Birria beef tacos

I couldn’t let the hype go down with the viral birria beef tacos before I made this recipe. Stewing beef is actually one of our favorite things to do in my home country, Ghana. I remember just staying in hot kitchens my whole childhood where they would just cook soups and dinners for hours and hours. I mean like 3-4 hours literally. So making this beef birria was no problem. What I love about this is that you can make it ahead of time and still have juicy beef. I watched Salty Cocina’s TikTok video to help me as a guide.

You’ll need guajillo chiles and ancho peppers and most importantly, a really huge sauce pan. I think a saucepan which is at least 4 quarts in capacity will do the trick because you need at least 6 cups of water. Plus, you’ll be adding some broth later too. For the beef you need a huge cut such as chuck roast or beef sirloin. You can also add chiles d’arbor but bear in mind this is going to be super spicy, so you can leave it out if you don’t feel like it.

So you steam the onions, garlic with the beef chunks, bay leaves, scotch bonnet peppers in water. Then blend all the peppers, tomato and onions together. Trim off the ends off the peppers first. Then you need to strain this before adding it back to the pan where you are boiling the beef. Do not skip this step. I skipped it and ended up with this thick, chunky stew which was not what I was looking for. You need a soup-like sauce which will allow you to dip the tortillas seamlessly.

I served my Birria tacos with just a bit crumbled blue cheese since it has a really pungent taste. Oaxaca cheese or mozzarella work great too. Any leftovers can be used in grilled cheese, wraps or served with rice. You can even use these to make loaded fries!

Birria beef tacos

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Servings: 8-10 Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cooking Time: 3 Hours 3 Hours

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

1 kg/ 2 lbs beef sirloin or beef chuck roast

6 cups water

4 fresh bay leaves

1 onion, peeled

1-2 scotch bonnet peppers, stems removed

4 ancho peppers

10 guajilo chiles

1 bulb garlic + 4 exra garlic cloves, peeled

1 tablespoon table salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 tablespoons dried parsley

412ml tinned beef/vegetable broth

8-10 medium tortillas

2 cups mozzarella or pepper Jack cheese, grated (optional)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro to garnish

Lime halves for serving

Instructions

1. Remove excess fat from the beef and cut beef into 4 inch squares.
2. Boil with the 4 cups of water, bay leaves, bulb of garlic, onion, scotch bonnet pepper, and salt on medium heat for 1 hour to soften the vegetables.
3. Cut the tops off the guajilo chiles and ancho peppers and let the seeds fall out. 
4. Blend the guajilo chiles and ancho peppers with the remaining 2 cups water, boiled scotch bonnet peppers, boiled garlic bulb, and boiled onion until super smooth-for about 3 minutes.
5. Strain this into the boiling beef pan from step 2.
6. Season with the parsley, cumin, cloves and Italian seasoning. Top with broth and stir.
7. Cover and let it simmer on very low heat for another 2 hours.
8. Take out the cooked beef from the stew and shred apart with two forks. It should be tender and come apart very easily with little resistance.
9. Dip each tortilla into the leftover stew and add to a hot skillet.
10. Top each soaked tortilla with a handful of cheese, shredded beef, cilantro on one side and let the cheese melt. Flip over like an omelette and take it off the stove.
11. Repeat steps 9& 10 until all the beef is used up.
12. Serve with the extra stew and lime halves.

Notes

You can add chiles d'arbor as well-just bear in mind that this beef is spicy without it. That's why I didn't use any black pepper. Combined with all the chiles and scotch bonnet peppers, this would have been a bit overkill.