands, declared national Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guatemala in 2007, and it is the stew that…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026