You must be thinking what birria is? Well, we have so many cuisines and dishes in the world that we may not be aware of. To stir your tastebuds, and if you are someone who loves to try and experiment with food, this recipe may surprise you and become your next favorite dish. Before starting with the birria tacos recipe, let first find out what is birria, and the different types of birria recipes you can try your hands at!
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What is birria?
Birria is a type of stew that is originated from Mexico. This dish is mainly made of sheep or goat meat but predominantly made from mutton or beef, as it is easily available in the market. The vital step in cooking birria lies in the marination of the meat. It has plenty of spices and chilies and was traditionally cooked by wrapping it with banana leaves. That makes the meat flavorful and tasty. And once the stew is ready, it can be served with your favorite accompaniments such as tacos. It can be one of the best options to add a twist.
Now let us find out the various types of birria tacos recipe:
Birria tacos recipe using lamb or beef
The authentic birria usually take hours to cook. However thanks to the technology that now with an oven or electric cooker the dish can be made in just 1-2 hours.
Cooking time for making this dish depends on the way you would like to cook it.
Let’s find the ingredients first:
For the beef or lamb
- Lamb or beef – 6lbs
- Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp
- Salt as per taste
- Ground cumin- 1 tbsp
- Black peppercorn – 1 tbsp
For the Sauce/Broth
- Ancho chiles – 4 (ends should be de-seeded and trimmed)
- Guajillo chiles – 7 (ends should be de-seeded and trimmed)
- Chipotle pepper – 1
- Peppercorns 8
- Cloves – 2
- Thyme – 1 tsp
- Marjoram – 1 tsp
- Oregano – 1 tsp
- Bay leaves – 2
- Ground cumin – ½ tsp
- Ground ginger – ½ tsp
- Cinnamon stick – ½
- Garlic clove – 8
- Onion – 1 medium
- Salt – as per taste
- Tomatoes – 4
- Apple cider – ¼ cup
- Water – 2 cups
For the Tacos:
- minced cilantro – ¼ cup
- Lime juice – using one lime
- Minced onion- 1
- Corn tortillas
- Mozzarella – 3 ounces
Instruction
- The first thing that you need to do is to bring out the meat at room temperature. Then start to season it with pepper, salt, and cumin.
- Now take the de-seeded and trimmed chilies and fry them with some oil using a frying pan. Fry it for about 2-3 minutes without burning it.
- Now take a pot, add the fried chiles to some hot water and bring it to boil. Boil it for about 10 minutes until the chiles get soft.
- Take the frying pan, add 1 tsp of oil to cook the tomatoes and onion. Cook it until it is golden brown. Now add all other ingredients; garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, except the ginger and ground cumin. Cook all of it for around 5 minutes, keep stirring.
- In this step, add the water and chiles, also the ingredients from the above step, now it is time to blend the mixture adding the cumin, ginger, apple cider, and water. Blend it until it turns into a smooth thick paste.
- If required, strain the mixture and keep the sauce apart.
- Take a large bowl, pour the sauce on the meat, and cover it.
- Now it depends on how you are planning to cook it. If you want to use the oven or the stove methods, you may need to marinate the meat for not less than 2 hrs or maybe overnight. But if you use an electric cooker, you would not have to marinate the meat for long, as it cooks faster in that.
Now let’s find out the below 3 methods to cook the birria:
Using the Oven
In this method you need a big oven-safe dish. Now add the marinate along with the meat and cover it with an aluminum foil. Cook it for 2 hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the meat is cooked completely.
Using the stove
In this we take a big pot to cook the meat at medium heat. Now, this method takes an hour longer than the oven. Take the marinade along with the meat, and add it to the pot. Cook it until it is entirely cooked and juicy.
Electric cooker: most preferred method
In this method, you can choose if you want to marinate the meat or not and then add both to the cooker. You will have to follow the electric cooker’s instructions to put it at high pressure. Now let it cook for about 45 minutes. And let the pressure release naturally.
As per the instructions, remove the cooker’s lid and check the meat should be tender and cooked.
Take the meat out, and then you need to shred it before you serve it. You can choose to serve it with the stock made from the cooked meat. Lastly, use tacos with lime, cilantro, cheese, and onion to use it as a side.
Voila!! It is ready to eat.
Now let’s find out the birria tacos recipe using everyone’s favorite chicken.
Chicken Birria Tacos Recipe
Let’s quickly find out the ingredients required to make this amazing dish:
- Chicken breasts – 3 pounds
- Chicken stock – 48 ounces
- Bouillon of chicken – 2 tbsp
- Tomato sauce – 10 oz
- Tomatoes – 1 medium
- Avocado oil – 1 tsp
- White onion – 1
- Bay leaves – 3
- Cilantro – 1 bunch
- Ancho Chiles – 3 (ends should be de-seeded and trimmed)
- Guajillo Chiles – 3 (ends should be de-seeded and trimmed)
- Cumin – 2 tbsp
- Oregano – 1 tbsp
- Pepper powder – 1 tbsp
- Cayenne pepper (only if you want it spicy)
- Pepper and salt as per your taste
For the Tacos
- minced cilantro – ¼ cup
- Lime juice – using one lime
- Minced onion- 1
- Corn tortillas
- Mozzarella – 3 ounces
Instruction:
Let’s start with the yum recipe.
Take a stockpot, heat it with some oil at medium to high heat.
Season the chicken with some pepper and salt. Let it cook for about 10 minutes until its color changes to brown.
Take the chicken out and now add the onions and stir it for 5 minutes, until it’s translucent.
Now add the chicken back to the pot along with the bay leaves, tomatoes, cilantro, tomato sauce, chilies, garlic, oregano, cumin, ancho pepper powder, cayenne pepper, and stock. Mix it all together nicely. Lastly, throw in some chicken bouillon on top of it. Mix it again.
You will need to cook it for like an hour. Let it cool, and then remove the bones from the chicken as you need to shred it.
Now, with the help of a spoon, you will need to take the spices out of the broth and to that add 2 more cups of the broth to the blender. Blend it into a smooth paste.
And it is done. Pour the paste into the left-over broth and serve it with your favorite tacos.
You can have it with the tacos as per your choice of toppings preferably with cheese and onions with a little lime on it.
Enjoy the meal with your favorite side.
With so many changes happening around us, lifestyle preferences are also changing. Many of us are adopting veganism, which is a vegetarian diet in which you do not get to eat dairy and animal-derived products.
And this recipe will attract many of you who are searching for vegan recipes.
We are going to make vegan birria tacos. How do we make it? What ingredients we use? Scroll down and let’s find out.
Vegan Birria Tacos Recipe
Vegan birria tacos recipe is one of the most simple and delicious recipes. In this dish, tacos are filled with juicy, yummy marinated mushrooms, served with, flavorful soup. Birria recipe is highly famous for using meat, but we will show you how to make vegan birria that may become your next favorite comfort food in one of those bloomy days.
So, let’s begin:
Ingredients:
Sauce
- White onion – 1 roughly cut
- Ancho chiles – 3 (ends should be de-seeded and trimmed)
- Guajillo chiles – 3 (ends should be de-seeded and trimmed)
- Garlic cloves – 6
- Vegetable oil – 3 tbsp
- Vegan vegetable broth – 4 cups
- Cloves – 3
- Ground cinnamon – ¼ tsp
- Oregano – 1 tsp
- Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
- Bay leaves – 3
- Cayenne pepper (only if you want it spicy)
- Pepper and salt as per your taste
Birria (using mushroom)
- Oyster mushroom – 2 lbs.
- Apple cider – 2 tbs
- Vegetable oil – 2 tbs
- Garlic powder – 2 tsp
- Pepper and salt as per your taste
For the Tacos
- minced cilantro – ¼ cup
- Lime juice – using 1 lime
- Minced onion- 1
- Corn tortillas
- Vegan mozzarella – 3 ounces
Instruction:
Making of the broth
- Take the chiles and put them in hot water to make them softer so you can let them boil for like 5-10 minutes.
- Get the baking tray, massage it with some vegetable oil. Now place the garlic and onions on it.
- Put it in the oven and let it boil for around 30 minutes, keep it until the color of the garlic and onions turn darker and charred.
- Now take the blender and put the chiles, roasted garlic and onions, 1 cup vegetable stock, 2 tbsp oil, and all the other seasonings into it. Blend it into a smooth thick paste.
- You will now need a pan, put it on medium heat and to that add the paste, the remaining stock with bay leaves. Once it starts boiling, let it sit on sim for an hour.
- Take the bay leaves out of the broth and adjust the seasoning as per taste.
Birria mushroom
- You need to shred the mushrooms with your hands. You can simultaneously do this while you are roasting the garlic and onions.
- Once the shredding is done, put in some apple cider, garlic powder, oil, and salt to it.
- Mix it well and let it sit while your broth is getting ready.
- Now take a pan, put some oil in it and add the mushrooms evenly so that it cooks nicely.
- Once the sauce is ready and the mushroom is crispier on the edges you can add the sauce to your mushroom and cook it for like 5 minutes, and your dish is ready to serve.
Tacos
Serve it with tacos along with your favorite toppings like onions, fresh lime, vegan mozzarella, and cilantro. You can dip it, roll it or have it in any way you like.
Useful tricks and tips on Birria
- Keep a set of meat or mushroom shredded in your fridge.
- Keep the sauce for later use as you can store it
- You can always experiment with the sauce as per your taste and liking.
- You can even try this with fish and any other meat of your choice.
- Electric cookers make the entire process faster than any other method.
- You can always make the tacos a bit more interesting by adding different types of dips and condiments.
- Birria tacos recipe can be one of your quick meal recipes if you have all the ingredients ready to use.
- This recipe can also be one of the healthiest options for calorie watchers. As you can always use the birria of your choice. Chicken and mushroom are some of the best options which can be used and one can eat it without any guilt as the oil used in this recipe is very minimal.
- The broth that you make can be used with anything and everything. You can use it as a dip, you can have it as a soup or even with brown rice.
Birria is a dish that is made during festivals and occasions like weddings, Christmas, baptisms, easter, family dinners, and even on weekends. This dish can be one of the premium dishes on your menu that will give you an authentic Mexican feel. This dish is super simple which you can happily cook and enjoy on a weekend as well, with your friends and family.