Picadillo Meatballs Recipe

I'm a huge fan of picadillo. But the main (well, really the only) downside is that I can't stop eating it! I decided I wanted to make a snackable-sized portion and came up with the idea of making picadillo meatballs. I'll tell you, my typical recipe is a blend of my cuban girlfriend's mother's recipe with a little touch by yours truly. For these meatballs, I use the main hard ingredients (non-sauces) of my regular picadillo recipe but remove some of the sauces. Although, these can all be incorporated in some sort of sauce to put on the meatballs. Maybe I'll get to that later. Maybe.

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Ingredients:

• Lean ground beef (that 93% lean don't be cheap)

• Hot Italian chicken sausage (taken out of the wrapping, don't be grossed out, it's just fat)

• Bacon - chop it up

• Onions - chop em til you cry

• Red bell pepper - rough chop

• Green olives - cut in quarters or eighths (depends on the size of your balls)

• Garlic - mince it

• Raisins - cut in halves or in quarters (again, depends on the size of your meatballs)

• Tomatoes - chop into small pieces (don't worry too much about losing tons of juice. You've got no choice anyways.)

• Yuengling Lager (half for you *checks ID*, half for the food)

• Half lime

Directions:

1) Put a little oil in a large pan and heat it over medium-high. Make sure the oil coats the entire pan. Chop and prepare all ingredients.

2) Second, put all ingredients in a bowl big enough to mix everything together. Fold and mix the ingredients together until you have one large, relatively together ball. Take a spoonful of your meat mixture and pack into a meatball and set on a plate, tray, or any clean surface. Repeat until you've got all the meatballs you want or until you run out of meat!

3) Once sizzling (sprinkle the tiniest bit of water on the hot pan - if it sizzles, you're good to go. If not, wait a couple more minutes.), gently place the meatballs in the pan and let cook for 5 minutes.

4) Turn your meatballs over and let cook for 3 minutes.

5) Pour in half of a can of Yuengling Lager, cover and let cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

6) Turn heat down to low to allow the beer to cook down some more. Depending on the size of the meatballs, let's wait another 5 - 10 minutes. Poke a meatball with a fork to check doneness.

Enjoy with some rice, beans, plantain, and/or your favorite picadillo sauce.

#picadillo #meatballs