"collide" Cuban Picadillo

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Classic Cuban one-pan dish that’s perfect for a quick, 30-minute weeknight no fuss dish. Full of savory and aromatic ingredients this dish also makes for great, easy leftover ideas. 

This dish is a beautiful collision of briny olives, meaty ground beef, and an herbaceous tomato based sofrito. They were meant to be together.

What is picadillo?

Picadillo is a traditional dish in many Latin American countries as well as the Philippines. It’s basically a one-pan dish akin to a ground beef hash. Regardless of regional variations, it will feature a combination of ground beef, tomatoes (or tomato sauce), and olives. Other common ingredients include raisins, potatoes, capers, peppers, onions, and garlic. 

Cuban Picadillo Ingredients

The beauty of this dish is you’re likely to have most of the ingredients on hand and can find worthy substitutes if not. You can also easily tweak it to fit your specific tastes. However this is a briny dish, so if that’s not your thing you might want to skip this one. 

Ground beef is the star. But feel free to use ground turkey if you prefer to opt for a non-beef option. I had ground venison on hand and used it for this recipe. The briny olives and capers tame the gaminess very well.

How To Make This Picadillo Recipe

Step 1: Make the sofrito

Step 2: Saute the onions, peppers, and garlic

Step 3: Add ground meat and remaining ingredients

Serving Suggestions

In Cuba, picadillo is often served with rice with a fried egg on top. I like to use a coconut ginger rice or yuca fries. You can never go wrong with black beans

Can Picadillo Be Made Vegan?

Yes indeed. Just follow the same steps as the regular recipe with a few simple changes.

1. Feel free to substitute any vegan ground meat or better yet, go with jackfruit in place of the ground beef. 
2. In my vegan version I added potatoes at the vegetable sauce step
3. Add raisins just before the simmering step.

Leftover Ideas

The best thing about picadillo besides its simplicity is the fact that it’s so economical. Not only are most of the ingredients common and fairly cheap, but you can stretch the recipe pretty far and get so many different uses out of it. I intentionally make a bigger batch than needed just for leftovers. Picadillo is perfect in: 

stuffed bell peppers

tacos

quesadillas

Empanadas

nachos

Key Cooking Tips

• Make a sofrito ahead of time and use as base flavor in this dish. You can certainly make good picadillo without it and most recipes don’t call for it, but I highly recommend it to take the dish to that other level of the game.
• Sofrito will keep refrigerated for 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
• I like briny food and with the gamey venison upped the brininess in the dish. For less of a briny taste eliminate the capers. But if you like brine like me, feel free to add some of that olive juice.
• The entire dish can be made ahead if you prefer. The flavors actually blend even more after sitting.
• For a more filling, heartier version dice some potatoes and add them at the sauce step

For other Cuban Inspired dishes try these:

Cuban Sloppy Joes

Cuban Spicy Ketchup

If you make this Cuban picadillo recipe or any other from the site, please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback. Definitely take a photo of the dish and be sure to tag #foodfidelity so that I can see them.

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Cuban Picadillo Recipe

Cuban style picadillo recipe featuring ground beef that's dialed up with tangy tomato-based sofrito sauce, olives, and capers.

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Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Cuban

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 762kcal

Author: Marwin Brown

Ingredients

For The Sofrito

• 1/4  cup  extra virgin olive oil
• 1  medium red onion diced
• 1  cubanelle pepper seeded, deveined and diced
• 4  garlic cloves peeled and chopped
• 12 oz can no-sodium diced tomatoes
• 1  cup  fresh herbs medley basil, oregano, parsley, etc.
• Salt and black pepper to taste

For the picadillo

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
• 1 medium bell pepper cored and seeded, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tbsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 tbsp ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup dry white cooking wine
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup diced canned tomatoes
• 1/2 cup pimento stuffed olives
• 2 tbsp olives brine from the jar
• 2 tbsp capers

Instructions

Make the sofrito

• Add all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until salsa like consistency.

Make the Picadillo

• Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, peppers, garlic, bay leaves, and 1/3 of spice mix and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Add tomato paste and stir to mix well. Saute for about another 1-2 minutes. Add the cooking wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits.
• Add ground beef plus another 1/3 of the spice mix and cook until browned. Stir as necessary so that all the meat is cooked through.
• Stir in sofrito, olives plus brine, capers, and remaining spices. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 15 minutes.
• Discard bay leaves, then add fresh parsley and serve with rice.

Notes

• For more depth of flavor in the sofrito saute the vegetables for 2-3 minutes before pureeing.
• Make a sofrito ahead of time and use as base flavor in this dish. You can certainly make good picadillo without it and most recipes don’t call for it, but I highly recommend it to take the dish to that other level of the game.
• Sofrito will keep refrigerated for 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
• I like briny food and with the gamey venison upped the brininess in the dish. For less of a briny taste eliminate the capers. But if you like brine like me, feel free to add some of that olive juice.
• The entire dish can be made ahead if you prefer. The flavors actually blend even more after sitting.
• For a more filling, heartier version dice potatoes and add them at the saute step

Nutrition

Calories: 762kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 34g | Fat: 60g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 121mg | Sodium: 1521mg | Potassium: 1131mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 4942IU | Vitamin C: 86mg | Calcium: 223mg | Iron: 8mg

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