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Elevate your Taco Tuesday with the best Birria Tacos recipe of tender shredded beef and melty cheese inside a crispy pan-fried taco.
If you love taco recipes, you have to try Tacos Al Pastor, Korean Beef Tacos, Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos, or Salmon Tacos!
Birria Tacos make life so, so good.
Birria Tacos make life so, so good.I dream of eating these birria tacos every week. They're just SO delicious! They first gained popularity when some genius used the meat and consommé broth from Mexican Beef Birria Stew to make tacos! And taco form is now the ultimate way to enjoy birria (but I love a good Beef Birria Ramen and Beef Birria stew any day)!
This recipe isn't difficult, but if you're taking the time to make homemade birria tacos you may as well double the batch and freeze the leftovers for another meal. You can also make beef birria a few days ahead of time, so it's ready to go for you tacos.
Ingredients Needed:
- Sauce Ingredients: Dried chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spices.
- Beef: I like a combination of bone-in short ribs and chuck roast.
- Corn Tortillas: use my recipe to make your own or buy soft white or yellow corn tortillas.
- Oaxaca Cheese: The most authentic choice and melts perfectly. Mozzarella and Monterey jack cheese are good substitutes.
- White Onion: chopped finely. Red onion would also work.
- Cilantro and lime: for a must-have garnish.
- Optional Homemade Hot Salsa: the best way to elevate these tacos even more! You'll need dried pasilla chiles and arbol chiles, tomatillos, garlic, onion, salt & pepper.
How to make Birria Tacos (in a nutshell):
Prep Meat and Chiles: Trim fat from roast and cut into a few large pieces. Use gloves to remove stems and seeds from chiles.
Make Sauce: It comes together quickly and simmers for 15 minutes before blending smooth, and straining it back into the pot, to cook the meat.
Add Beef and cook until tender, about 2 ½ hours.
Assemble Tacos: Dip corn tortillas in the broth, top with shredded meat, cheese, onion, and cilantro, then fry that beauty until crispy.
Serve quesabirria tacos with a cup of consommé broth for dipping.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The birria meat and broth can be made a few days in advance, stored in airtight containers in the fridge until ready to assemble and serve.
To Freeze: Store leftover beef birria and broth in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge, then warm and assemble your tacos.
Recipe Variations:
- Chicken Birria Tacos: Make the broth as instructed, and instead of adding beef, add bone-in, skinless chicken thighs to the sauce. Cook chicken for 30 minutes, or until tender and cooked through. Shred chicken and assemble and serve tacos as instructed.
- Crockpot Birria Tacos: Make broth, as instructed, then add to slow cooker with beef. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, until meat is tender. Assemble tacos as instructed.
Serve Quesabirria tacos with:
- Elote (Mexican Corn)
- Authentic Mexican Rice
- Borracho Beans
- Charro Beans
- Horchata
- Sopapillas
- Tres Leches Cake
Birria Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
Birria Beef:
- 3 lb beef chuck roast, , fat trimmed
- 4 bone-in beef short ribs
- 8 dried guajillo chile peppers*
- 3 dried pasilla chile peppers*
- 2-3 dried arbol chile peppers*
- 5 Roma tomatoes, , quartered (about 1.5lbs)
- 1 white onion, , roughly chopped
- 1 head garlic, (10-12 cloves)
- 1 Tablespoon whole black peppercorns
- 1 Tablespoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 Tablespoon Dried oregano
- 1 Tablespoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seed
- 4 whole cloves
- 1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
- 1 inch piece Mexican cinnamon stick*, or ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
For the Tacos:
- 15 corn tortillas, , white or yellow
- 2 1/2 cups shredded Oaxaca cheese, , or use mozzarella or Monterey jack
- 1/2 of a white onion, , diced
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro, , chopped
- 2 limes, cut into small wedges
Instructions
- Cut chuck roast into a few large pieces and season with salt.
- Prep chiles: rinse (use gloves if desired) and use scissors to open and remove stem and seeds. (For extra spice, leave arbol chiles whole).
- Birria broth: Add tomatoes and onion to a large stock pot (at least 5.5qt pot or bigger) over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes, stirring. Add whole garlic cloves, chile peppers, and all of the spices except the bay leaf. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add vinegar and 4 cups water. Bring to a low boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes, uncovered.
- Blend: Add mixture to a blender and blend as smooth as possible. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer, back into the pot. Add 4 cups of water to the blender and swirl it around to clean excess sauce from the blender, then add it to the pot.
- Cook beef: Add 1 Tablespoon kosher salt. Bring to a boil. Add short ribs, chuck roast and 3 bay leaves. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 ½ hours. Check beef to make sure it’s tender, then remove to a plate and shred. Discard bones and bay leaves.
- Assemble Tacos: Heat a large griddle or skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with a small amount of oil. Dip a corn tortilla into the birria sauce and lay tortilla on hot pan. Quickly top some shredded meat, cheese, chopped onion and cilantro. Fold tortilla over, in half. Fry for several minutes, until crispy and browned on the bottom. Flip and cook until crispy and browned on the other side. Remove to a plate, for serving.
- Serve: Sprinkle remaining chopped white onion and cilantro on top of prepared tacos. Serve quesabirria tacos with a cup of warm consommé broth, for dipping. We also like to serve with the hot salsa recipe in the notes below.
- *Save any leftover sauce by freezing for up to 3 months, and reheating to cook another roast inside.
Notes
- 2 chiles pasilla
- 5 arbol chiles
- 10 tomatillo
- 3 cloves garlic
- Small piece onion
- Salt and pepper
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe May 2022. Updated October 2024.
Should not have added the 2nd 4 cups of water. It was way too much and diluted it way too much. Pretty disappointing after spending all that time prepping and cooking.
Hmm, it’s really just 4 cups total. the second step is just swirling water in the blender to rinse out the extra sauce, not adding more liquid. Sorry that wasn’t clear! You can simmer it down to concentrate the flavor if needed.