- [Narrator] Birria may be new to some of you but this dish has been around for decades. The juicy, slow-cooked meat stew is often served for special occasions and you'll soon see why. It's truly a melt-in-your-mouth experience that honestly deserves its own holiday. Today we celebrate its evolution by not only showing you how to make delicious birria but also how to serve it taco style. (relaxing music) Birria originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco, but it's believed to have grown in popularity after Don Guadalupe Zarate set up a birria stand in Tijuana in the 1950s, Birria is traditionally made with goat meat, but reportedly Zarate eventually began to prepare it with beef.
We tested a variety of meats, goat, beef, lamb, and pork. While we loved the classic goat, we decided to use beef for our recipe. It's more widely available but still packed with flavor. Now that we've picked our protein, let's talk cuts. We want fatty, meaty cuts.
In this recipe, we're using a mix of boneless beef chuck roll and bone-in beef short ribs. Bones are packed with collagen and flavor, adding richness to our consome that will have your lips sticking together in a good way. Consome is a savory brothy sauce. It's what we'll be dipping our tacos in later. Before we get to cooking, we want to season our meat with salt.
Don't skimp on the salt here, people. We want to coat our meat completely. Then we'll chill our seasoned meat in the fridge for at least four hours. Seasoning our meat before we sear it is going to give us that crispy brown crust and lock in more flavor.
All right, let's move on to our chilies.
Everyone uses their own combo of dried chilies. Today we're using Morita, Guajillo, and Ancho chilies. Morita chilies for their spice and smokiness, Guajillo chilies for their spice and sweetness, and Ancho chilies for their dark richness. We'll cover chilies with warm water and let them soften for about five minutes. Then we'll remove the seeds and stems like this or under running water and set the peppers aside.
But the spice doesn't stop there. Incorporating more spices and seasonings is going to give us a well-balanced birria that's layered with flavor. Like chilies, everyone has their go-to seasoning for birria. Cinnamon, coriander seed, bay leaves, cloves, allspice, dried avocado leaves, black peppercorns, cumin, and Mexican oregano. There are two types of oregano, Italian and Mexican.
While they share the same name, they have different tastes and aromas. Italian or Mediterranean oregano has minty undertones while Mexican oregano has more citrusy, earthy undertones. For our recipe, we are using cinnamon, coriander seed, black peppercorns, allspice, and cloves. We'll add them to a medium skillet and toast them over medium heat. Then we'll transfer them to a spice grinder along with our dried bay leaves and Mexican oregano.
Toasting and grinding our spices will give our spice mix a fresher more vibrant flavor. You want to grind them into a fine powder like this. Now it's time to cook our meat. Traditionally the meat is cooked underground. We found the best way to replicate that method was using a Dutch oven with a tight-fitted lid.
We'll remove our meat from the refrigerator and pat it dry. This will absorb any excess moisture that could keep our meat from getting an even crust. Next, we'll add a quarter cup of canola oil to our pot over medium-high heat.
Once the oil is shimmery, add the meat and sear it on all sides. We want to create this really great crust all over, also known as the Maillard reaction.
This process is going to lock in yet another layer of flavor to our braising liquid. Once the meat is golden brown, remove it from the pot and set it aside. We're going to go ahead and add our yellow onions and quartered Roma tomatoes.
Sprinkle them with a tablespoon of salt and let everything cook until the onions and tomatoes begin to sweat about five to seven minutes. Then we'll add our garlic and cook until fragrant.
As if our kitchen couldn't smell any better, we're going to add the spices we prepared earlier. Cook until they're aromatic, about two minutes. Next, we'll add a little apple cider vinegar and eight cups of water. Why water and not beef or chicken broth? We're actually building our own broth right in this pot, so adding more beef or chicken broth isn't necessary.
We'll return our seared meat to the pot, toss in those chilies, and bring everything to a boil. Then we'll reduce our stew to a simmer and cover it with a lid. Okay, it's been about 30 minutes. Let's give this a look.
See how our mixture has reduced and the chilies have completely softened?
That's our cue that it's time to remove our chilies and blend them. We'll place them in a high-powered blender along with two cups of our broth and blend. Smooth and silky. We'll add the chile mixture back into our pot and give it a stir. Now we'll start topping our stew with banana leaves.
The banana leaves are going to add yet another layer of flavor while also preventing our meat from drying out. Quick tip. If you can't find banana leaves, use aluminum foil.
And now for the hard part, waiting. We're going to cover the pot and transfer it to the oven to cook for 90 minutes.
It might be the longest 90 minutes of your life but hang in there. See, that wasn't so bad. We'll take off the lid and remove the banana leaves. Then remove the cooked meat from the pot, place it in a large mixing bowl, and start shredding. The meat should easily pull away from the short rib bones like this.
Now, it wouldn't be tacos without tortillas, and hey, if you want to go the extra mile and make your own, more power to ya. But store-bought tortillas are just as good for this and when it comes to birria tacos, our tortillas of choice are corn. Here's when the magic happens. Remember that warm flavorful liquid left in our pot after we removed the meat? That's our consome.
See that thin layer of fat sitting at the top? We're gonna dip the tortillas in that and lay them flat in our lightly oiled skillet. Pan-frying our tortillas in the fat is what's going to give our tacos that perfectly crisp crust.
We're crisping our tortillas on both sides so our tacos don't fall apart. There's some debate about what we're about to do next.
We're going to top our tortillas with cheese. We're using shredded Oaxaca cheese here because it's the best for melting, but mozzarella cheese is also a good option. Then we'll add our shredded beef and fold the tortilla in half, and we'll cook it until the cheese begins to melt. Okay, time to flip. Look at that golden brown color and crispy crust!
This is what we want.
We'll continue cooking to achieve the same on the other side. They say you eat with your eyes and they're not wrong. Wow. We came, we cooked, and now we're more than ready to consume these birria tacos.
All jokes aside, we like to serve our birria tacos with some cilantro, pickled red onions, and lime. And don't forget the consome because dunking in your taco in it makes for one delicious bite. These birria tacos are seriously worth every minute and mess, so do us a favor and make this recipe, and dip it like it's hot. (relaxing music).
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