PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Editor's note: The above video is from Oct. 5.
An internet sensation
If you've been anywhere near the internet in the past year, you've heard of birria tacos.
Videos of cheese pulls and tacos being dunked into warm, dark liquid have taken social media platforms by storm, racking up millions of views and comments.
But despite its recent viral nature, the TikTok and Instagram sensation of 2021 has deep roots.
And in order to understand what birria tacos are, we have to understand simply, what birria is.
A brief history
"Birria" is a Mexican dish of stewed meat seasoned with chile peppers, according to Merriam-Webster.
The New York Times published a story back in February detailing the history, ingredients, and cultural significance of the indulgent dish.
According to Tejal Rao, in her piece "The Birria Boom Is Complicated, but Simply Delicious," the author Josefina Velázquez de León traveled through Mexico in the 1940s, documenting traditional recipes. One of them was “Platillos Regionales de la República Mexicana.”
The recipe calls for "a whole sheep, rubbed with a paste of lightly roasted ancho, cascabel and mora chiles, seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, cumin, and oregano," according to Rao. Then, the marinated sheep would be tightly sealed with "masa," a dough made from corn, and tucked into a fire pit to cook, slowly. When it was served, it would be along with green tomato salsa, the rendered animal fat, and adobo made from a variety of spices.
The recipe has changed throughout the decades, with cooks typically using whatever meat there was available—whether that be goat, oxtail, chicken, beef, or what have you, Rao explains. In fact, the 1964 Mexican cookbook “Las Senadoras Suelen Guisar,” specifically calls for pork, she points out.
Cooks across the United States have adapted the recipe. Many cooks have added all sorts of things, like cilantro, onions, and the like, Rao points out. And you can eat birria in a variety of ways, depending on where you go. There are birria-focused dishes, birria tortas, and yes, birria tacos.
Which leads us to one of 2021's top trending foods of the year.
Recipe
There are countless recipes available online for birria tacos, due to the viral nature of the food in the past year. And as Rao points out, there are a variety of ways to make them.
But, if you're looking for a pretty traditional recipe, look no further. My Latina Table, a blog dedicated to sharing authentic Mexican recipes, has got us covered.
Ingredients - meat
- 1 pound, bone-in lamb ribs
- 1 pound, beef shank
- 1 pound, beef loin
- 1 1/2 tablespoon, salt
- 1 tablespoon, pepper
- 1 teaspoon, ground cumin
Ingredients - sauce/broth
- 4 dried ancho chiles
- 4 dried guajillo chiles
- 1 chipotle pepper
- 8 peppercorns
- 2 cloves
- 1 teaspoon, dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon, marjoram
- 1 teaspoon, dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon, ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon, ground ginger
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 8 cloves, garlic
- 1/2 large onion
- 1 1/2 tablespoon, salt
- 4 red tomatoes
- 1/4 cup, apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups, water
Instructions
Preparation (all methods)
- Season the meat with salt, pepper, and cumin.
- Cut open the dried chiles with scissors and remove the seeds.
- Fry the dried chiles with a small amount of oil in a frying pan for two to three minutes, moving constantly so they don't burn. Set aside.
- Add the chiles from the previous step to a small pot with boiling water for about 10 minutes, or until softened.
- In the same frying pan where you fried the chiles, add one tablespoon of oil and cook the onions and tomatoes until they are browned. Add the garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, and all of the remaining spices except for the ground cumin and ginger. Continue cooking for about five minutes, moving it around often.
- Add the chiles (including the water), the ingredients from the previous step, and the ginger, cumin, apple cider vinegar, and water to a blender and blend until smooth. It will still be pretty thick, but that is fine. Strain and set aside the resulting sauce for the next step.
- Pour the sauce over the meat in a large bowl and cover. If using the oven or stovetop methods, you will want to marinate for at least two hours or overnight. If using the electric pressure cooker option, you can marinate it, but it isn't necessary.
- Follow the cooking instructions according to your preferred method below.
Method One - Stovetop
- Add the meat with the marinade to a large stockpot and cook over medium heat, covered, for about three hours, or until the meat falls off the bones and is easy to shred.
Method Two - Oven
- Add the meat with the marinade to a large oven-safe dish and cover with aluminum foil and cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours or until the meat is easy to shred.
Method Three - Electric Pressure Cooker
- Add the meat with the marinade (or just the meat and the marinade separately if you chose not to marinate it) to the pot of the electric pressure cooker.
- Follow instructions for your electric pressure cooker to bring it to high pressure and cook for 45 minutes. Release pressure naturally for five minutes and then use the quick pressure release option to release the rest of the pressure. Remove the lid per instructions and the meat will be tender and ready to shred.
How To Serve
- Remove the meat and shred it. You can then serve it over the soup made from the sauce that the meat cooked in or you can serve it with tortillas as tacos with cilantro, lime, onions, and salsa.