Hello, my friend. I promised you I was going to give you my full picadillo cubano recipe, and here it is.
This is not the filling version I used for the papas rellenas. That one had a job to do. It needed to sit inside mashed potatoes, behave itself, and not fall apart when we fried it. This one is the picadillo I grew up eating with white rice, black beans, and plátano frito.
My version comes from my father. He made picadillo this way, then taught my mother, and I learned it from her. In our house, picadillo was not fancy. We did not always have olives or extra things to throw in the pot just because a recipe said so. What we did have was raisins, sofrito, tomatoes, vino seco when possible, and the part that matters most to me: fried potatoes.
My father’s move was simple, but it changes the whole plate. He fried the potatoes until they were golden, then folded them into the picadillo at the very end. Not boiled into the meat. Not cooked down until they disappeared. Folded in, so you still get those little bites of potato doing their job.
I add capers now because this is my kitchen and I like what they bring: a little salty punch against the sweetness of the raisins and the richness of the meat. But the heart of this recipe is still the same one I learned from my mother.
This beef picadillo is easy to make, affordable, and it goes with almost anything. But make the rice. Make the black beans. Fry the plantains. Then take that first bite and tell me if I was exaggerating.
I probably was.
But not by much.
Savory, authentic Cuban picadillo with raisins, capers, and crispy fried potatoes folded in at the end. Put it next to white rice, black beans, and plátano frito, and all of a sudden everybody is eating seconds.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes, roughly ⅓ inch — about the size of a garlic clove.
Place them in a bowl of salted water and let them soak while the fryer heats up.
Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a large deep skillet or sauté pan over medium heat.
Add the ground beef and let it cook some before breaking it apart. Keep breaking the meat with a spatula until it is no longer pink.
Add the bell pepper and onion. Cook until translucent.
Add the dried oregano, ground cumin, ground bay leaves, and garlic at the same time. Let the spices wake up. This only takes a few seconds. When you can smell everything coming together, it is ready.
Add the vino seco to deglaze the pan. Use enough to see liquid and lift everything off the bottom.
Add the tomato sauce. Once deglazed, add the sugar and taste to adjust for balance. You want a hint of sweetness against the salt, not a full sweet flavor. Reduce if a full teaspoon feels like too much.
Let the picadillo simmer down over medium-low heat until the sauce is absorbed into the meat and the mixture is moist but not watery.
Take the potatoes out of the water and fry them.
In the last few minutes of simmering, stir in the capers. Once the picadillo is done, remove from heat and gently fold in the fried potatoes and raisins.
Servings 4
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
The fried potatoes are what make this version different. Most picadillo recipes simmer the potatoes directly in the sauce, which makes them soft. Frying them separately and folding them in at the end keeps them crispy and gives every bite a different texture. That is how my mother made it, and that is how I make it.
Welcome to Cuban Thai Kitchen. I'm Dimitri, and if you want to know how a Cuban ended up loving Thai food this much, my story is below.