Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Pabellón Criollo
Shredded beef, black beans, white rice, and fried sweet plantain on one plate, Venezuela's national dish.
Venezuelan · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 90 min
~1094 cal · 62g protein · 125g carbs · 37g fat · 12g fiber · 18g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pabellón criollo is the national dish of Venezuela, a plate said to represent the country's people in food: the shredded beef, the black beans, the white rice, and the golden standing for the mingled roots of the nation.
Each element is cooked separately and arranged in its own quadrant. The beef, carne mechada, is flank simmered until tender then shredded and stewed with a sofrito of onion, pepper, and tomato. The black beans (caraotas) are cooked soft and lightly sweet, and the ripe (tajadas) is fried until caramelised.
It is everyday food and Sunday food alike, eaten across the country and by Venezuelans everywhere. Add a fried egg on top and it becomes pabellón a caballo, on horseback, a heartier version for a bigger appetite.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
1 1/2 lb flank steak
3 cups cooked black beans
2 ripe
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
6 ají dulce (sweet Venezuelan chilies), chopped
Hard to find? cubanelle peppers, or sweet mini peppers - the trap here is reaching for a scotch bonnet or habanero because they smell right; they are the same species but hundreds of times hotter, and aji dulce is in the pot for perfume rather than heat. A plain bell pepper is safe but watery and flat by comparison
3 , sliced
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp ground cumin
to taste salt and black pepper
3 tbsp oil
4 cups cooked white rice, to serve
Instructions
1
Simmer the flank steak in salted water with half the onion, garlic and a couple of ají dulce until very tender, about 1 1/2 hours, then shred it along the grain and reserve some broth.
✎ Chef’s note
Ají dulce is the Venezuelan aromatic that makes this taste like home: it looks like a habanero but carries the perfume without the heat. It goes into the beans, the beef and even the rice.
2
Make a sofrito: fry the remaining onion, pepper, and garlic in oil, then add the tomato and cumin and cook to a soft sauce.
3
Fold the shredded beef into the sofrito with a splash of broth and simmer until glossy and well seasoned.
4
Warm the black beans and fry the sliced ripe plantain until deep golden.
✎ Chef’s note
Use plantains that are heavily blackened. Only fully ripe ones caramelise to the soft, sweet tajadas that balance the savoury beef and beans.
5
Plate the rice, beef, beans, and plantain each in their own section.
Venezuelan national dish.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Caracas. Christmas here is not only hallacas. Pan de jamon, a soft loaf rolled around ham with olives and raisins, was made at the Ramella bakery in central Caracas in 1905 as a way of using up leftover ham, and it now turns up on tables across the country every December.
🗺️
Venezuela. The arepa is claimed by both Venezuela and Colombia and predates both as a border, so the arguing is really about thickness, filling and which corn. What is distinctly Venezuelan is the range of named fillings, and the pabellon criollo plate of shredded beef, black beans, rice and fried sweet plantain that reads as the national dinner.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Venezuela
Cachapas con QuesoSweet fresh-corn pancakes griddled golden and folded over melting salty cheese, roadside Venezuela at its best.
Arepas con PericoGriddled corn arepas split and filled with perico, soft scrambled eggs cooked down with tomato, onion, and pepper.
QuesilloA dense caramel-topped custard set with whole eggs and condensed milk, the Venezuelan flan of every celebration.
Browse all Venezuela recipes →
Good to know
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.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Pabellón Criollo?
Shredded beef, black beans, white rice, and fried sweet plantain on one plate, Venezuela's national dish.
Where does Pabellón Criollo come from?
Pabellón Criollo is a Venezuelan dish from Caracas, Venezuela.
Can Pabellón Criollo be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pabellón Criollo 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 Pabellón Criollo 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 Pabellón Criollo take to make?
About 115 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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