Birria Tacos
The taco equivalent of a French dip sandwich, these crispy fried, red-stained tortillas are stuffed with tender, slow-cooked beef and melted cheese, then dunked in the chile-infused cooking broth. Birria originated in 16th century Mexico, in what is today Jalisco. It’s hard to separate fact and folklore, but the most common origin story is that the Spanish dismissed goat meat as “birria” – worthless – but the indigenous people turned it into a delicacy by marinating it with local ingredients like chile and cooking it low and slow in a shallow pit, a variation of the cooking style known elsewhere in Mexico as barbacoa. In the 1950s, birria migrated to Tijuana, where goat was replaced with cheaper, fattier brisket. In the 2010s, So-cal Taqueros took birra to the next level by adding a layer of oozing cheese.
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 oz dried chiles (½-1 oz each of dried chipotle, ancho, and guajillo)
- ½ medium onion, roasted
- ½ head garlic, roasted
- 1 pint water
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp cloves
- ⅛ tsp cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 ½ tbsp of a neutral flavored vinegar (white, rice wine) or lime juice
Birria Tacos
- Homemade Corn Masa (click here or see below for recipe)
- 2–3 lbs chuck, brisket, pot roast or any other cut appropriate for slow-cooking
- ½ pint salsa
- ½ pint water
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 6–8 oz melting cheese, shredded or grated. Good options include Queso Oaxaca, Monterrey Jack, or low-moisture Mozzarella.
Instructions
Salsa
- Roast onion and garlic for 1 hour at 350°.
- While the onions and garlic are roasting, de-stem the chiles and shake out excess seeds. (It’s not necessary to remove all the pith and seeds, but I like to shake them out to reduce the fibrous material in the sauce).
- Place peppers in a sauce pan with water. Add salt, spices and vinegar.
- Set to a low simmer for thirty minutes, then uncover and allow to cool while onions and garlic finish roasting. The sauce doesn’t need to cool down completely, but it’s important not to put very hot liquids in a blender so as to avoid splattering boiling liquid.
- Add all the ingredients to the blender and process until smooth.
Tacos
- Start by making a batch of Homemade Masa (click Here or see below for recipe).
- Add meat, water, salsa and salt to a pot. Bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven. Cook at 225° for 3-4 hours, or until you can just shred the meat between two forks.
- Shred all the meat before proceeding to the next step.
- Press and cook as many tortillas as you want (2-3 per person) about 1 ½ oz of masa per taco. Make them as thin as possible so they crisp up nicely. See video here for step-by-step instructions for making tortillas.
- To assemble the birria, take the cooked tortilla and dip one side into the fat at the top of the birria pot.
- Place on griddle, dipped side down. Add about 1 – 1 ½ oz cheese. Once the cheese melts, add about 2 oz meat per taco.
- Once cheese is fully melted and the tortillas are nice and crisp, fold and serve.
- Serve with pot liquid as a dip. Each person should get about a full cup of cooking liquid to dip and sip. Goes well with salad or pickled veggies, escabeche and roasted poblanos.
- Cuisine: Mexican
Fresh Corn Masa
Once you master the simple and ancient process of nixtamalization, it’s easy to whip up your own tacos, memelas (see recipe below!) sopes, tamales, or pozole. Masa (nixtamalized corn) is the base preparation for all your Mexican and central American favorites. The Nixtamalization process softens the corn and makes b vitamins (Niacin)nutritionally available. Warning, once you have the real deal, there’s no going back to the industrialized imitations found all over!
- Yield: 3 lbs or 2 quarts 1x
Ingredients
Masa Kernels
- 2 lbs whole corn kernels (we use heirloom Nothstine Dent from our grain share).
- 2 quarts of water
- 2 tbsp pickling lime, aka calcium oxide
Masa Dough
- 8 oz masa kernels
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4–1/3 Cup water
- 1–2 tbsp cornmeal if needed
Instructions
- boil corn with 2 tablespoons of calcium oxide for 15 minutes. let stand overnight (12-24 hours).
- poured the corn into a colander and rinse with cold water, removing some of the kernels’ soft outer layer. you now have masa or hominy. For a hearty pozole, add whole masa kernels directly into a soup or stew. To prepare masa dough for tortillas or tamales, continue to step 3.
- Add masa kernels, salt, and water to your food processor. Process for 4-8 minutes, pausing occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to reincorporate any stuck kernels.
- You want the dough to have a stiff, smooth, clay-like texture. Go easy on the water. You want just enough to facilitate grinding; too much, and the dough will be sticky and hard to handle. If it gets to wet you can add cornmeal to adjust consistency. *Be careful not to overheat the dough in the food processor* Pause the grinding if you feel the bowl becoming hot. If dough doesn’t come together easily, the blade on your food processor may be dull. You can order a replacement or use a knife sharpener.
- Now you are ready to press out some tortillas, pat out some gorditas, and pinch a few sopes or memelas!!
Notes
Ground Masa will keep 2-3 days in the refrigerator. It will become drier and stiffer, making it easier to form into nice, thin tortillas. Whole masa kernels will keep in your freezer for several months.
- Category: flatbread