Belizean picadillo is pork meatballs, each one built around a hard-boiled egg yolk, simmered in a broth blackened with black recado. It belongs to the family Belizeans call black dinner. The meatball is what makes it picadillo rather than one of its neighbours, and it is a northern Belize dish above all.
Picadillo, Relleno and Chirmole Are Three Different Black Dinners
All three are built on the same black recado broth, which is why they get confused. What separates them is what goes in the pot.
Frontier Co-op Whole Cloves, Organic, Hand Select, 16 oz
Recado blanco, chimole, and braised meats all call for whole cloves ground or simmered into the dish. Whole cloves keep their volatile oils far longer than ground.
Picadillo is this page. Ground pork mixed with chopped egg white and seasoning, rolled around a whole egg yolk, dropped into the broth as meatballs.
Relleno is the fuller version, built on jointed chicken or pork rather than meatballs, and it is the one that turns up at the biggest tables.
Chirmole, also spelled chilmole and chimole, is the plainest of the three and the name most people reach for when they mean black dinner generally. If that is what you are after, start there.
Which one you grew up with depends on where and with whom. Creole, Garifuna, Maya and Mestizo kitchens all make a version, and the boundaries between them are soft.
Belizean Picadillo Recipe Ingredients:
- 1 lb (450 g) ground pork or ground turkey, or plant-based ground meat for a vegetarian option
- 4 eggs, or an egg substitute for a vegan option
- 1 large tomato, chopped, about 1 cup (180 g)
- 1 large potato, peeled and chopped, about 1 cup (200 g)
- 1 large onion, about 1 1/2 cups (200 g)
- 10 cups (2.4 L) chicken broth, or 10 cups water with 3 tablespoons consommé de pollo or about 5 chicken bouillon cubes. Vegetable broth for a vegetarian option
- 3 epazote leaves, from a Mexican grocery
Picadillo Seasonings:
- 1/2 bar (about 2 tablespoons / 30 g) chilmole black seasoning, or make your own black recado
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) whole allspice seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) whole cloves
- 4 garlic cloves
- 5 leaves fresh oregano or 2 teaspoons (1 g) dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) whole black peppercorns
- 2 teaspoons (12 g) salt
Instructions:
- Boil the eggs. Separate the whites from the yolks and chop the whites.
- In a coffee mill, grind the seasonings together, except for the onion and garlic.
- Add half of the seasoning mixture and the chopped egg whites to the ground pork or turkey. Add one raw whole egg and mix everything.
- Divide the meat mixture into 8 portions. Shape each portion into a ball, placing an egg yolk in the center of each ball. Close the meat right around the yolk so it does not break out in the pot.
- For the broth: Prepare the broth by mixing 10 cups of water with 3 tablespoons of consommé de pollo, or about 5 chicken bouillon cubes, or use vegetable broth.
- Add the remaining seasonings to the pot and bring it to a boil. Add three epazote leaves.
- Gently drop the meatballs into the boiling broth. Add the chopped potatoes and reduce the heat to a medium simmer for 30 minutes. The meatballs will float to the surface as they cook.
- Add the chopped fresh tomatoes and serve your Belizean picadillo hot with corn tortillas.
Hardboiled eggs, yolks, and white separated.
The pork meatballs, picadillo, with hardboiled egg white chunks.
The broth and picadillo pork meatballs are cooking.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Keeps four days refrigerated, meatballs sitting in the broth. It is better on day two, once the recado has worked further into the pork. Reheat gently. A hard boil breaks the meatballs apart and the yolk escapes.
It freezes three months. Freeze the meatballs and broth together, and leave the potato out if you know a batch is going in, because it turns grainy. Thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating.
The meatballs can be rolled a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Cold meatballs actually hold together better going into the pot than freshly mixed ones.
Equipment
A coffee mill or spice grinder for the whole allspice, cloves and peppercorns. Grinding them yourself is most of the difference between this and a flat pot. A mortar works too and takes longer.
A wide pot that holds 10 cups of broth with room above it, so the meatballs can sit in one layer. Crowded meatballs knock into each other and split.
Tips and Variations
Chilmole comes as a hard bar or a paste. Half a bar is roughly 2 tablespoons. Dissolve it in a ladle of hot broth before it goes in the pot or you will be chasing lumps.
Ground turkey works and is the common lighter swap. Plant-based ground meat holds together well here because the chopped egg white and the raw egg are doing the binding.
Epazote is worth finding. It is the herb that makes the broth taste like Belize rather than like a generic dark soup, and there is no substitute that does the same job.
Corn tortillas, not flour, and enough of them to mop the bowl. Nutrition is estimated from standard ingredient labels, per serving, four servings of two meatballs each. Sodium depends heavily on whether you use bouillon or a low-salt broth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Belizean picadillo?
Pork meatballs, each rolled around a hard-boiled egg yolk and studded with chopped egg white, simmered with potato in a broth blackened with chilmole. It is one of the dishes Belizeans call black dinner.
How is it different from Belizean relleno and chirmole?
The same black recado broth carries all three. Picadillo uses meatballs. Relleno uses jointed chicken or pork. Chirmole is the plainest and is the usual name for black dinner in general.
Is Belizean picadillo the same as Cuban or Mexican picadillo?
No, and the difference is total. Cuban and Mexican picadillo are dry skillet dishes of seasoned ground meat with olives or raisins. The Belizean one is meatballs in a black soup. Same word, unrelated plate.
What is chilmole and can I make it myself?
Chilmole is black recado, a paste of charred chiles and spices. It is sold in hard bars in Belizean and Mexican groceries, and we have a recipe for making it from scratch.
Why did my meatballs fall apart?
Usually the broth was at a rolling boil rather than a medium simmer, or the meat was not closed fully around the yolk. Drop them in gently, keep the pot moving slowly, and leave them alone until they float.
Can I make it without pork?
Yes. Ground turkey is the usual swap and needs no other change. For a vegetarian pot, use plant-based ground meat and vegetable broth, and an egg substitute if you are going fully vegan, though you lose the yolk in the middle that way.
How many does this serve?
Eight meatballs, which is four servings of two with broth, potato and tortillas. Everything doubles cleanly for eight, but use a wider pot so the meatballs still sit in one layer.
Shop This Recipe
Picadillo's onion-pepper-garlic base wants fine dice — the chopper delivers uniform cuts that disappear into the browning ground beef.
Picadillo simmers covered for the spices to bloom — a heavy pot holds the heat evenly without scorching the bottom.
Chopping the aromatics and trimming any beef wants a generous board. An 18x12 maple board is the size that holds the full mise en place.
About Chica Post
Chica Post is Belizean by marriage and love. She has traveled across Belize — Corozal, Orange Walk, Dangriga, Stann Creek, and everywhere except Toledo — and has been to Mexico many times. She is raising two bilingual boys and keeping Belizean food alive in an American kitchen. She co-authored many of the original recipes on this site and took the photographs. She writes for the Belize News Post.
