Picadillo—to me—is a staple of a Cuban household. It’s quick, super easy to make, and, when made right, delicious. You can also make a butt load to serve a ton of people and it really doesn’t take that much longer than just making it for yourself. Also, the best thing about picadillo, is that you can always use the leftovers to make a separate dish. You can add tomato sauce to make it into a meat sauce for a quick spaghetti dish, you can use it to make empanadas, or of course…tacos. You can even use it to make papa rellena (a ball of mashed potatoes, stuffed with picadillo and deep fried).
A lot of people love to put raisins in their picadillo, but I personally don’t. My mom is one of these people and I would always pick them out as a child. Luckily enough, I married someone who doesn’t like raisins in her picadillo as well, so the days of picking them out one by one are long gone. God, I swear, that woman would put so many raisins, it would take what felt like hours to pick them all out before I could eat. My mom would also put aceitunas (olives) in it which I am also not a fan of, but, unluckily, my wife likes them so I put them in mine every once in a while. What I will say though, is that little fried potato cubes are delicious in picadillo. My grandma would add these when I was young and nothing made this chubby kid happier.
Depending on how healthy you decide to be, you can use different kinds of ground beef, or you can even use ground chicken or turkey. I personally like using ground sirloin, which has about 10% fat in it. It’s one of the healthiest options, but is still flavorful. Typically, when I’m on a diet—and yes, I get in the mood of striving for a six pack just like everyone else—I go with the chicken or turkey, but that only lasts for like a week or so, because I just love to eat and ain’t nobody got time for a six pack.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground beef
- 1 tbsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 cup Diced onions about 1/2 an onion
- 1/3 cup Diced green pepper about 1/2 a pepper
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 cup Tomato sauce
- 1 packet Sazon Goya sin achote without annalto
- 1 Idaho potato optional
- 1/3 cup Olives optional
- 1/4 cup Raisins optional
Instructions
- In a bowl, season the meat with the garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- Dice the onions, peppers, and garlic. (You can place it in a food processor if you have one)
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat (about 2-3 minutes).
- Once the oil is heated, stir in the onions, peppers and garlic to make a sofrito. Cook until the onions start to become transparent (about 5 minutes).
- Add the meat and stir it into the sofrito. Let cook for about 5 minutes, until all the meat is brown.
- Add the tomatoe sauce, Sazon Goya sin achote, olives (optional), and raisins (optional) to the meat. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to low afterwards and let it simmer for about five minutes.
- If adding the fried potatoe cubes, peel the potatoe and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Cut the slices in half, and then into three pieces, making potatoe cubes about 1/2 inch think. Heat, about an inch of oil, over high heat. Once hot (about 3-5 minutes), add the cubes of potatoes and let cook for about 7 minutes, until they become golden brown. After, transfer to a plate lined with paper towl, and then stir them into the picadillo once it is done cooking.
