Birria Tacos

Don't Make These Mistakes

Twenty seconds is the entire toasting window for the chillies. Bitter birria always traces back to this step.

Make the braise a day ahead. The fat sets on top and is far easier to lift off, and the flavour is better.

Goat is the traditional meat in Jalisco; beef is the modern norm and what most taquerías now use.

How to Make Birria Tacos

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1. Toast the chillies in a dry pan over medium heat for 20 to 30 seconds a side, until they smell fragrant and darken slightly. Do not let them smoke.

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2. Cover them with boiling water and soak 20 minutes.

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3. Char the onion, garlic and tomatoes in the same dry pan for 8 minutes until blackened in patches.

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4. Blend the drained chillies with the charred vegetables, vinegar, cumin, oregano and 250 ml of the stock until completely smooth. Pass through a sieve.

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5. Season the beef generously and sear it hard in a heavy casserole, in batches, until deeply browned.

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6. Return all the beef, pour over the chilli purée and the remaining stock, and add the cinnamon, cloves, bay and salt.

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7. Cover and braise at 160°C / 320°F for 3 to 3½ hours until the beef shreds under a fork.

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8. Lift the meat out and shred it. Skim the bright red fat from the surface of the broth into a shallow bowl — this is what the tortillas are dipped in. Season the remaining consommé.

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9. Dip a tortilla in the reserved fat, lay it on a hot griddle, scatter with cheese and shredded beef, fold, and fry 90 seconds a side until crisp and lacquered.

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10. Serve with onion, coriander, lime and a cup of hot consommé for dipping.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Why the Method Works

Toasting the dried chillies for seconds rather than minutes matters enormously: they need just enough heat to release their oils, and a chilli taken past that point turns irreversibly bitter. The tortillas are dipped in the rendered fat that rises to the top of the braise, which both colours them and fries them from the outside in.

Storage and Reheating

The braise keeps 4 days refrigerated and freezes 3 months. Griddle the tacos fresh each time — reheated ones lose the crust.

Swaps and Variations

• Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
• Lemon is the everyday swap for limes in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What to Serve Alongside

• A cup of the consommé, always
• Salsa verde and pickled red onion
• A cold Mexican lager or a michelada

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Pan de Muerto, Refried Beans, Instant Pot Black Beans.

Still Wondering?

What's in a Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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