Chayote Picadillo
🇨🇷A warm and comforting Costa Rican dish
Growing up, whenever my grandparents came over to our house for Sunday lunch, my grandma always brought a tray of picadillo. While she hasn’t been able to cook picadillo for a while, I will always remember the taste of her picadillo. I loved the seasoned ground beef blended with achiote paste, balanced with the soft, yet fresh taste of chayote and warm potatoes.
Picadillo made with chayote and potato is typical in Costa Rica. My mom and grandma make theirs with ground beef, which I love, but I think using fresh chorizo is even better. Fresh chorizo is already seasoned with the spices I would add in anyway — usually a blend of garlic, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. If you make this recipe, be sure to get fresh, ground chorizo from the butcher.
Chayote is very common in Costa Rican cuisine and is delicious raw, thinly sliced in a salad, or cooked down in a braise. It belongs to the squash family and grows on a vine like pumpkins or cucumbers, but it’s cultivated on trellises, similar to peas. I remember a trip to Costa Rica back in 2018 when I was visiting family. My mom’s cousin was driving us through the central highlands, where chayotes are grown for export. I cannot find my photos from that day (darn my iCloud) but I vividly remember driving through fields and fields of trellised chayote and being amazed by the sight. I think about this every time I buy chayote at the grocery store. Most of the chayote sold at U.S. grocery stores is grown in Costa Rica!
