It is the food world's hottest and latest trend - but now in your kitchen! A beautiful hearty dish that is so flavorful, you'll be craving on the regular and that's okay because they're pretty easy to make!
It was a cold December day when Justin and I were trying to get some errands done. We were walking to our car to start hacking at our list of things to do, but lord behold our car was not where we left it. I remember thinking, hmm did we not park here? The fact that we had been towed didn't cross my mind I was sure we had made a mistake about where we had parked the night before. However, I was very wrong and we had in fact been towed.
Long story short it was a very very long day for us. We didn't do any of our errands and by the time we got our car back it was so late and we were so very hungry. We decided to look what was around the tow lot to eat for dinner and Justin had the most brilliant idea of finally going to Birria Landia - the most amazing food truck with the best tacos.
We ordered the tacos and then pulled over to devour them. I cannot tell you how amazing Birria Tacos are, they are absolutely worth all the hype and then some. You have a warm crunchy tortilla, filled with amazingly savory pulled meat that is so tender its unbelievable, fresh lime and pickled onions and it is heaven. Wait, it gets better. That consommé. It is a game changer. It tastes like the best Mexican beef stew full of big meaty flavor and notes of chili peppers and umami rich tomatoes. You get warm spices like cinnamon and cumin and then bit of onion, cilantro and a whole lot of lime. Man, dunking that taco into the consommé was life changing - so we had to try and make it ourselves.
The recipe is fairly easy and straight forward, it is simple enough for any beginner cook. It just takes some planning because you do want to allow the meat to marinade and slow cook it until its fall off the bone tender. We played around with our spice ratios and added some things in and took others away and ended up with this final result which is truly wonderful.
Along the way we learned a lot about dried chilies and how much flavor they give. We were watching Selena + Chef (we are big fans) and she had Chef Marcella on with her teaching her how to make molé and Chef touched on how to properly handle chilies. In the beginning our consommé kept having bitter notes to it and we didn't know why, we thought it may have been the amount of spices we were adding. Turns out dried chilies can easily get bitter when they burn even a little bit. So we took notes on how she showed Selena to cook and rehydrate her peppers and incorporated that into our Birria.
The trick is to submerge the chilies in a high smoke point oil, such as avocado oil. Constantly stir them to keep them from burning and to fully coat them in the oil. Then remove them, draining the excess oil and transfer to a pot. Selena covers them in water and brings them to a boil, for the consommé we took it one delicious step further and covered them with beef broth and brought them to a boil, then reduced to a simmer and cooked until softened. This not only rehydrates the chilies but deepens the soups flavor through the use of the broth.
The leftover oil from frying your chilies turns this brilliant red and can be used as chili oil in any recipe! It is fantastic!
We hope this recipe helps you fulfill all your Birria dreams and that you love it as much as we do!