Homemade Picadillo

The uncased stuffing that becomes a variety of chorizo sausages all over Spain is popular in Asturias by itself. Here is a traditional way to make some at home.

Summary

Ingredient Categories

Origin Category

Asturian

Time:

1 hour 5 minutes

Difficulty:

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size -		Servings in recipe -

Amount Per Serving
Calories -
% Daily Value*
Total Fat -
Saturated Fat -
Trans Fat -
Cholesterol -
Sodium -
Total Carbohydrate -
Dietary Fiber -
Sugars 1g
Protein -

Vitamin A	-	Folate	-
Vitamin B1	-	Vitamin B2	-
Vitamin B3	-	Vitamin B5	-
Vitamin B6	-	Vitamin B12	-
Vitamin C	-	Vitamin D	-
Vitamin E	-	Vitamin K	-

Calcium	-	Copper	-
Iron	-	Magnesium	-
Manganese	-	Phosphorus	-
Potassium	-	Selenium	-
Sodium	-	Zinc	-

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
	Calories	2,000	2,500
Total Fat	Less than	65g	80g
Sat Fat	Less than	20g	25g
Cholesterol	Less than	300mg	300mg
Sodium	Less than	2,400mg	2,400mg
Total Carbohydrate		300g	375g
Dietary Fiber		25g	30g

The Asturian (as opposed to Mexican) picadillo is an uncased chorizo. Call it sausage meat if you like. It is also one of the most popular ways to eat chorizo in Asturias, and there are a myriad of regional brands to choose from. The more rural and traditional folks still make it at home, and as those are my people, I like to do so as well.

Of course, when picadillo is made at home, the recipe varies with the cook – as it should. However, it is possible to extract a general ratio of essential ingredients and present them as a template for making a recipe that will be yours alone. Once you make this a couple times you’ll have a good idea how you want to tweak it to make it your own.

Popular additions are things like onions, vinegar, or a hot pepper. You can also substitute venison or wild boar for some or all of the pork in the recipe. Wild boar picadillo and chorizo is very popular both in Asturias and in northern León.

Ingredients

300 g Pork Top Loin. (sometimes also sold as a center-cut roast)
200 g Lean pork chop.
200 g Pork belly or uncured bacon. (Panceta is the most traditional, but any good pork belly will work)
4 cloves garlic.
25 g sweet paprika.
10 g smoked paprika.
15 g salt.
5 g black pepper.

Instructions

If you do not own a grinder, I highly recommend buying your meat somewhere that will grind it for you. If you are grinding it yourself, follow all the normal prep steps for your grinder (freezing the grinder and dies, etc). Then continue as follows:

Grinding the Meat

Cube all of your meats to 1 inch or so.
Set up with a 3/16 medium die. (If using a KitchenAid grinder attachment, use the larger of the two dies first).
Grind slowly, making sure there is no smearing, and don’t overfill or clog the elbow.
Re-chill the grinder and mix the rough ground meat together with the garlic cloves. Use your hands and squish it all together well. Then chill the meat completely (about an hour).
For the second grind, switch to a smaller die if using the KitchenAid attachment. If using a regular grinder, the 3/16 Medium die is fine for this grind as well.

Seasoning

Once your second grind is finished, mix all of the seasoning into the meat and mix again by hand. This time it will get sticky and gooey. This is fine.

This is a good time to heat up a small saute pan and cook off a spoon of the mix to see if the seasoning is to your liking. Adjust seasonings as needed, and refrigerate until you are ready to cook

Notes

Traditionally in Asturias picadillo is served primarily as a small dish with potatoes or tortos, sometimes with a fried egg on top.
This can be used like ground beef for almost any dish. I have put it in pasta sauce, cannellonis, empanadas, hamburger hash, chili…