This post contains affiliate links.
These Birria Tacos tuck tender shredded beef and melty cheese into crisp, pan-fried corn tortillas. Serve each quesabirria taco with warm consommé for dipping. It’s flavorful, comforting, and feels special.
Crispy Birria Tacos with Consommé for Dipping
There are few things I love more than these crispy Birria Tacos. The beef is cooked in the most flavorful broth and is so tender and juicy. We cook it until golden brown and crispy on the outside and the cheese is melted. It’s easy to make birria tacos at home, but it does take time, so to make it easier on myself I like to cook the beef a few days ahead. Don’t forget to keep every drop of the consommé for dipping your quesabirria tacos!
And any leftover meat you have could be used for birria ramen!
Try more of my Mexican-inspired recipes, like Green Enchilada Sauce, Crispy Potato Tacos, Tostadas, Mexican Pizza, and Cheese Enchiladas.
How to make Birria Tacos:
Prepare the Beef and Broth: Make the homemade broth by simmering the peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and spices then add water and simmer longer. Blend until smooth. Cook the beef with the bay leaves in the broth until tender then shred the meat.
Assemble Tacos: Heat a large skillet over medium heat then lightly coat with oil. Dip a corn tortilla into the birria sauce then let the excess drip off. Quickly add the shredded beef, cheese, chopped onion, and cilantro. Fold in half and fry on each side until browned and crispy. Remove to a plate then sprinkle with chopped white onion and cilantro. Serve with a side of warm consommé for dipping. (If the consomme has thickened, you can thin it out with some beef broth).
A Note About Spice Level:
All of the dried chiles used in this recipe provide flavor to the broth but they wont make the tacos very spicy! If you want a very mild spice, omit the arbol chiles.
Birria Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
Birria Beef:
- 2 Tablespoon olive oil
- 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
- 5 cups water, , divided
- 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 and pepper. Optional: Sear meat on all sides in a little olive oil.2 Tablespoon olive oil, 3 lb beef chuck roast, 4 bone-in beef short ribs
- Prep chiles: rinse (use gloves if desired) and use scissors to open and remove stem and seeds. (For extra spice, leave arbol chiles whole).8 dried guajillo chile peppers*, 3 dried pasilla chile peppers*, 2-3 dried arbol chile peppers*
- 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, ginger, 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.5 Roma tomatoes, 1 white onion, 1 head garlic, 1 Tablespoon whole black peppercorns, 1 Tablespoon whole cumin seeds, 1 Tablespoon dried oregano, 1 Tablespoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon whole coriander seed, 4 whole cloves, 1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger, 1 inch piece Mexican cinnamon stick*, 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 5 cups water, 2 bay leaves
- Blend: Add mixture to a blender and blend as smooth as possible. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer, back into the pot. Add remaining 1 cup of water to the blender and swirl it around to clean excess sauce from the blender, then add it to the pot.
- Simmer beef: Add 1 Tablespoon kosher salt. Bring to a boil. Add short ribs, chuck roast and 2 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.1 Tablespoon kosher salt
- 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, letting excess sauce drip off, 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.15 corn tortillas, 2 ½ cups shredded Oaxaca cheese
- 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.½ of a white onion, 1 bunch fresh cilantro, 2 limes
- *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.
Text me new recipe ideas!
Simple, tasty ideas sent once a week. No spam.
Follow Me
I originally shared this recipe May 2022. Updated October 2024 and October 2026.
I feel bad throwing out all these chili mulch after straining. Is there anything you can do with it?
I totally get it! After simmering and straining, most of the flavor is in the broth and the leftover chile pulp is pretty fibrous and can be a bit bitter, so I usually discard it. If you want to use it, you can compost it, or stir a small spoonful back into the consommé (or into beans/chili) for extra richness, just start with a little since it can be strong.
Question: Under Birria broth it says to add 4 cups water, and then again under blend it says to use 4 cups water. I just want to be sure I’m using 8 cups total? I’m planning to make it in the crockpot, so that might be right, but I just wanted to be sure before I over did it. Thanks!
This was a huge hit with my family! It takes a while to make, but it’s worth every bite. I froze a couple of containers of the extra liquid to use in the future.
These tacos came out perfect. I used my own variety of dried chile pods. I also used venison instead of beef.
I’ve made this twice now and it’s been a hit to the point where there are no leftovers and people are willing to hurt themselves to make sure of that, hahaha.
Just enough ingredients to make it pop with flavor (we have some have-to-please birria afficionados in the fam and they are always very happy) but not enough to make the recipe overly complicated, and the recipe itself is easily executed.
10/10 and this will be the go-to birria recipe to make and share. Well done!
Delicious and adapts really well too the instant pot. Pressure cook the sauce ingredients 10 min. Blend in the pot with immersion blender. Add the meat (I used chicken) and pressure cook based on which meat. For chicken thighs I did ten on high. Super tender.
While the meat was tender, the sauce lacked flavor, even though I followed the recipe to a tee. Definitely not worth the effort.
So bland. 8 cups of water was probably the issue. It must has been written incorrectly. I almost threw the sauce out but I doctored it up, reduced it by 2/3 and it is palatable now.
Mine was super good with 8 cups of water. You have to work really hard to push all the sauce through the strainer. I was just stirring and pushing through the strainer for like 20 minutes because kore just kept coming out. i would try doing that for longer next time if you didnt already
Instead of water I used beef stock. Made the flavor pop more.
Made this for the first time and it was fantastic! I did use beef soup base in place of the salt, but that is the only change I made. The whole family loved it and I appreciate that there is enough sauce left over to create another meal (as making the sauce is a labor of love). Though it did take quite a bit of time and effort to put this meal together, it was COMPLETELY worth it! So, so good! Looking forward to making it again.
I followed the exact ingredients in the recipe but I noticed in the video instead of using Arbol chiles you used ancho. Was that a mistake or does the Ancho do something different? Less spice? Thank you!
This recipe is great! I’m going to make it again soon. I think I struggled most with how much short rib to use in lbs. Can you suggest how much you used? Also, have you ever done this with just chuck roast and no short rib?
You take this Oso meat marinated with tongue and lather it up real well