Get to know us – Facebook – Instagram – Game Reviews – Recipes

Why Birria Tacos?

Why indeed? When I declared that Birria Tacos were for dinner, that was the question on everyone’s mind. The story behind “why Birria” is very simple: food trucks & Food Network. While lounging on the couch one afternoon, I happened upon the Food Network. If you don’t know me this is actually surprising, since I don’t watch too much tv, let along shows about cooking. I much prefer being the one cooking, the food. Otherwise my tummy gets the gurgles and then I have to get cookin. Anyway, let’s get back to business.

While I don’t recall what I was watching at the time, I vividly remember the food. This was a family owned establishment where Birria was made fresh, every. single. day. What I see in my mind, to this day, are those beautiful cuts of beef . Each piece added to a broth that was a deep amber color. I knew in that very moment, that Food Network had bested me!

As the chef dipped a ladle into the enormous pot to stir up the beef he explained some important things about Birria I won’t forget. Firstly, Birria is a low and slow process. Make sure you have a good spice blend, one that provides spice but also flavor. The meat should be nice and tender so that when you pull it apart it shreds easily. Finally, after all that cooking, you have a beautiful combination of flavors in the broth AND your beef. All of these made me crave Birria, made me crave strong, pronounced flavors. And that’s how we ended up making Birria tacos.

~we hope you enjoy~

Bangin’ Biria Tacos

Chris

Our Birria tacos are slow cooked, hand pulled, seasoned, and spiced to perfection! Don't believe us, here's the recipe. You can thank us later.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 6 hours hrs

Total Time 7 hours hrs

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Servings 10 people

Ingredients

  

• 2 lbs Stew beef
• 5 Dried chili pasilla peppers
• 5 Dried chili guajillo pepper
• 5 Dried chili de arbol peppers
• 1½ Spanish onions
• ⅓ cup Vinegar 2 parts white, 1 part apple cider
• 20 Garlic cloves
• 5 Bay leaves
• 1 tsp Black pepper more to taste
• 1 tsp Kosher salt more to taste
• 1 Tbsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Garlic powder
• 1 tsp Onion powder
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ginger
• ½ tsp Ground cloves
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 tsp Corriander roasted & ground
• 1 tsp Ground thyme
• 1-2 Bouillon cubes

Instructions

 

• First things first, grab yourself the ole reliable slow cooker or crockpot. Toss in the beef, as well as everything except the veggies & peppers.
• Next, let’s slice the tops off of those peppers. Get as many seeds out as possible lest you live to regret the wrath of chili de arbol. Add to pot once de-seeded.
• Grab your onions, quarter them and add to slow cooker. Try to keep everything at the same level, don't pile stuff up in one place.
• Next is your garlic. Split into two portions of 10, half goes in now, we will come back to the other half.
• Add water to your cooker until ingredients are just submerged. Cook for 3 hours on high.
• After 3 hours, fish out the onions, peppers, garlic cloves, and bay leaves. We’re gonna process these bad boys.
• In a food processor/blender, add ½ cup of the broth from the crock pot as well as the veggies you just pulled. Pulse until the solids are liquids.
• Over the crock pot, use a strainer and a rubber spatula to drain all those delicious juices from the puree. If available, using cheesecloth will make things easier.
• After draining, add back about 2 Tbsp of the pureed solids. See Note 1 for why we did this. Cook for 2 more hours on low.
• After 2 hours have passed, it’s time to pull out that beef. Once the beef has been pulled, I highly recommend letting the it cool for a couple minutes. Definitely use some gloves.
• Rip each piece of beef up into shreds. Be thorough here, it pays dividends in flavor to get each piece broken up properly.
• Once everything is shredded, put it back in to cook for at least another 30 minutes (max 1 hour).
• After the timer’s gone off, be sure to give this a taste. Add more salt here as you see fit. Make sure to stir thoroughly, then taste, after each addition. AND REMEMBER: you can always add more salt, but once added, you can not take it away.
• To serve, get a pan nice and hot (medium heat). Coat your tortilla of choice in the broth, then cook for 1 minute on the first side. Flip, and add some fixings. We went with Monterey jack cheese, our Birria beef, with pickled red onions and mashed avocado.
• Our recommendation: Serve with a side of cilantro lime rice.

Notes

Note 1: I actually asked Mandy myself why we
didn’t just add back all of the pureed solids. She
looked at me with both concern and confusion
then said, “Do you want your butt to burn
tomorrow?” I was shocked!

Apparently the more you add back into your
stew the hotter the broth gets. This is because
pureeing up those peppers breaks their seeds.
This disperses their heat to the entire pot
instead of being contained inside of the pepper.
You’re welcome to add them spicy bits back but
you’ve been warned.

Keyword Birria, Tacos

Takeaways

This recipe came out AMAZINGLY. Even though I watched that episode on birria tacos, Mandy connected the final piece of the puzzle. When she went to cook the first taco, instead of frying up the tortilla in oil, she dipped it, IN THE SAUCE😱.

Taken aback, I said to Mandy, “I didn’t know that was a thing?!? You can do that???”

She flipped her hair in my direction. With a smile Mandy said, “This is what you’re supposed to do, silly.”

-Mandy Bras 2023

In all honesty, I was that blown away. It’s such a simple yet creative way to make use of something that would otherwise be discarded. I certainly wouldn’t have though of doing that. Regardless, these tacos kick serious butt! And by that I mean they’re pretty dang 🔥spicy🔥.

If you’re like us and you enjoy spice, kick your next dinner part up a notch with our Bangin’ Birria Tacos. They’re sure to impress and not a challenging recipe to master. So get cooking and enjoy the heck out of these bad boys!