Cuban Picadillo

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: about 6 cups
  • Total: 40 min
  • Prep: 20 min
  • Cook: 20 min
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Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 pound ground beef or combination of beef chorizo, and pork

1/3 cup dry white wine or dry sherry

10 cherry tomatoes, chopped or 1 (8-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

1/3 cup tomato paste

1/3 cup chopped pimento stuffed Spanish olives with 1 tablespoon brine from jar

1/3 cup raisins

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and bay leaves and saute until onion is soft, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes.
  2. Add ground beef to skillet and cook until browned. Once the meat is browned, carefully away from the flame, tilt pan and remove excess fat with a large spoon.
  3. Add the white wine and stir for another minute. Then add the chopped cherry tomatoes, tomato paste, pimento stuffed Spanish olives, raisins, dried oregano, cumin and cayenne pepper. Simmer over low heat for another 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Serve warm as a filling for empanadas or tacos, over white rice with fried plantains or black beans, or with a side salad and black beans.
  5. To make Picadillo soupier for serving over rice, add additional wine, chicken or beef stock.

Let's Get Cooking!

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John Lee

Lemons! The juice from a lemon makes the difference, the holy trinity of Cuban cooking is very simple, garlic, salt and lemons. I used what I had didn’t have any tomato’s so use a little left over chunky spaghetti sauce, added chicken broth as needed and finally the juice from 1 lemon

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