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cuban picadillo in a white bowl with rice, fried eggs, and peppers.

Cuban Picadillo Recipe

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

  • ¼  cup  extra virgin olive oil
  • medium red onion diced
  • cubanelle pepper seeded, deveined and diced
  • garlic cloves peeled and chopped
  • 12 oz can no-sodium diced tomatoes
  • cup  fresh herbs medley basil, oregano, parsley, etc.
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

For the picadillo

  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
  • 1 medium bell pepper cored and seeded, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
  • 2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½ tablespoon Kosher salt
  • ½ tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ cup dry white cooking wine
  • 1 ½ pounds ground beef
  • ½ cup pimento stuffed olives
  • 2 tablespoon olives brine from the jar
  • 2 tablespoon 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 ⅓ 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 ⅓ 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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