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Picadillo

By Sam Sifton

Updated Nov. 8, 2021

Picadillo
Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Theo Vamvounakis.
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
5(3,589)
Comments
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Picadillo is one of the great dishes of the Cuban diaspora: a soft, fragrant stew of ground beef and tomatoes, with raisins added for sweetness and olives for salt. Versions of it exist across the Caribbean and into Latin America. This one, based loosely on a recipe that Nitza Villapol published in her cookbook “Cocina Criolla,” in 1954, and helped immeasurably by the advice of the Cuban American food writer Betty Cortina, combines ground beef with intensely seasoned dried Spanish chorizo in a sofrito of onions, garlic and tomatoes, and scents it with red-wine vinegar, cinnamon and cumin, along with bay leaves and pinches of ground cloves and nutmeg. “Everyone who is of Cuban descent has a recipe for it,” Ms. Cortina said, “and each one of those is the most authentic. It’s a comfort food, probably the most consummate example of one in Cuban cuisine.”

Featured in: The Ultimate Cuban Comfort Food: Picadillo

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Ingredients

Yield:6 servings
  • 2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2medium-size yellow onions, peeled and chopped
  • 2ounces dried chorizo, diced
  • 4cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1½pounds ground beef
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4ripe tomatoes, chopped, or one 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed
  • 2tablespoons red-wine vinegar
  • 1tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 2teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2bay leaves
  • Pinch of ground cloves
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • ⅔cup raisins
  • ⅔cup pitted stuffed olives.
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

461 calories; 32 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 16 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 14 grams sugars; 23 grams protein; 659 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Put the olive oil in a large, heavy pan set over a medium-high flame, and heat until it begins to shimmer. Add onions, chorizo and garlic, stir to combine and cook until the onions have started to soften, approximately 10 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Add the ground beef, and allow it to brown, crumbling the meat with a fork as it does. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

  3. Step 3

    Add tomatoes, vinegar, cinnamon, cumin, bay leaves, cloves and nutmeg and stir to combine. Lower the heat, and let the stew simmer, covered, for approximately 30 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Uncover the pan, and add the raisins and the olives. Allow the stew to cook for another 15 minutes or so, then serve, accompanied by white rice.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
3,589 user ratings
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Comments

Michael

I know I'm going to sound like a freak, but I executed the recipe exactly as directed. It was amazing. I'd like to say I added an extra teaspoon of this or that or subbed in something or another, but this chef owned this recipe and he didn't need any help from me!

Sheila

I served this over pureed roasted winter squash (instead of a starch). The sweetness in the squash is outstanding with this recipe with its raisins and warm spices.

Dannypanama

this serves as a great empanada filling. In a moment of inspiration I also made this into a caribbean style shepard's pie (which I believe is known as pastelon in puerto rico) -- make picadillo, put into deep dish pie plate, top with grated cheese (I used mozzarella), cover all that with 2-3 ripe plantains mashed with a little butter, bake until bubbling and top golden. Thanks Mr Sifton!

Natalia

Cubans, like Spaniards cook often with sherry. When making picadillo, my family would often soak the raisins in warmed sherry which plumped the raisins and made them less sweet and then added that to the dish in the last 10 minutes of cooking. Also it's true that Cuban cooks did not add all the spices except for cumin but when I make this dish I like to use all the warm spices, sometimes I add some ras-el-hanout since picadillo came to Spain from N.Africa and has MiddleEastern roots.

Eileen

I've made this twice and it just isn't that good. For all the ingredients, it has a flat flavor. I also don't like the spice mix - it's like a Moroccan stew.

Patti

Since I’m on a statin, I subbed 1.5 T smoked paprika and doubled the garlic. I also use 96% lean beef, and I put a knife through the raisins and cut the olives in half. High iron, low fat, beefy bliss.

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