It takes plenty of seasoning to transform ground meat into craveable dishes. Throughout Latin American cooks add chiles, tomatoes and dried fruit to simple ground pork or beef to create picadillo — a rich chopped meat mixture used to stuff chiles, tacos, appetizers and more.
Dark, rich and mildly spicy, ancho chiles add loads of depth and personality to ground meat, even bland ground turkey. Bottle pureed ancho chiles or ground ancho powder make easy work for the cook. Alternatively, supple dried ancho chiles can be soaked in hot water and then pureed in a high-speed blender.
I like the addition of sweet of raisins and the tang of ketchup and green olives to balance the earthiness of the chiles. A little chipotle chile adds smoky notes and punch of heat.
…