Easy Puerto Rican Picadillo (40 Minutes)

Name: The Ground Beef Dinner I Make When I’m Too Tired To Cook
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 2 ripe roma tomatoes or 1 medium heirloom tomato, cored and roughly chopped; 1 medium yellow onion, quartered; 7 cloves garlic; 1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems trimmed; 1 medium green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and roughly chopped; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 pound 90% lean ground beef; 1 tablespoon salt-free or low-sodium adobo seasoning; 1 teaspoon salt-free or low-sodium sazón; 1/4 cup sofrito, divided; 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce; 1/2 cup water, plus more as needed; 1 cup frozen diced sweet potatoes (no need to thaw); Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; Cooked white rice, for serving, optional

Overhead view of a white plate with a blue rim of picadillo over rice on a white table cloth — Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

This picadillo is my go-to dinner when I don't feel like cooking, which is, frankly, most days. Good thing it's delicious enough that I want to eat it every day and versatile enough that it can be a little different every time I make it.

Puerto Rican picadillo consists of ground beef cooked in a tomato sauce seasoned with sofrito. These ingredients are the constant. From there, people make their own additions, like potatoes, ripe plantains, and olives.

My preference is to add frozen butternut squash or frozen sweet potatoes to my picadillo. Either is a good stand-in for calabaza (pumpkin) and plantains, which add a welcome sweetness. This recipe also calls for my easy version of sofrito. Cilantro, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bell peppers come together to add tons of flavor. All you have to do is blend.

This incredibly rich, sweet, and savory dish is unfairly flavorful for the amount of time you put into it. You can use it as a taco, burrito, or empanada filling, but my favorite way to serve picadillo is over white rice.

Overhead view of a skillet of picadillo with a wooden serving spoon on a white tablecloth — Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Tips for Making My Easy Picadillo

Look for ground beef around 90 percent lean/10 percent fat. If you’re using fattier ground beef, omit the olive oil.
If you're not using a salt-free adobo seasoning, you should only add 1 to 2 teaspoons depending on your salt tolerance. Most brands like Loisa, Goya, and Badia contain salt and MSG.
Depending on how you want to serve your picadillo (as a filling versus over rice), you may want the mixture to be thicker or more saucy. You can easily adjust the consistency by adding more or less water.

Simple Substitutions

You can swap the ground beef for ground chicken or ground turkey. You can also use a plant-based meat crumble substitute to make the dish vegetarian.

During the summer, I add different kinds of peppers to my sofrito for a more complex flavor, like purple bell peppers, Cubanelle (also known as gypsy), Anaheim, banana, or Jimmy Nardello peppers. I'll sometimes add in some hot peppers, too.

Angled view of a white plate with a blue rim of picadillo over rice on a white table cloth — Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Easy Puerto Rican Picadillo

Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Servings 3 to 4 servings

This recipe makes 2 to 3 cups of sofrito, but you’ll only need 1/4 cup to make the picadillo. You can use the remaining sofrito as a base for empanadas, pernil, or other dishes. If you don't plan on using all of the sofrito within a few days, freeze it in an ice cube tray. It'll keep for 6 to 8 months. When you make soup, chuck a cube in. Chili? Chuck a cube in. Curry? Chuck it in!

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For the sofrito

2 ripe roma tomatoes or 1 medium heirloom tomato, cored and roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, quartered
7 cloves garlic
1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems trimmed
1 medium green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and roughly chopped

For the picadillo

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound 90% lean ground beef
1 tablespoon salt-free or low-sodium adobo seasoning
1 teaspoon salt-free or low-sodium sazón
1/4 cup sofrito, divided
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water, plus more as needed
1 cup frozen diced sweet potatoes (no need to thaw)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Cooked white rice, for serving, optional

Make the sofrito:

Add the tomatoes to a blender and pulse on medium speed for 5 seconds to break them up. Add the onion and garlic and pulse for another 5 seconds. Add the bell pepper and pulse for another 5 seconds. Finally, add the cilantro and pulse once more.

The mixture should be fairly smooth. I like mine to be a little chunky so you can still see some of the vegetables. Measure out 1/4 cup sofrito for the picadillo and store the extra in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
Cook the ground beef:

Heat the oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. When the oil is glossy, add in the ground beef and sauté until it takes on a little color, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with the adobo and sazón. Cook until some of the meat is firm and some of it is still pink, 3 to 5 minutes.
Make the sauce and simmer:

Add 2 tablespoons of sofrito, the tomato sauce, and the water to the meat mixture and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe
Add the sweet potatoes:

Add in the sweet potatoes and cook until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. If the sweet potatoes sucked up a lot of the moisture, add up to 1/2 cup of additional water. If you’re serving this over rice (and not using it as a filling), it should be on the saucier side.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons sofrito, turn off the heat, and mix to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve.

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Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
386	Calories
20g	Fat
15g	Carbs
36g	Protein

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 3 to 4
Amount per serving
Calories	386
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 20g	25%
Saturated Fat 6g	29%
Cholesterol 101mg	34%
Sodium 630mg	27%
Total Carbohydrate 15g	6%
Dietary Fiber 3g	11%
Total Sugars 6g
Protein 36g
Vitamin C 17mg	86%
Calcium 62mg	5%
Iron 5mg	28%
Potassium 983mg	21%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.