Cuban Beef Picadillo
Cuban Beef Picadillo Recipe – This easy ground beef dish is loaded with intense flavors from cinnamon, raisins, and briny green olives. Authentic Picadillo Cubano is perfect to enjoy in tacos or over rice for a quick and delicious weeknight dinner!
Why We Love This Authentic Cuban Beef Picadillo Recipe
Picadillo is a hearty dinner dish that’s popular in Latin American countries like Cuba and Mexico, plus many of the southern states of the US.
While there are many recipe variations, versions nearly always include ground meat simmered in a zesty sauce made with tomatoes, raisins, and olives. It’s similar to Tex-Mex spicy taco meat, but has SO much more sweet, tangy, and earthy flavor, thanks to the extra goodies and a generous pinch of cinnamon.
This Cuban Beef Picadillo recipe is simple to prepare in just one pan, and perfect to enjoy as a quick and satisfying weeknight dinner with rice and sides. Or use it to make flavorful and fun tacos. Either way, from start to finish it takes only a bit over 30 minutes to make!
Ingredients You Need
- Oil – your preferred high-heat oil for cooking, like olive oil, avocado oil or canola oil
- Onion – peeled and chopped
- Garlic – minced
- Serrano peppers – seeded and chopped
- Cilantro – chopped, for cooking and garnishing
- Ground beef – I use ground chuck
- Seasonings – ground cumin, smoked paprika, ground cinnamon, salt
- Tomato sauce – canned or jarred
- Vinegar – your choice of apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
- Pimento stuffed green olives – either whole and sliced, or save time by purchasing pre-sliced olives
- Raisins – traditionally red raisins, but you can use golden raisins if you like
How to Make Picadillo Cuban with Beef
- First, add oil to a large skillet (or other pan with a heavy bottom) over medium heat. Saute chopped onions, garlic, serrano peppers, and cilantro for a few minutes to soften them a bit.
- Next add in the ground beef and seasonings. Stir continuously as you brown the beef, breaking it into small pieces with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
- When the meat is no longer pink, then add in the tomato sauce, vinegar, olives, and raisins. Simmer as you stir for several minutes, until the sauce thoroughly coats and tightens around the meat.
Remove from the heat and serve warm. Garnish with a bit of chopped cilantro, if you like.
Get the Complete (Printable!) Cuban Beef Picadillo Recipe Below. Enjoy!
Recipe Variations
- Protein – For a leaner dish, swap the ground beef with ground turkey or ground chicken. You can also use ground pork instead of beef, making the picadillo a pinch sweeter.
- Spiciness – Make the picadillo even spicier by adding an extra serrano pepper. For a less spicy dish, only use one serrano pepper. Or you can omit the heat entirely by leaving out the peppers.
- Olives – Yes, you can skip adding olives. The dish will still be quite tasty, but it will not technically be a Cuban beef picadillo recipe.
- Veggies – Some other versions of this dish include diced bell peppers, chopped potatoes, carrots, peas, squash, or other hearty vegetables.
Serving Suggestions
Typically, picadillo Cubano is served warm with fluffy white rice and black beans. We also highly recommend enjoying with a side of baked sweet plantains or crispy fried tostones.
It’s also delicious to enjoy as a flavorful taco filling! Layer into flour or corn tortillas, and garnish with chopped cilantro, cotija cheese, and your favorite hot sauce.
This is a fabulous dish for meal prepping for weekly lunches. All of the flavors become more intense as they mingle!
Frequently Asked Questions
The name comes from the Spanish word for “hash,” which is a reference to the dish being made with finely minced or ground meat.
This Cuban picadillo recipe is excellent to make as part of your weekly meal prep. It keeps well in the fridge stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days. The flavors get even better as they settle together!
You can freeze for up to 3 months, but note that the olives and raisins won’t have quite the same great tenderness when frozen, defrosted, and reheated.
Looking for More Delicious Meaty Recipes? Be Sure to Also Try:
- Keto Taco Stuffed Peppers
- Perfect Tamale Pie Recipe
- Homemade Hamburger Helper (Cheeseburger Macaroni!)
- One-Pot Sloppy Joe Noodle Skillet
- Mexican Crockpot Meatloaf Recipe
- New Orlean Muffaletta Sandwich
And Check Out These Other Fantastic Cuban Recipes:
Get the Complete (Printable!) Cuban Beef Picadillo Recipe Below. Enjoy!
Cuban Beef Picadillo
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 large onion peeled and chopped
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 1-2 serrano peppers seeded and chopped
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- 2 pounds ground beef (I used beef chuck.)
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 15 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
- 1 cup pimento stuffed green olives drained and sliced
- ¾ cup raisins
Instructions
- Set a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the oil, chopped onions, garlic, serrano peppers, and cilantro. Saute for 3-5 minutes to soften.
- Add in the ground beef, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, and salt. Brown the beef, breaking it into small pieces with a wooden spoon, 5-8 minutes.
- Once the meat is cooked, add in the tomato sauce, vinegar, olives, and raisins. Simmer and stir another 5-7 minutes, until the sauce tightens around the meat.
- Serve warm with rice or as a taco filling.
Video
Notes
You can freeze for up to 3 months, but note that the olives and raisins won’t have quite the same great tenderness when frozen, defrosted, and reheated.
Sweet & spicy. I didn’t have Serrano peppers so I used poblanos & sweet pickled jalapeños. Also didn’t have green olives so I used black.
Delicious. I love when cultural foods naturally incorporate depth of flavor. So much wisdom in the knowledge of our ancestors. Sweet from the raisins, salt from the olives, savory from the sauce. Yum 😋
This was wonderful – thank you!! It was even better the next day :)
It’s all good except for the serrano peppers, thise are not used in Cuban food. They use italian frying Peppers (ie, cubanel peppers.)
This looks incredibly delicious! The perfect meal!!
This surprised me! I was skeptical, I’ll be honest. But I thought I’d go ahead and give it a go anyway. This was so good! I served it up with a side of brown rice. So delicious. So fun to try a new cuisine from a different culture!
This was delicious. Love those olives in there!
holy guacamole! This recipe is unlike anything else and I love all the flavors and textures that are added in. (plus anything with olives seems to be one of my favorite things haha)