Picadillo tastes like home. This protein-packed main is a classic yet humble Cuban dish. It’s a staple in many households for its simplicity and affordability. Serve it up with a side of rice, beans, and tostones for a weeknight meal or fill empanadas with it to serve at a party.
While picadillo may look like a gym bro slop bowl, it’s far from it. It’s packed with flavor, featuring eight spices with a sofrito as its base. Sofrito is the foundation of Cuban cuisine. It’s an aromatic blend of onion, garlic, bell peppers, and olives. Learn how to make Cuban sofrito for this recipe and many others in this blog post.
From Mexico to Spain, people with Hispanic backgrounds make picadillo at home. Everyone cooks the dish in their own way. Some cooks add potatoes, raisins, or capers to the mix. This recipe keeps it classic with Manzanilla olives. If you don’t like olives, you can omit them from the meat, but they are essential to the sofrito base, adding the signature salty flavor. You will need two 9.5-oz jars of Manzanilla olives stuffed with pimento for this dish if you don’t already have sofrito made. One jar for a batch of sofrito, and the other jar for the meat.
Traditionally, picadillo is made with ground beef, but in this recipe, we use ground turkey. When choosing your ground turkey, reach for 85% lean, 15% fat. The higher fat content will keep your meat juicy and full of flavor. You can easily use ground beef instead in this recipe, but you likely won’t need as much seasoning because this recipe was written and tested with ground turkey in mind. With dishes full of seasonings like this one, it’s important to taste as you go to see if it needs a little more salt or sazón.
To make picadillo, start by adding sofrito to a hot pan with olive oil. After a few minutes, add the ground turkey. As the meat browns, you’ll start to add your spices, sauces, and olives. Break up the meat with your spatula or spoon to mix in the spices. As a finishing touch, deglaze the pan with white wine to unlock all the delicious flavor that stuck to the bottom of the pan and to keep it juicy. Traditionally, Cuban cooks use vino seco, or dry cooking wine, instead of regular dry white wine, but I find it easier to keep a bottle of white wine in my fridge that I can use in many recipes. Vino seco, on the other hand, has added salt and is specific to Cuban cuisine.
This recipe makes a big batch of picadillo, perfect for serving larger parties or making a lot of empanadas. You can scale it down by cutting everything in half.
Cuban Picadillo with Ground Turkey
Ingredients
For Meat
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup sofrito
- 2 lbs ground turkey 85% lean, 15% fat
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp adobo
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sazón
- 2 tbsp olive juice
- 1/4 cup strained tomatoes or tomato sauce Pomi brand
- a dash of hot sauce
- a capful of white vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped Manzanilla olives or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento
- a splash of dry white wine
For Sofrito
- 1 small white onion
- 1 head of garlic
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper
- 1 9.5 oz jar Manzanilla olives or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento
Instructions
For Picadillo
- Roughly chop 1/2 cup of Manzanilla or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento and set aside.
- Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a large, hot pan over medium-high heat.
- Add 1 cup sofrito and cook until fragrant (about a minute).
- Add 2 lbs ground turkey and break it up with your spatula.
- Add your seasonings as the meat browns: 2 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp oregano, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp adobo, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp sazón.
- Stir in the seasonings to coat the meat evenly.
- Add 2 tbsp olive juice, 1/4 cup strained tomatoes or tomato sauce, a dash of hot sauce, and a capful of white vinegar.
- Stir in 1/2 cup chopped Manzanilla olives or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento.
- Add a splash of dry white wine and scrape the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, stirring in the flavor.
- After adding all the seasonings, you should have been cooking your ground turkey for about 10 minutes. The total cook time will be about 10-15 minutes for the meat to brown yet stay juicy. If the meat sticks to the pan, add more white wine to keep it juicy.
- Serve with rice and beans or save the picadillo for empanadas.
For Sofrito
The base of this recipe is Cuban sofrito. If you don't already have some made, you'll need to start by preparing a batch. For a full sofrito recipe with tips, see this blog post.
- Roughly chop 1 small white onion into quarters and add to a food processor.
- Peel 1 head of garlic and add cloves to the food processor.
- Cut the bell peppers in half and remove the tops and seeds. Roughly chop bell peppers. Put half of each bell pepper into the food processor.You can freeze the other half of the bell peppers for fajitas or other recipes.
- Add the olives from 1 9.5 oz jar Manzanilla olives or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento to the food processor.
- Turn on the food processor and pulse until you have a consistent paste.
- Use 1 cup of sofrito to make the picadillo and save the rest for another time.
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