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Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters)
Torpedoes of soft mashed yuca dough wrapped round a savory filling of ground beef cooked with onion, garlic, sweet pepper and tomato, deep-fried until crisp and golden.
Panamanian · medium · serves 6
prep 40 min · cook 50 min
~630 cal · 22g protein · 70g carbs · 28g fat · 5g fiber · 6g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Carimañolas are one of Panama's favourite fried foods, eaten at breakfast with other fritters, as a starter or snack at lunch, and among the bites on a restaurant picada. They are made along the Caribbean coast of Colombia too, and across the Colombian Caribbean street vendors sell them too.
The dough is nothing but , root, which Indigenous peoples of the isthmus cultivated long before the Spanish arrived. It is peeled, boiled until soft, the tough central fibre pulled out, and mashed smooth while still warm with salt and a little oil or butter. With damp hands the dough is flattened into a small round, filled, and closed into the carimañola's torpedo shape.
The classic filling is ground beef cooked down with onion, garlic, ají dulce or sweet pepper and tomato, sometimes with cumin, until it is dry enough not to seep. Cheese and shredded chicken are common too. Fried in hot oil, the outside turns crisp and golden while the inside stays soft and chewy, and they are best eaten hot, on their own or with a hot sauce.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, 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 6
- 1 kg (), peeled and cut into chunks, frozen peeled yuca works well
- 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp for the cooking water, 1/2 tsp for the dough
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (for the dough and filling)
- 1 l vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 ají dulce or 1/2 pepper ají dulce or red sweet pepper, finely chopped
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 450 g (1 lb) ground beef
- 1/4 cup tomato sauce (passata)
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin, optional
- to taste black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh culantro or cilantro, chopped
- to taste hot sauce, to serve, optional
Instructions
- 1Put the yuca in a pot of cold water with 1 teaspoon of salt, bring to the boil and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until very soft and starting to split. Drain.
- 2While it is still warm, pull out and discard the woody central fibres, then mash the yuca until completely smooth with 1 tablespoon of oil and the remaining salt. Cover and let it cool enough to handle.✎ Chef’s noteMash while warm. Cold yuca turns gluey and lumpy and is hard to shape.
- 3Make the filling: heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and fry the onion, garlic and sweet pepper for 2 to 3 minutes, then the tomato for 2 minutes. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up, until browned, then stir in the tomato sauce, cumin, salt and pepper and cook over low heat for 10 minutes until thick and dry. Stir in the culantro and let it cool.
- 4With damp hands, take a ball of yuca dough about the size of an egg and flatten it into an oval in your palm. Put a spoonful of filling in the middle, fold the dough over it and seal, then roll it into a torpedo with tapered ends. Repeat with the rest.
- 5Heat the frying oil in a deep pan to 180C (350F) and fry the carimañolas in batches for 4 to 5 minutes, turning, until golden and crisp all over. Drain on paper and serve hot.
Panamanian tradition (also Colombian Caribbean).
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Panama City. Culantro is not coriander. It is a long serrated leaf, stronger and more bitter than the soft herb it gets confused with, and it holds up through a long simmer where coriander would collapse. Name, the yam that goes in, dissolves as it cooks and is what thickens the broth.
🗺️
Panama. The tortilla here is not the Mexican kind. It is thick, made of ground corn, and fried rather than griddled, coming out puffed and crisp at the edges to be eaten at breakfast with cheese. On the Caribbean side, in Bocas del Toro and Colon, the cooking turns Afro-Caribbean, with coconut milk in the rice and in the fish.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Panama
Sancocho de GallinaA restorative hen soup with yam, yuca, and a mountain of culantro, Panama’s cure for everything from hangovers to heartbreak.
Tortilla Panameña con QuesoA thick, crisp-fried corn cake, not a thin tortilla at all, split hot and stuffed with melting white cheese, a staple Panamanian breakfast.
Ceviche PanameñoDiced corvina cured in lime with onion, celery, and habanero, the fish-market lunch sold in cups across Panama City.
Browse all Panama recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Pot or saucepan.
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 Panama meal
ChichemeDrink
Sopa BorrachaDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters)?
Torpedoes of soft mashed yuca dough wrapped round a savory filling of ground beef cooked with onion, garlic, sweet pepper and tomato, deep-fried until crisp and golden.
Where does Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters) come from?
Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters) is a Panamanian dish from Panama City, Panama.
Can Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters) 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 Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters) 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 Carimañolas (Panamanian Beef-Stuffed Yuca Fritters) take to make?
About 90 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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