North America → Honduras → San Pedro Sula
🍢 SNACK
Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese)
Small corn tortillas fried until crisp, spread with warm refried red beans and showered with grated dry white cheese, sometimes with pickled onion or hot sauce.
Honduran · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~480 cal · 17g protein · 42g carbs · 27g fat · 7g fiber · 2g sugars · 8g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Catrachitas, or catrachas, take their name from catracho, the affectionate nickname Hondurans use for themselves, and they are about as Honduran as a snack gets. A corn tortilla is fried or toasted until crisp, spread with frijoles fritos, the refried red beans eaten every day in Honduras, and covered with grated hard white cheese.
They are made for sharing: at weekend get-togethers, birthdays and simple suppers, with a cold drink on a hot afternoon. They can be whole tortillas or cut into triangles like chips before frying. In some parts of the country they are topped with salsa, pickled chiles or onions, or chopped hard-boiled egg, and La Prensa's cooks have dressed them up with avocado and bacon.
At heart they need only three things: tortillas, beans and cheese. Queso seco or queso duro, a salty, crumbly Honduran cheese, is the classic; feta or a dry aged cheese is the nearest stand-in.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-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
- 8 small corn tortillas
- 1 cup vegetable oil, for frying
- 2 cups cooked red beans, with some of their liquid, or tinned red or pinto beans
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil (for the beans)
- 1/4 onion, finely chopped (for the beans)
- to taste salt
- 1 cup (100 g) queso seco or queso duro (Honduran dry cheese), finely grated, or feta or another salty aged cheese
- to taste pickled onions or pickled jalapeños, to serve, optional
- to taste hot sauce, to serve, optional
Instructions
- 1Blend the beans with a few spoonfuls of their liquid until smooth. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small pan over medium heat, fry the onion for 2 minutes, then add the bean purée and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, until thick enough to spread. Season with salt.
- 2Heat the frying oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the tortillas one at a time for about 1 minute a side, until golden and crisp. Drain on paper.✎ Chef’s noteFor a lighter version, toast the tortillas on a dry comal or in the oven until crisp.
- 3Spread each tortilla with a thin layer of warm beans and cover generously with grated cheese.
- 4Top with pickled onions or chiles if you like and serve straight away, with hot sauce, while the tortillas are still crisp.
Honduran 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, Blender.
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.
Make it a Honduras meal
Horchata HondureñaDrink
Rosquillas en MielDessert
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese)?
Small corn tortillas fried until crisp, spread with warm refried red beans and showered with grated dry white cheese, sometimes with pickled onion or hot sauce.
Where does Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese) come from?
Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese) is a Honduran dish from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Can Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese) 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 Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese) 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 Catrachitas (Honduran Fried Tortillas with Beans and Cheese) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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