Birria

Make THE BEST Birria with juicy, tender, slow cooked beef and a rich flavorful broth, made with chiles, tomatoes and vinegar. This authentic, flavorful recipe can be served as a soup or stew, or made into tacos, quesadillas or chilaquiles. It’s an incredibly versatile Mexican recipe that’s hearty, spicy and bursting with flavor!

In 2016, my husband and I took a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, in the state of Jalisco. It’s best known for mariachi music and tequila. But for my husband, he wanted to go there for one reason, to get authentic birria de chivo, translated to goat birria.

Birria is an authentic Mexican dish made by marinating goat, lamb or beef, in a combination of chiles, spices, tomatoes and vinegar.

At the time, I had never heard of birria, but he raved about this tender braised goat meat, so I knew that I had to try it. We found a very small restaurant that was highly recommended to us to have the best birria in Guadalajara. I tried it and loved it, but it wasn’t until a couple of years later that I thought about birria again.

All of the sudden, I started to see birria popping up in food trucks and Mexican restaurants around San Diego. Continue on a couple of years, and it’s literally everywhere!

I always joke that my husband should be a “trend forecaster” because it seems like everything he likes becomes trendy within 3-5 years. And birria certainly did!

When making birria at home, I almost always use beef, instead of traditional goat meat. It’s much easier to find in the US, making it easier to buy and prepare at home. This birria is known as birria de res.

Because this is one of my husband’s favorite dishes of all time, I made it several times, testing and perfecting it until it got his stamp of approval. Now I’m so excited to share this perfectly tender, incredibly flavorful birria recipe!

Ingredients

I’ve included notes and descriptions below for each ingredient in this recipe. For the exact ingredient measurements, jump to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• Dried guajillo chiles – dried chiles, like these and the chile de arbol, can usually be found in the hispanic section of most major grocery stores, or on an end-cap near the spices. Guajillo chiles are mild to medium in spice. They add a rich, sweet and somewhat fruity flavor to this birria recipe.
• Arbol chilies – these little chiles are spicy! In fact, they’re about 6 times as hot as a jalapeno. I like to use 5-6 of these for a medium spiced birria, or throw in 8-10 for a spicy birria. Feel free to adjust how many arbol chiles are added for your preferred spice level.
• Vegetable oil – or another neutral-flavored oil, like canola or avocado oil.
• Onion – for this recipe you’ll need 1 cup of diced, yellow onions. This will equal about half of a large onion.
• Garlic – I recommend fresh minced cloves for the best flavor.
• Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – you’ll find these canned in the hispanic section of the grocery store. For this recipe, you’ll use the entire can of peppers and the sauce. This will also spice up the recipe, so if you’re sensitive to spice, I recommend leaving out the arbol chiles and keeping the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for the delicious flavor it adds to this recipe.
• Crushed tomatoes
• White distilled vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) – I’ve used both to make this recipe and honestly I like them both for different reasons. If you want a more acidic, vinegar-forward flavor, go with the white distilled vinegar. If you want a more fruity, tangy flavor, go with the apple cider vinegar.
• Salt + black pepper – to season the birria.
• Mexican oregano – while there is a difference between Mexican oregano and traditional oregano, you can use them interchangeably in this recipe if you don’t have Mexican oregano on hand. Mexican oregano is a bit stronger in flavor, but their shared peppery flavor, means that you can use either one and end up with similar flavors.
• Smoked paprika – I recommend smoked over sweet paprika in this recipe because the smoky flavor pairs so well with the chiles.
• Ground cloves – the spiciness of cloves adds another layer of flavor to this dish.
• Ground cumin – this spice adds a warm, earthy layer of flavor to the dish.
• Beef chuck roast – for this beef birria recipe, I used a beef chuck roast, cut into chunks. It has a rich, beefy flavor, and is great for braising and slow cooking, making it the perfect cut of beef for this recipe. You can also use a combination of chuck roast and short ribs, which are both primal cuts that come from the shoulder area. They have a similar flavor and texture, and are both great for slow braising.
• Beef stock – since this is the main ingredient in the broth used to cook the beef, I recommend purchasing, or making, a high-quality beef stock. I recommend stock for this recipe because it has a richer, deeper flavor than beef broth. I found this Custom Culinary Beef Base at a restaurant supply store in San Diego and am absolutely obsessed with it. You can order it online direct with a $5 shipping charge. It’s a little expensive for beef bouillon, but oh my gosh the flavor is so good. (Not sponsored, just obsessed!)
• Cinnamon stick + bay leaves – let these ingredients simmer in the birria broth to add even more layers of flavor to the dish.

Instructions

I’ve included step by step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full detailed recipe instructions, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

1. Rehydrate the chiles. Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add the dried chiles and make sure they’re submerged in the water. Place a lid on the pot, remove the pot from the heat and let the chiles soak for 15 minutes.
2. Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles. After the chiles have soaked for 15 minutes, remove one cup of the water that they soaked in and set it aside. Remove the chiles from the water. Slice the stems off of each chili, slice it open and remove the seeds.

3. Cook onions and garlic. Before adding fresh onions and garlic to the marinade, you want to soften them by cooking them in vegetable oil on the stove over medium-high heat. Cook the onions for 4-5 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.

4. Prepare the marinade. Add an entire can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to a blender. Add a can of crushed tomatoes and apple cider vinegar to the blender. Place the rehydrated chiles in the blender, along with the cooked onions and garlic. Add salt, pepper, oregano, smoked paprika, ground cloves and cumin, along with the reserved cup of chili soaking water.
5. Blend all of the ingredients together until the mixture is smooth.

6. Place chunks of beef chuck roast in a large, deep casserole dish.
7. Pour the prepared marinade from the blender over the beef in the dish. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight, or for at least 6-8 hours to marinate.

8. Sear the beef. After the beef is marinated, use tongs to remove each of the pieces of beef from the marinade. Do not discard the marinade! The beef will be braised in the marinade and beef broth. Heat a large pot, or dutch oven, on the stove over high heat. Add the beef and sear on all sides for 1-2 minutes. Depending on how big the pan is, you might have to do this in two batches.
9. Add the marinade and beef broth. Once all of the beef is browned on all sides, pour the marinade from the casserole dish over the beef in the pot. Add beef stock and stir to combine. Bring the liquid to a boil.

10. Once the liquid is boiling, add a cinnamon stick and bay leaves to the pot. Cover the pot with a lid, or if you don’t have a lid that fits, cover it tightly with foil. Transfer it to an oven, preheated to 350°F, and cook for 2 hours.
11. Remove the birria from the oven after 2 hours. Use a slotted spoon to remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Use tongs to remove the pieces of beef from the liquid and place them on a cutting board. At this point, the beef should be fall-apart fork tender. Use two forks, or meat claws, to shred the beef. Depending on how you’re going to serve the birria, you can either add the beef back to the broth, or keep it separate. See the section below for all of the ways you can serve birria.

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