- Country of origin
- 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
- Category
- Main Course
- Difficulty
- ●○○ Easy
- Preparation
- 30 min
- Cooking
- 40 min
- Servings
- 4 people
History
Casado, a composed plate of rice, black beans, fried plantain, salad, and a choice of meat or fish, is said to owe its name (literally “married man”) to a popular story in which this complete, balanced meal resembled the one a married man received daily from his wife at home, as opposed to the lighter meals of bachelors.
Served in sodas, Costa Rica’s small popular eateries, casado remains the most ordered midday meal across the whole country, varied according to the protein the customer chooses and the seasonal vegetables on hand.
Ingredients — serves 4
- 300 g white rice
- 300 g cooked black beans
- 2 ripe plantains
- 4 chicken cutlets or fish fillets
- 1 head of lettuce
- Tomatoes, red onion
- Oil, salt, garlic
Casado, step by step
- Cook the white rice in salted water with a little garlic, then keep warm.
- Reheat or cook the black beans with a little minced onion until they turn nicely creamy.
- Slice the ripe plantains and pan-fry them until golden on both sides.
- Season and grill or pan-fry the chosen meat or fish until fully cooked.
- Prepare a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and red onion, dressed with oil and salt.
- Plate all the elements side by side on the same plate: rice, beans, plantain, protein, and salad.
Cooking method
Technique: assembling several components cooked separately, each by its own method, brought together on one plate at serving time.
Traditional equipment: several pans and pots used simultaneously in Costa Rican soda kitchens.
Signs it’s ready: each component should stay distinct on the plate, unmixed, letting diners compose their own bite to taste.
Nutrition, per serving
Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities above, divided across four servings. The name casado (“married man”) refers to a balanced, complete meal, and the nutrition figures largely back that framing up: 51 g of protein from the chicken and beans together, 98 g of carbohydrate spread across rice, beans and plantain rather than concentrated in one component, and roughly 10 g of fibre — high for a composed plate — from the beans and salad.
Fat stays comparatively low at 10 g per serving, since the components are grilled, boiled or lightly pan-fried rather than deep-fried, and there is no cream, cheese or heavy sauce binding the plate together.
Economic context
Casado is priced to be eaten daily: Costa Rican sodas serve it as the default lunch precisely because rice, beans and a modest portion of protein and vegetables keep it well within reach of the figure above, varied by whatever protein and seasonal vegetables are cheapest that week.
Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in Costa Rica generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.
Who this dish suits
Fits well with
- High-protein, high-fibre eating patterns — 51 g protein, 10 g fibre per serving
- Diets tracking a balanced macronutrient spread across one plate
- Lower-fat cooking — 10 g fat per serving
Worth knowing
- 685 kcal per serving, energy-dense from the combined rice, beans and plantain
- 98 g carbohydrate per serving, spread across three separate starches
- Naturally dairy-free and easy to make gluten-free (rice and corn-based components)
- Protein component varies by order — chicken, fish, beef or pork all common
What about you?
In your opinion, what’s the best place or restaurant to try good casado?