I don’t know about you but I find that a quick and delicious skillet meal is always a great thing to have in your repertoire, and picadillo is a particularly great solution when you need an easy meal that also satisfies. It’s more or less a ground beef hash, and you can serve it with tortillas or beans and rice, but it’s plenty filling enough to eat all on its own. It takes just thirty minutes to throw together, but the best thing about it is all the bold and comforting flavor that comes out of a single skillet.

Many Latin American countries have a version of picadillo. While you might find green olives and capers in Cuban picadillo or rum-soaked raisins in Peurto Rican picadillo, in Mexican picadillo you’ll usually find potatoes and other assorted veggies like peas and carrots. The word picadillo comes from the Spanish word picar, which means “to mince,” so what you’ll find they all have in common is ground beef mixed with other chopped ingredients, and typically a tomato base.

And it couldn’t be much simpler to make! You just heat up a skillet and brown some ground beef before adding your veggies into the mix – in this case that’s potatoes, onion, and carrots. Once those have softened, you get to adding that bold and zesty flavor with things like garlic, cumin, oregano, and tomato paste. You can let it reduce down or leave it fairly saucy – it’s up to you, but I like a little extra sauce when it’s served over rice.

I also like some sweet peas stirred in at the end, but this is really the type of versatile dish where you can add and subtract based on whatever you happen to have hanging out in the fridge. Bell pepper or jalapeño wouldn’t be amiss here, but pretty much whatever you add in you’ll end up with a warm and comforting dish that’s no trouble at all to make.