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This Birria Tacos recipe is juicy, cheesy and spicy! The perfect combination of braised spicy beef stuffed into a corn tortilla topped with stringy cheese, red onion, coriander and lime! It’s a match made in heaven that you don’t want to miss!

Birria Tacos have been all the rage this year! I just had to make my own spicy recipe! If you like tacos and spicy food this is the recipe for you!

Where are Birria Tacos from?

Birria originates in Jalisco, Mexico. ‘Birria de Res’ is a rich stew typically made with lamb or goat. The stew is made up of tomatoes, Mexican dried chillies. It’s traditionally served without tacos in a consomé broth alongside a mixture of coriander and white onion.

It’s also very popular as a street food in taco form, this way is called ‘Tacos de Birria’ and consists of a corn tortilla filled with braised meat and Mexican Oaxacan cheese, coriander onion and lime. The tacos are served with a consomé on the side for dipping.

Birria Tacos took off on social media this year especially in the states with lots of food trucks and pop up spots making them in front of you. Here in the UK there are not many places like these that sell them. I know of one place the Meat Head Stall in Camden Market, London. I was impressed but I did feel they were lacking in seasoning and the spice was missing! Help someone out and drop a birria tacos place in the UK in the comments!

Birria Tacos Recipe Inspiration

I was finally inspired to try and make my own after visiting Meathead in Camden Market. Moreover, one of my favourite food bloggers Adrianna from A Cozy Kitchen has a recipe for them on her website and I trust her recipes a lot. This is Adrianna’s recipe with my own Chilli & Life twist.

I have made the recipe my own adjusting things like the seasoning, beef stock and chillies. I upped the heat content because duh – you guys already know I’m a spicy food fanatic. That’s why its called chilliandlife.com because chilli really is life!

What Do I need?

All the ingredients listed below can be found in a Latin supermarket. I do not have one near me so I bought my dried chillies from amazon from a company called Mexican Mama (link below). They are a Mexican food store based in Peckham, London.

Beef Cuts – I have used a combination of short ribs and beef muscle. I bought the muscle from my butcher and cut into smaller chunks at home perfect for braising. The short ribs are from Costco. Short ribs have beautiful marbling and the bone provides incredible flavour to the sauce. The muscle meat is full of connective tissue and fat which adds incredible flavour to the meat and keeps it juicy while cooking. You can also use chuck roast or any braising beef really. Leave the fat on your chosen cut of beef, it will add beautiful flavour to your sauce. You can remove it at the end when you shred the beef.

Sauce Ingredients –

• Dried Chillies – You will need 3 different types of Mexican chillies, 2 are for flavour and 1 for spice. Guajillo and ancho chillies are delicious and rich in flavour. The third kind chiles de arbol are a small fiery chilli that packs a punch. As a spicy food fanatic I left most of the seeds in. If you dont like it too spicy then be sure to remove the seeds from all the chillies – especially the chile de arbol.
• Oregano – A cozy Kitchen’s recipe calls for Mexican oregano. I couldn’t find any so I just used normal good quality dried oregano. You should be able to find Mexican oregano at a Latin market, it is different to Italian oregano.
• Cinnamon – Again A Cozy Kitchen’s recipe uses Mexican cinnamon but I could not find any. I would love to try some in the future. Mexican cinnamon is more brittle and is easy to snap in two. I used regular cinnamon. If using this add it to the mixture to boil and then remove and discard before blending.
• Cloves, Coriander Seeds and Cumin Seeds – Whole spices are a must in dishes like these where you will be cooking meat low and slow – whole seasoning provides better and brilliant flavour to ground. You can use ground if you don’t have whole spices.
• Tomatoes, Onions and Garlic – You will need 1 bulb of garlic, one yellow or white onion and 4 vine or roma tomatoes.

Boil everything but the meat in a pot with water for 30 minutes to soften. Then blend into a smooth mixture.

How to Make the Birria de Res – Braised Beef

1. Bring meat to room temperature and add plenty of salt. I use a coarse French sea salt to salt my meat.
2. In a cocotte or oven proof casserole pot, on medium heat, sear the meat in batches so you don’t over crowd the pan. Do this to brown all sides of the meat or until browned to your taste.
3. In another deep pot add the the chiles, onion, garlic, tomatoes and whole spices. Cover with water, cover and leave on high for about 30 minutes. The chillies and tomatoes should be very soft.
4. Drain everything in a colander saving 1 cup of liquid. Allow to cool a little before adding everything to a blender. Along with 1 cup of the liquid it cooked in. Blend until completely smooth.
5. Once the sauce base is ready add the beef back to your cocotte on medium heat and pour the blended sauce on top. Pour 800ml of beef stock to the blender cup to collect all the remaining sauce from the sides, and add to the pot.
6. Leave on medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and add to preheated oven at 150°C/302°F. Leave to braise for 3-4 hours. I left mine for 4 hours for super tender meat. Check the meat using a fork after 2.5 hours.

To Make the Consomé…

1. Add 1 cup of the sauce to a saucepan on low heat and add 1/2 a cup/100ml of beef stock to thin the sauce out.
2. Add some freshly chopped red and white onion, chopped coriander and fresh lime juice.
3. Mix everything together and allow to heat through and transfer to a bowl.

How to Assemble Birria Tacos!

1. Remove the meat from the sauce and shred with two forks.
2. Finely chop some onion and coriander. Add to a bowl and mix with fresh lime juice and a little fine sea salt.
3. Dip a corn tortilla into the fat that should be sitting at the top of your sauce. Add the tortilla to a non-stick pan on medium heat.
4. Flip over before adding some shredded beef and as much or as little cheese as you like. I have used mozzarella as I could not find the Mexican Oaxacan cheese.
5. Fold in two and flip over to get a nice crispy cheesy crust.

Serve with the delicious consomé and extra onion and coriander!

Tips & Tricks

• Keep the Tacos warm – Place the cooked tacos on a baking tray and put in a 90°C/200°F oven to stay warm while you finish off the remaining tacos.
• Let’s talk meat – I am a certified carnivore – I love meat! You can use many different beef cuts like ox cheek or oxtail or chuck roast. Theses cuts of meat hold up with during dslow cooking and retain their flavour and juiciness. Plus you can even substitute the beef for goat or lamb.
• If you have a local Latin supermarket you should be able to find all the ingredients there. If not you can purchase the chillies from Amazon. I got this multipack from Mexican Mama for £15.99. It is a little pricey but worth it considering the brand is Mexican and imported straight from Mexico. I really wanted to make these Birria Tacos as authentic as I could.
• The best pot to use for this recipe is a cast iron casserole pot or cocotte.Two well known and trusted French brands are Le Creuset and Staub. They last a lifetime and chefs around the world love them. There are many other companies that sell them. They are a great investment and great for these types of recipes where you want to cook on the stove and in the oven.
• A cast iron pot is a staple kitchen item for every keen cook!

FlavOil – High Oleic Sunflower Oil

For this recipe I used one of my new favourite oils I recently discovered on instagram. Flavoil is a high oleic sunflower oil perfect for cooking and marinades.

Flavoil provides the perfect frying oil. A less calorific and much lighter oil which is odourless and almost tasteless.

Flavoil are currently doing a buy one get one free deal and you can use my code to get yourself 10% off on top!

Use my special code “HOSO29” using this link to order your first bottle today with a 10% discount. If you are looking for a lighter great cooking oil you will love Flavoil! I for one will be buying their amazing cooking oil for all my frying recipes.

Looking for More Recipes?

Love tacos? Check out my Easy Braised Beef Tacos with flour tortillas, guacamole and sour cream!

Check out some of my favourite recipes:

• Spicy Chicken Katsu Curry;
• Chinese Style Spicy Braised Pork Belly; and
• Nigerian Jollof Rice!

Did you make this Birria Tacos Recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @chilliandlife on Instagram and hashtag it #chilliandlife #CANDL