Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Bandeja Paisa
A groaning platter of red beans, rice, chicharrón, beef, chorizo, fried egg, plantain, and arepa.
Colombian · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 60 min
~985 cal · 60g protein · 92g carbs · 42g fat · 12g fiber · 15g sugars · 14g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The bandeja paisa is the mighty signature platter of Colombia's Antioquia region and its capital Medellin, a groaning spread that grew from the big appetites of the paisa muleteers and farmers who worked the mountains.
It is less a dish than an assembly: red beans stewed with hogao, white rice, ground or grilled beef, chicharron, chorizo, a fried egg, sweet fried , avocado, an arepa, and often morcilla, all crowded onto one enormous plate. Each element is a small dish in its own right.
Enormous and unapologetic, it is meant to fuel a long day of physical work, and few can finish one in a sitting. The bandeja paisa is Antioquian abundance made edible, a proud, maximalist celebration of the regional table.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 cups cooked red beans, simmered with hogao
2 cups cooked white rice
8 oz pork belly (for chicharrón)
8 oz beef
2 links chorizo
4 eggs, fried
2 ripe
4 arepas
1 avocado, sliced (to serve)
Instructions
1
Warm the red beans with their hogao (tomato-onion sofrito) until thick and saucy.
✎ Chef’s note
Bandeja paisa is an assembly of many components. Have the beans and rice going first, then cook the fried parts so everything lands on the plate hot.
2
Fry the pork belly until the skin crackles (or crisp the tofu), and grill the beef and chorizo.
3
Fry the ripe plantain slices until caramelized and golden.
4
Griddle the arepas until marked and warmed through.
5
Fry the eggs sunny side up (or make the tofu scramble).
6
Load a large platter with the beans and rice, then arrange every component side by side, crowning it with the egg and plantain, with slices of avocado alongside.
Antioquia, Colombia tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Antioquia. Each component of the bandeja paisa is old on its own: beans cooked with pork, rice, chicharron, fried egg, plantain, avocado, arepa. What is modern is the tray, which appeared in Bogota restaurants in the 1960s and at roadside stops in the 1970s and does not show up in nineteenth-century Antioquian writing at all. Some paisas will tell you nobody ever ate it that way at home.
🗺️
Colombia. Arepas are shared with Venezuela and the two countries argue over them without resolution; what changes is the corn, the thickness and what goes inside. Bandeja paisa, the loaded platter, belongs to Antioquia and the coffee-growing hills rather than to the country at large, and the coasts cook with coconut where the highlands cook with potato.
🌍
South America. The Andes are the potato's homeland and still hold something like four thousand native varieties, selected over thousands of years for altitude, colour and texture. The high plateau also worked out how to keep them: frozen overnight in the cold, trodden to press the water out, then dried in the sun into chuno, which stores for years.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Colombia
Arepas con Quesito & HogaoGriddled corn cakes split and filled with fresh cheese, spooned over with a warm tomato-scallion sauce.
Ajiaco SantafereñoBogotá’s three-potato chicken soup thickened by the potatoes themselves, perfumed with guascas, finished with cream and capers.
Empanadas ColombianasCrisp golden corn-dough turnovers stuffed with shredded beef and potato, fried until they shatter and dipped in a bright cilantro ají.
Browse all Colombia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan, Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Colombia meal
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Natilla ColombianaDessert
Empanadas ColombianasLunch
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Bandeja Paisa?
A groaning platter of red beans, rice, chicharrón, beef, chorizo, fried egg, plantain, and arepa.
Where does Bandeja Paisa come from?
Bandeja Paisa is a Colombian dish from Antioquia, Colombia.
Can Bandeja Paisa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Bandeja Paisa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Bandeja Paisa safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Bandeja Paisa take to make?
About 90 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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