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Take a trip to Mexico with these birria tacos, tortillas filled with super-tender shredded beef, cooked for a long time in a spicy sauce, and cheese. Topped with sauce and then pan-fried, these tacos are an explosion of flavors, perfect for a generous, convivial dinner.
In Mexico, birria tacos are traditionally made with goat meat. But in most parts of the world, it's made with beef, which is more affordable and easily findable.
If you love Mexican cuisine, you'll love these chicken and avocado quesadillas, these baked chicken enchiladas or this best chicken Chimichurri.
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💙 Why you'll love them
- The meat is incredibly tender, thanks to long, slow cooking.
- It's a super-flavored recipe that will take you all the way to Mexico.
- Meat on its own can be kept for several days.
🌶 Ingredients
These are the main ingredients, and the quantities can be found in the recipe card below.
- Beef: I recommend chuck, collar or shoulder.
- Tomatoes : as it's not in season, I use cans of peeled tomatoes in juice. In summer, of course, you can use real tomatoes.
- Onions and garlic - if you want to choose your garlic carefully so you do not encourage the slavery of Chinese prisoners, read my Eco Tips on the subject.
- Chicken stock for cooking.
- Spices: cumin, cinnamon, ginger and paprika.
- Herbs: thyme and oregano.
- Mexican peppers: Guajillo peppers, Ancho peppers and Arbol peppers
- Tortillas
- Cheese: Mexicans use a traditional cheese, which I've replaced here with cheddar.
- Cilantro and lime for the toppings.
✅ Gluten-free and dairy-free version
- To make this recipe gluten-free, use gluten-free tortillas and check that the cheese and spices you use do not contain gluten.
- To make this recipe dairy-free, buy dairy-free feta cheese (yes, there is such a thing!).
🥰 Chef's tips
- At the very beginning, when you need to color the meat: don't overcook it. We just want it to color. If you overcook it, it may harden and you'll need to cook it longer in the sauce to make it tender (this is not a problem, it will just take longer).
- At the end of the cooking time, your meat should be quite tender and flake easily. If not, cook longer. I recommend 3 hours of simmering (1 hour before mixing part of the sauce, then 2 hours afterwards), but it can go up to 3h30.
- Don't soak the tortilla too long in the sauce before cooking, or it may tear.
💡 Frequently Asked Questions
Serve with tortilla chips, Green poblano rice or Mexican quick and easy guacamole.
No, because the tortilla will be very soft. On the other hand, you can make the meat sauce up to 2 days ahead, and store it and some of the sauce in a tupperware container in the fridge. All you have to do is soak the tortillas, cook them and garnish them at the last minute.
I really don't recommend replacing them, as they make all the difference to the flavour of a classic taco!
If it's too runny, reduce it over medium heat for a while, until you get a slightly heavy sauce. I love to serve it as an appetizer with Mexican tortilla chips.
❄️Storage
Meat and sauce can be stored for up to 2 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
But I recommend that you go ahead and assemble the birria tacos at the very last moment, just before sitting down to eat.
If you make these Birria tacos, it would be so nice to leave me a comment and rate the recipe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. You can also tag me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or Tik Tok, or even send me a photo, I love seeing my little dishes in your homes!
📖 Recette
Birria tacos
Ingredients
- 17.5 oz beef chuck, collar or shoulder
- 19.5 oz canned peeled tomatoes with juice
- 2 large onions
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- 3 ⅞ cups boiling water
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons ground oregano
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons thyme
- 3 Guajillo peppers
- 2 Ancho peppers
- 3 Arbol peppers
- 4 small tortillas
- ½ cup cheddar-style cheese
- cilantro leaves
- 1 lime
- ½ red onion
- fine salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon butter for cooking
Instructions
- Season the meat with salt and pepper, then cut into coarse cubes and brown for a few minutes.
- Cut off the stems from the peppers and remove the seeds. Add the chicken stock, peppers, peeled garlic cloves and onions cut into 4 pieces to the pan.
- Add the peeled tomatoes, ginger, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, cumin and paprika. Cover and cook for 1 hour over medium heat (the mixture should come to a gentle boil).
- Then remove the peeled tomatoes, garlic cloves, quartered onion, peppers and a little stock and blend in a blender. Strain through a sieve, then return the liquid to the saucepan. Cover and leave to cook for a further 2 to 2.5 hours on a low heat (there should still be a gentle boil).
- When this time has elapsed, remove the meat and shred it with two forks. Grate the cheddar and set aside. Heat the butter in a hot frying pan, dip a tortilla in the sauce and place it in the pan. Add a little meat and grated cheddar, then close the tortilla in half.
- Cook for a few minutes on the first side, then turn it over and cook again for a few minutes. Place in a dish and repeat until all ingredients are used up.
- Place on a large plate with lots of cilantro, a few zests of lime juice, a little juice and the finely sliced red onion.
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