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Filipino Picadillo is a delicious, one-skillet dinner made with ground beef, potatoes, raisins and vegetables in flavorful sauce.
When my husband Jack and I decided to start sharing recipes here on A Family Feast (nearly four years ago!), so much of the inspiration behind our recipes came from our families. There really is nothing like an old family recipe – with its familiar tastes and smells – to bring someone back in time.
Today’s recipe – this delicious Filipino Picadillo – is a family recipe from our friend Virna. She was born and raised in the Philippines and later settled in the United States during medical school. Virna is a serious foodie herself – so when she raves about a dish like this Filipino Picadillo – both Jack and I take notice!
Virna grew up eating this Filipino Picadillo. It was a dish that her father cooked for their family often – and today, when Virna makes it for her own family, it brings back fond memories of her dad.
Many cultures have recipes for picadillo – each with their own unique differences. In the Philippines, picadillo (also called giniling which means ground meat) is made with ground beef, raisins, tomato sauce and diced potatoes, and we also added peas and carrots. It is served with white rice, savory fried plantains on the side, and a fried egg on top.
As Jack made this wonderful recipe to share here on A Family Feast – he consulted Virna all along the way to make sure we recreated an authentic Filipino Picadillo. (I hope we did the recipe proud Virna!)
This one pan skillet meal is great for a quick weeknight meal – and any leftovers reheat perfectly for a second meal the next day! Virna recommends eating this picadillo with a little hot sauce on top, but it’s equally delicious served on its own.
This post originally appeared on A Family Feast in September 2016. We’ve made some updates to the post and photos.
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Filipino Picadillo
Filipino Picadillo is a delicious, one-skillet dinner made with ground beef, potatoes, raisins and vegetables in flavorful sauce.
Ingredients
2 cups uncooked white rice
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 1/2 cups yellow potatoes, peeled and diced into bite sized pieces (one pound)
2 cups carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 1/2 cups onion, diced
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
1 pound 80/20 ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 pound fresh plum or San Marzano tomatoes, seeded, corded and diced (alternatively, you could use a 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes with liquid)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon fish sauce
3 tablespoons good quality soy sauce
1 teaspoon chili garlic paste
1 cup water
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
Fried egg for each serving
Tabasco sauce, served as a condiment
Instructions
Begin cooking rice by adding twice as much water as rice to a pan or rice pot. Cook rice while preparing the dish.
In a large skillet or sauté pan, over medium to medium high heat, place 2 tablespoons of olive oil and once shimmering, add potato and carrots.
Fry this for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. They should start to brown and be just shy of tender. Remove these to a bowl with a slotted spoon but leave oil in pan.
Add remaining tablespoon of oil and onion and sauté for three minutes.
Add garlic and sauté for one minute.
Add the ground beef and ground pork and sauté for about eight minutes or until browned.
Make a hole in the center and add tomato paste and stir that for one minute.
Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, raisins, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili garlic paste, water and reserved cooked potato and carrot mixture.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Add peas, stir and remove from heat.
In a fry pan, fry enough sunny side or over easy eggs as needed for each dinner guest.
Serve by placing cooked white rice in a serving bowl, top with the Picadillo then top with one fried egg on top of each portion.
Serve with Tabasco on the side along with Savory Fried Plantains.
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I wouldn’t say this is the most common dish on a filiino table…but it’s definitely deicious and this version for sure has its own pinoy taste to it.
Thanks Julie
Hi Martha! I’m wondering if you know the nutritional value without the eggs and plantains and rice and for any specific measurement? I started counting macros recently and your recipe is the closest I could find to how my Lola makes her picadillo. Thank you! (:
Hi Nicole – We use a tool called Nutrifox – I removed those ingredients from the calculation and it gives me 689 calories per serving (4 in the recipe), 24.5 g fat, 130 g carbs, 19.8 g protein – hope that helps!
i made this dish yesterday using your recipe and i loved it! thank you for posting this! <3 <3 <3
Greetings from a Filipina in Germany 😉
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Diane!!
This looks delicious! Didn’t know we had this version as a filipino recipe.
Hope enjoy the recipe Jan – there are several variations of picadillo from different cuisines.
do you know the calorie per serving??
Hi Morgan – I just added the nutritional information to the recipe card. The calculation includes the plantains and egg served on the side.
Hello. I can’t rate yet because I havnt made it. I was grown up with Mexican version but I’m looking forward to trying this
Hope you enjoy the recipe Debbie!
Martha and Jack, it does not matter that it’s only about 7 am where I live, I’d eat this right here right now for breakfast! You nailed the color with those peas on top~ and peas scream spring to me! Oddly enough, both my husband and I have Filipino cousins and I’d bet they’d love this! Thank you for sharing yet another fantastic recipe!
LOL Laura – I’ve been known to eat last night’s dinner for breakfast too! (Especially pasta and pizza!) Hope your entire family enjoy the recipe!
Picadillo is a versatile dish and
is a family favorite. My mom makes omelettes from the leftovers.
Great idea Terri! (I’ll try that the next time we make this recipe!) Thanks for the suggestion!
This picadillo recipe is arroz ala cubana in our family.
Thank you Maria!
Looks very authentic! And yummy too!
Peas and carrots are really among the ingredients, unless there are regional variations which I do not know of.
Cheers!
Thank you!