Beef Birria. Rich and flavorful this beef birria is perfect served as a stew topped with onion, cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. OR chop up the meat and fry up some Quesabirria tacos! These are the most famous TACOS!
These birria tacos are famous. They are possibly the most famous tacos you will find on social media. The image of these tacos with the fried and crispy meat and cheese sticking out the top, being dunked into a deep red consommé fill my feed.
This recipe may look long, but it’s because I want to give you as much information as possible to create this flavorful meal on your own at home. This deep rich broth and meat is great served as a stew. But if you want to go the extra few steps and fry up some tacos you will NOT be disappointed.
Ingredients Needed for Homemade Birria:
Some Notes on the Ingredients:
- Short Ribs (Bone-in)– This can be substituted for any cut of meat, or simply beef bone. We need the bone for the broth. This is what is going to give us that nice thick texture to the broth/consomme.
- Guajillo Peppers: (2500-5000 SHU) these are a very common Chile used in Mexican cooking. Adjust the Chile used if needed, these are very mild and give color and flavoring to the broth. If you want heat you can add in a Chile de Arbol if desired. My preference is to start with the guajillo peppers and then add in chili powder as needed for flavor and coloring as the soup cooks.
- Carrots: this is a unique ingredient not in most recipes for birria. Adding the carrots give a bit of sweetness and color to the broth and just adds to the flavoring.
Homemade Birria de Res in Step by Step Photos:
- Grab a very large pot! This recipe fills up my 7 qt dutch oven to the very top.
- Prepare the ingredients: halve the onion, slice the carrots, cut the tip off the garlic bulb, cut off stem of peppers and remove seeds.
- Simmer: Add all the ingredients to the stock pot and cover with water. Add in the seasonings, except for the chili powder.
- Skim: After 30 minutes of simmering skim the top of the broth to remove any impurities that have come out of the bones from simmering. It will look like little bits of foam on the top of the broth.
- Blend Peppers: remove the peppers from the broth, they will be softened, add them to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Add a small amount of broth if needed to get a nice smooth texture.
Strain the peppers if needed to remove bits of skin (if using a high powered blender this step is not necessary).
- Simmer: continue to let the stew simmer until the meat is tender and easily shreds. This takes about 3 hours or longer. Remove the lid and stir every 40 minutes or so. Taste the broth and adjust seasonings as needed during the cooking process.
Serving
Birria de Res:
To serve this as a stew, skim the grease off the top of the broth, SAVE THIS if you will be making tacos, the tortillas are fried in the grease. Serve up the stew by spooning up some of the meat and the broth. Remove the onion, garlic, and carrots. These of course can be served with the stew if desired, but typically just the broth and the meat is served.
Top with fresh diced onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice. The broth is thick and rich and the fresh acidity of these ingredients complement the flavoring perfectly.
Quesabirria Tacos
Follow these easy directions to create those instagrammable tacos that have everyone drooling.
- Chop the meat: remove the meat from the broth and finely chop.
- Use the leftover grease: save the grease that comes to the top of the stew from cooking. Save it all and add the grease to a small/medium size skillet.
- Fry Tortillas: dip the corn tortillas into the grease, then place the tortilla on a large skillet or comal. Fry the tortillas in the grease over medium heat. Top the tortilla with chopped birria beef and shredded cheese. Fold the taco over while it’s frying, pressing down with the spatula to help flatten the taco. Fry both sides until the taco is crisp.
Use a cheese that melts nicely! I love using a Quesadilla cheese, it’s labeled quesadilla cheese and is usually with the Mexican cheeses at the market. You can also use Monterey Jack, Mozarella, or Oaxaca cheese.
- Serve with consommé: spoon some of the broth into a small bowl, top this with cilantro and onion and serve alongside the tacos. This is perfect for dipping the tacos in, or simply drink it. It’s bone broth, and has a lot of benefits, plus it’s absolutely delicious!
More Taco Recipes to Enjoy:
- If you need a quick and easy taco option, this Easy Ground Beef Taco Recipe has a 5 star rating!
- This Authentic Barbacoa recipe is made in the slow cooker and only needs a handful of ingredients.
- If it’s nice outside get the grill going and make some Carne Asada.
- These Shrimp Tacos are easy and made on the stovetop!
Best Beef Birria and Birria Tacos
Beef Birria. Rich and flavorful this beef birria is perfect served as a stew topped with onion, cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. OR chop up the meat and fry up some Quesabirria tacos! These are the most FAMOUS Tacos!
Ingredients
- 7-8 cups hot water
- 4 lbs chuck roast, cut into 4 large chunks
- 2 lbs short ribs (bone in), or back ribs bone in
- 1 large white onion, dry skins removed, cut in half crosswise
- 1 garlic bulb, cut the narrow top off, no need to peel
- 1 carrot, cut in half crosswise, then cut in half (4 large pieces of carrot)
- 5 bay leaves, dried
- 8 guajillo chiles, stems cut off and seeds removed
- 3 tbsp chicken boullion
- 1-2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp mexican oregano
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt, (adjust to taste)
Quesabirria Tacos
- 14-16 white corn tortillas
- 2 cups quesadilla cheese, or any good melting cheese
Instructions
- Combine Ingredients: In large pot add meat, onion, garlic, carrots, bay leaves and dried peppers. Cover with water. (This uses my large 7 qt pot and fills it to the top!)
- Add Seasonings: Add chicken bouillon, oregano, cumin and salt, stir to combine. Bring to a boil.
- Skim: After 30 minutes, skim the top of the pot to remove impurities from the bone cooking out. (will look like little bits of foam on the top)
- Blend Peppers: Remove the peppers (should be softened) and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, add up to 1/4 cup of broth if needed to help get a smooth consistency.
- Strain: Strain the peppers if needed to remove bits of skin (if using a high powered blender this step is not necessary).
- Combine: Add the blended peppers into the broth and stir to combine.
- Season: Add in the chili powder as desired to get a nice deep red color to the broth.
- Simmer: Cover and continue to simmer for about 3 hours or until meat is tender and easily shredding on it’s own. (remove lid and give a stir every 40 minutes or so. Can also taste the broth once the meat is cooked through and adjust seasonings as needed).
- Reserve Grease: Skim the grease from the top of the broth (SAVE THIS!) pour the grease into a small skillet or saucepan, this is used for making the tacos if desired.
- Remove the onion, garlic, carrots, and bay leaves from the broth. (these ingredients were in the broth for flavoring…people are more than welcome to eat and enjoy them, so save them if you want!)
- Serving: Remove the meat from the broth and cut into large chunks for serving. Remove any bones.
To Serve as a Stew:
- Serve a couple pieces of meat into a bowl, spoon broth on top.
- Top with diced onion and fresh cilantro. Serve with a wedge of lime to squeeze in.
To Make Quesabirria Tacos:
- Chop Meat: Remove the meat from the broth, and finely chop until only small pieces remain.
- Heat a large skillet/griddle over medium heat.
- Frying Tortillas: Dip the corn tortilla into the reserved grease from the broth.
- Place on heated griddle, top with the chopped meat and cheese.
- Fold the taco over and press down with a spatula. Continue cooking until the taco is crisp and golden on the bottom, about 2-3 minutes. Then flip and continue cooking the other side. (it’s ok if some of the cheese leaks out while frying, the golden cheese is the best part!) Plus you can spoon some additional grease onto the tortilla while it cooks if you need more coloring to the tortilla.
- Cook until both sides are crisp. Remove from heat and allow to cool briefly before serving, will be very hot.
- Continue until all tacos are cooked.
- Top tacos with fresh cilantro and onion if desired.
- Serving: Serve with a bowl of the broth topped with onions and cilantro on the side.
- Dip the tacos into the broth while eating.
Video
Notes
- Meat: bones are needed in this recipe to help create a rich and flavorful broth. You can use any cut of beef for this recipe needed, just ensure that you have some bones to add to the broth.
- Guajillo Peppers: (2,500-5,000 SHU) these are a mild pepper. You can adjust and use other chiles as desired. My preference is to start with the guajillo and I add Chili powder as needed as the broth simmers.
- Skimming the broth: boiling the bones releases impurities, after the first 30 minutes of boiling you can skim off the foam that appears on the top of the soup.
- Taste Adjustments: once the meat is cooked all the way through, towards the end, you can taste and adjust the broth as needed.
- Cheese: any good melting cheese will work in the tacos. Quesadilla cheese can be found in the market by the Mexican Cheeses. Other options would be to use Monterey Jack, Mozzarella or Oaxaca cheese.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 857kcal, Carbohydrates: 24g, Protein: 77g, Fat: 51g, Saturated Fat: 25g, Cholesterol: 269mg, Sodium: 857mg, Potassium: 1232mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 2305IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 511mg, Iron: 8mg
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Photography done by KJandCompany.co
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The best birria recipe
Absolutely perfect! My family loved and devoured them.
Wow! These were absolutely amazing! Truly restaurant quality! I will definitely be making these again and again! So easy to make! I followed the recipe exactly and it was phenomenal! Even my picky 2 year old ate some! I had to order my peppers on amazon but it was worth waiting for those to show up!
These look so good I can almost taste them already! I’m so excited to try these out next with my family and I will definitely let you know if I make them as good as yours looks❣️
So good, family really enjoyed it
This recipe is soooo good and was so easy to make. I am definitely adding this dish into our rotation.
Hi first of all thank you for this recipe! The flavors were immaculate. I used oaxaca cheese for the tacos and was delicious. The only issue I had was I didn’t have enough oil for frying the tortillas. Is this because the meat I used was too lean? I used 4 lbs of beef chuck roast and 2 lbs of beef short ribs, but maybe not enough fat on them. Can I just fry the tortillas in vegetable oil if I don’t have enough oil from the stew?
Let me start off by saying, this was the first birria I ever had, (I’ve had TONS in between), and I want it to be the last! None other that I’ve had compares!! This recipe may seem a little complicated or off-putting at first, but I promise it’s just to get you used to doing it and walking you through the steps. I make a few little adjustments to make it my own, (more salt and a couple other little things) but this is the absolute best base recipe for anything I’ve ever come across. My husband tells me it’s perfect every single time. And it is. I crane it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Do not wait to make this.
Best instructions ever loved it
Thank you so much!
This is such a big hit in my home. It’s also one of those recipes where if you are using it as a stew it tastes better the next day. Can’t wait to make again!
I agree! It’s absolutely better the next day as a stew!
Followed to a T! It was perfection! My twin boys are picky! Hubby is as well!!! Took me 4 hrs to prepare! And was devoured in less than 20 mins😂!!!!
And since it’s cold making another batch for stew!
Making this recipe today for the first time, looking forward to it!
This is an incredible meal! I made some tweaks as most people do depending on what is readily available and on- hand, as well as to spice to taste. That noted, fact is that this recipe is simply superb. I had the stew with a heated flour tortilla for scooping – excellence in a bowl! The boys had the tacos and said the barria tacos were better than the Mexican place we love! Now that’s a true compliment since the small restaurant is an authentic, family owned, from scratch kitchen. Thank you for this!
I double the spices and add some beef bouillon. Also some cayenne to spice up a bit. Great recipe though made it a half dozen times everyone gushes over them!
Confused as to why I am not getting any bone foam. Went to skim it and nothing….and it’s been simmering for like 1 1/2 hours. But my house smells amazing, and it looks like it’s going to be damned good.
I was starting to have this problem too, I turned down the heat a little (kept the boil) but the high heat boil caused too much movement and would just recirculate that foam.
This was my first time making Birria and OMG! These were better than any other one I have had before. Make sure to use a Dutch oven! Best recipe!!
I love the way recipes describe all the details, AND the color pictures are beautiful! I am sooo happy I found you! xox Kathy 🙂
What to use if you can’t get Mexican oregano?
You should be able to find mexican oregano in any mexican grocery store, if there are any in your area. Mexican oregano definitely has a different flavor from mediterranean oregano (mediterranean oregano has mint undertones while mexican oregano has lemon and citrus undertones. I just learned this by googling. haha).
Caution…..mexican oregano is more potent than the mediterranean version and could be overpowering. Learned that the hard way. 🙂 If you use it, I’d start with less than what the recipe called for, then adjust.
I used fresh basil and cilantro as a replacement, so good.