North America → Honduras → San Pedro Sula
🥗 STARTER
Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip)
Refried red beans, crumbled chorizo and melting quesillo kept bubbling in a clay pot over coals, scooped up with crisp fried corn tortilla chips.
Honduran · easy · serves 6
prep 10 min · cook 20 min
~695 cal · 35g protein · 54g carbs · 38g fat · 10g fiber · 3g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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AI-generated illustration
An anafre is a small clay pot that sits on a little clay brazier filled with hot coals, and in Honduras the name belongs to what is served in it too. The pottery is part of the heritage of the Lenca people of western Honduras, who have made clay vessels for centuries, and the anafre keeps the food hot and bubbling at the table from the first scoop to the last.
What goes in it is Honduras's everyday staple, red beans, mashed and fried into frijoles fritos, then covered with quesillo, a soft white cheese that melts into long strings, and very often topped with fried chorizo. It is served as a starter in restaurants across the country, with a basket of freshly fried corn tortilla triangles for scooping, and it turns up at family gatherings and celebrations, often with a cold beer.
At home a small cast-iron pan does the job of the clay pot. Oaxaca cheese or mozzarella stands in for quesillo, which is hard to find outside Central America.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, nut- and egg-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 6
- 8 corn tortillas, or a bag of corn tortilla chips
- 1 cup vegetable oil, for frying the tortillas
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 225 g (1/2 lb) fresh chorizo, casings removed, Honduran or Mexican-style fresh chorizo
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño, finely chopped
- 2 cups refried red beans (frijoles fritos), homemade or tinned; some tinned kinds are made with lard, so check the label
- 225 g (about 2 cups) quesillo, Oaxaca cheese or mozzarella, grated
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- to taste salt
Instructions
- 1Cut each tortilla into 6 triangles. Heat the frying oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat and fry them in batches for 1 to 2 minutes, turning once, until crisp and golden. Drain on paper and salt lightly.
- 2Heat the tablespoon of oil in a small cast-iron pan or flameproof clay dish over medium heat. Add the chorizo and onion and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking it up, until the chorizo is browned and crumbly. Add the jalapeño and garlic and cook for 2 minutes more.
- 3Lift out half the chorizo and set it aside. Stir the refried beans into the pan with the rest and warm them for 2 to 3 minutes, loosening with a splash of water if they are stiff.
- 4Spread the cheese over the beans and scatter the reserved chorizo on top. Turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes until the cheese has melted completely.✎ Chef’s noteA lid (or a sheet of foil) melts the cheese before the beans catch on the bottom. You can also finish it for a few minutes under a hot grill.
- 5Sprinkle with cilantro and bring the pan to the table still bubbling, on a trivet or over a small burner, with the tortilla chips for scooping.
Honduran restaurant and home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Pedro Sula. San Pedro Sula is Honduras's industrial north, in the coastal country the baleada comes from: a thick flour tortilla folded over refried beans, crema, and crumbled hard cheese. Coconut milk, plantain, and Garifuna seafood soups come in from the Caribbean coast nearby.
🗺️
Honduras. Honduran food centers on corn, beans, and plantain, with the coastal Garifuna tradition bringing coconut-rich seafood soups. Baleadas (folded tortillas with beans and cheese) are the beloved national snack.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Honduras
BaleadasA thick flour tortilla folded over refried beans, salty cheese, and crema, Honduras’ perfect handheld meal.
Pollo con TajadasHonduran fried or grilled chicken over crisp green-plantain chips with cabbage slaw and sauces.
Sopa de CaracolA rich conch soup in coconut broth with yuca, plantain, and corn, the Garifuna coastal dish Honduras made famous.
Browse all Honduras recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip)?
Refried red beans, crumbled chorizo and melting quesillo kept bubbling in a clay pot over coals, scooped up with crisp fried corn tortilla chips.
Where does Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip) come from?
Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip) is a Honduran dish from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Can Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip) 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Anafre (Honduran Bean, Cheese and Chorizo Dip) take to make?
About 30 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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