Cuban Picadillo

Cuban picadillo is the perfect comfort food. A fragrant hash made with ground beef, tomato sauce, fried potatoes, raisins, and green olives.

Cuban cuisine

Traditional Cuban food is influenced by indigenous people from African, Arab, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish cultures. Over the centuries, they each introduced spices (among other elements) to Cuban cuisine: spices such as garlic, cumin, oregano, bay leaf.

Cuban cuisine uses a lot of pork (more so than beef), cassava (or sweet potato), beans, and, the star dish, rice. Although most dishes contain some saucy element, because Cubans generally do not like to eat their rice dry.

Fish is served more as a side dish, well-grilled, pickled, or breaded. And when it comes to seafood, lobster is the star.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are always very important components in Cuban dishes, which often tend towards the sweeter end of the spectrum due to the use of fruit.

The most characteristic feature of Cuban cuisine is the use of a slightly spiced tomato sauce (‘Cuban sauce’ or sofrito) made from onions, green peppers, garlic, tomato, and a few spices. This sauce is the base for many Cuban dishes.

The Cuban way of cooking is very natural, with much-loved ingredients and few spices (namely oregano and cumin). You won’t find many hot spices, but you will find a good dose of fried elements.

What is Cuban Picadillo?

In Cuba, picadillo (pee-ca-dee-yo) means ‘minced meat’. Usually, beef is used to make this rich stew.

Different versions exist throughout the Caribbean and Latin America for picadillo.

This is comfort food for Cubans.

In Cuba, picadillo is traditionally made with beef, onions, garlic, peppers, tomato sauce, white or red wine, and fried potatoes. They like to add olives for a tangy flavor and raisins for sweetness.

Picadillo alcaparrado, criollo, a la habanera, or en su jugo, are some of the names used in Cuba for this simple dish.

It’s budget-friendly, easy to make (takes about 30 minutes), and has common ingredients, making it a great start to your culinary adventure.

How to serve Cuban picadillo

Cuban picadillo is usually served with tostones (fried green plantains), tomato and red onion salad, and white rice or Moros y Cristianos (rice with black beans).

And if there is any leftover, it is reused for another iconic Cuban dish, stuffed potatoes, which are stuffed mashed potato balls that are rolled in a mixture of bread crumbs and then fried.

Another way to use it is for filling empanadas or pastelitos.

How to make Cuban picadillo

On the island, there are many ways to prepare picadillo.

Our recipe starts by heating some oil and browning the ground beef first. Use oil only if you are using lean ground beef. Otherwise, brown ground beef, drain the fat, and return to the next step.

Next, the vegetables are added and sautéed before adding the tomato sauce, wine, and spices.

While the picadillo is simmering, fry the potatoes.

Because I didn’t want to use a lot of oil, I fried the potatoes in a small amount of oil, but in 2 batches until they were golden brown.

These fried potatoes are then added in to the stew and cooked for another 5 minutes. So don’t worry if they are not completely soft in the middle, you just want them golden brown and a little crispy on the outside.

If serving your picadillo with fried plantains, just lower the heat after frying the potatoes and fry the plantains in the same oil.

Once the picadillo has simmered, you can add raisins, olives, and capers (if desired) and serve with rice.

Cuban comfort food, done in 30 minutes!

Have you tried picadillo? Is it a family staple? Tell us how your family makes it in the comments below!