What is Picadillo?

Picadillo is an easy-to-prepare, spicy ground meat dish that is popular in Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Filipino cuisines. The name picadillo derives from the verb picar, which means to mince into small pieces in Spanish. Basic ingredients include ground meat, tomatoes, and onions, but each country has its own version with various additional ingredients. It is typically served with rice, or warm tortillas. It is also often used as a filling for tacos, empanadas, or wraps.

Recipe for Empanadas Argentinas

Mexico, due to its vast size, there are considered to be 7 regions of Mexican Cuisine. In the North region Picadillo is made simply with fresh tomatoes, onions, ground meat, beef broth, potatoes, and usually seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin. Many people wrap it in a tortilla, or eat it with corn chips and salsa.

In some parts of Mexico, the dish usually calls for onions and lime to be stirred into the meat while it cooks. The sauce is sometimes sweetened by adding sugar to the pan that the meat and sauce are being fried in or, more recently, by using honey, giving the finished meal a somewhat teriyaki or bulgogi like taste. Raisins may also be added to taste. In some coastal or indigenous areas, seafood, ranging from shellfish to tuna, is substituted for the beef.

In other parts of Mexico, picadillo is made with blended guajillo chiles, and sautéed onions and tomatillos.

Recipe for Tabasco Style Enchiladas w/ a Picadillo Filling (uses a mole sauce)

Cuban versions include peppers, onions, garlic, oregano, cumin, tomato sauce, stock, olives, raisins, and on occasion potatoes, capers, and Spanish chorizo and is usually sauteed in olive oil and white wine, depending on the region. Cuban picadillo is served with black turtle beans and rice.

Cuban Picadillo (ground meat mixed with olives, capers, and raisins and served with white rice and black beans)

In the Dominican Republic it includes peppers, onions, cilantro, garlic, tomato paste, bouillon cube, and may include olives, capers, raisins, hard-boiled egg. It is served over rice or used as a filling for pasteles, empanadas, kibbeh, and cabbage rolls.

In Puerto Rico it is used as a filling for empanadas, alcapurria, piononos and other fritters. It can also be served with rice and beans. The ground meat is sauteed with annatto oil, which is made from the achiote seed, ham, oregano, bay leaf, recaito, tomato sauce and on occasion cumin, cheese, raisins, beans, olives, capers, potatoes, other spices and herbs. Tomato sauce acts as a glue binding the meat to all the other ingredients. This makes the meat filling more pliable.

Costa Rican versions always include the name of the vegetable that represents the main ingredient to the dish (potato picadillo, ayote picadillo, etc.) and that is chopped and cooked with bell peppers, onions, stock, herbs and spices. It can include some type of protein but that is not essential. It is often served with tortillas or rice.

In the Philippines, picadillo is a soupy dish traditionally made with ground beef and either potatoes or chayote. Chayote is a plant from the gourd family that produces a squash like vegetable that is eaten either cooked or raw. There are also drier versions of the dish. It is also called giniling, Tagalog for ground meat. What Cubans call picadillo is known as arroz a la cubana to Filipinos. In Cuba, arroz a la cubana and picadillo are understood as separate dishes instead of the same, with the former being rice cooked in tomato sauce and served with egg and plantain. The Philippine version is similar to normal Latino picadillo usually made with raisins, tomato sauce and diced potatoes added, but without green olives and capers, and is often served with white rice, fried plantains (maduros in Spanish, saging na saba in Filipino) on the side, and a fried egg on top. Boiled eggs are also eaten with the dish.