Picadillo, Mexican style ground beef, is a popular lunch meal particularly in Northern Mexico. Picadillo is an easy dish to prepare that’s in every home cook’s repertoire. Picadillo is great for making ground beef tacos, too.

Picadillo almost always has diced onions, potatoes, chiles and carrots and sometimes peas. Like most Mexican dishes, measurements are flexible. You add what you have on hand. My version calls for chile Poblano but you can substitute any type of chile of your choice.

Serve with a stack of hot corn or flour tortillas on the side.

Recipe for Picadillo – Mexican Style Ground Beef

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef

• 1 chile Poblano roasted, peeled, and diced

• 1 medium potato diced

• 2 roma tomatoes diced

• 1 small onion diced

• 2 cloves of garlic minced

• 1 teaspoon of oregano

• Salt to taste

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and set aside. In the same pan, add the diced onion, diced poblano chile, and minced garlic and cook over low heat until the onion is translucent. Add the tomato, potato and ground beef and mix well. Add a half a cup of water and cover the skillet and cook over low heat for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Recipe for Mexican Style Beef Tips

Beef Tips a la Mexicana is the type of dish that you will find served all over Mexico at family restaurants that offer a comida corrida, a daily lunch special. It’s hearty dish that is easy to prepare at home. A word of warning though, Beef Tips a la Mexicana is very spicy.

When you make Mexican style beef tips, choose a cheaper cut of meat that benefits from the longer cooking time. Better cuts of meat lose their flavor and the meat becomes chewy.

This recipe makes 4 large portions or 6 modest portions. Serve Mexican style beef tips with rice or beans and a stack of tortillas on the side.

How to make Mexican Style Beef Tips

Ingredients:

• 1.5 Pounds beef tips
• 5 Roma tomatoes diced
• 1 Medium onion diced
• 4 Serrano chiles cut into rounds- jalapeno chiles can be substituted. Dice the jalapeno if used.
• 1 Clove of garlic minced – add an extra clove if you really like garlic
• 1 Sprig of cilantro minced – parsley works too

Put two tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add the onions, chiles, and garlic over medium-low heat and fry until the onions turn transparent. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook over low heat for about 15 minutes.

In a separate pan, brown the beef tips with two tablespoons of oil over a medium-high heat. When the beef is browned on all sides, add the vegetable mixture to the beef. Add one cup of water to the pan. Cover the pan and simmer the mixture over low heat for 25 minutes. Add the cilantro and cook for 5 more minutes.

That’s all there is to it. A simple recipe for hearty Mexican style beef tips.

Crispy Tortillas with Melted Cheese and Beef

Crispy tortillas with meat and cheese on top are called volcanoes. Why volcanoes? I’m assuming the name comes from the round shape of the tortilla and the hot bubbling cheese on top.

Volcanoes are a tasty way to use up some day-old corn tortillas and left over meat. Plus, they are quick to make, really tasty, and loved by kids.

It takes very few ingredients to prepare volcanoes and you can have a plate of them prepared in under 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas – the smaller taco size works best

• A melting cheese – queso Oaxaca, asadero or Chihuahua are good choices. Mozzarrella works fine too.

• Diced beef – Use any leftover beef you might have. You can omit the beef if you like. Volcanoes taste good with just cheese.

• Limes

To make volcanoes:

Preheat a pan or comal over medium heat.

Place a tortilla on the comal or in pan and let it heat up until it begins to char on the bottom side. Don’t worry, the charred tortilla is the best part of the recipe. **A word of warning – the tortillas will start to smoke so turn on the exhaust fan or open a window.**

A nicely charred tortilla. Charring the tortilla gives a lot of flavor to the volcanoes and makes the tortilla hard so that you are able to pick it up with your fingers and eat it like a tostada.

After you have charred the first side of the tortilla, turn tortilla over and then place a good white melting cheese and the diced meat filling on top. Allow the cheese to melt and the tortilla to burn some more.

Take the volcanoes off the heat. Squirt lime juice on the volcanoes. Add salsa to taste and eat immediately.

Variation:

Strips of roasted Poblano chiles are a nice addition.

I also like the volcanoes with a tomatillo salsa.