Birria Tacos

I'm so glad that I finally tried this recipe! I've been watching people eat them for the past 2 years and I honestly don't know why I didn't think to try them earlier. I'll admit it isn't the quickest thing to make and I did have to order a lot from Amazon, but I don't mind doing that once in a while.

For my first time making these, I wanted to make them as authentic as possible so I used Claudia Regalado's recipe on youtube. Sometime during the next two weeks, I'll be creating my own recipe and sharing that with you as well! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Ingredients

1- 1.2 kg beef shank or chuck pot roast

2 white onions

2 Roma tomatoes

1 bunch coriander (cilantro)

6 New Mexico chile pods

5 Guajillo chile pods

1 Pasilla chile pods

2 chile de árbol

3 bay leaves

8 garlic cloves

2 whole cloves

1/2 an inch of Ginger

1/2 an inch of a Cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp whole black peppercorns

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp cumin

2 sprigs of thyme

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 cup of beef broth (from the pot)

Salt

Mini tortillas

Mozzarella cheese

Directions

• Place your beef in a deep pot and add 1 whole peeled onion, 4 whole peeled garlic cloves and 1 bay leaf. Add enough water to cover the beef and a bit more and cover with the pot lid

• Boil on medium-high heat for 2 hours

• Remove any fat from the top of the water that your meat is cooking in

• After one hour of cooking add a hefty amount of salt

• Start doing the steps below an hour into your meat cooking

• Remove the top part of your chillies and for all the chillies apart from the arbol you want to remove the seeds

• After you have deseeded them place them in a pot and add enough water to cover them. Boil for about 20 minutes or until softened

• After the 20 minutes drain the chillies and let them rest for 20 minutes

• After they have cooled down add them to your blender along with 2 bay leaves, 4 garlic cloves, 2 cloves, the ginger, cinnamon, black peppercorns, oregano, cumin, thyme, vinegar, 1 cup of your beef broth and salt. Blend this until really well combined

• Remove the onion, garlic & bay leaf you put into the pot

• Place a mesh strainer over your beef and strain the mixture you just blended over the beef. If your blender did a good job of mixing everything when it gets towards the end of you straining the mixture in you can just pour the rest in.

• Mix this into the beef and let it come to a simmer for 20 minutes

• After 20 minutes, switch off meat, take the meat out and let it cool. Once it has cooled you want to start shredding your meat

• Take about 1 cup of liquid out of the meat pot and set to the side

• Strain the meat broth into another pot and then pour the strained broth back into the original pot

• Boil the 2 tomatoes until they're nice and soft and blend them. Strain the blended mixture into the broth

• Bring to a simmer and once it begins to simmer add the shredded meat back into the pot

• Let it simmer for 5 minutes

• Shred your cheese

• Chop the other onion finely

• Chop up the coriander

• To assemble the tacos in a pan add a little bit of oil and bring to a medium-high heat

• When the oil is hot enough you want to dip a tortilla in the broth we set aside earlier, add the tortilla to the pan and leave it there for about 20-30 seconds

• Flip the tortilla over add your cheese and meat and fold the taco

• Cook on both sides to get a nice colour and then repeat for each taco

• Top your tacos with onion and coriander

• Serve & enjoy!

• Use the remainder of the broth you set to the side as your dipping sauce or if you run out of that just use the sauce that the meat is mixed with to coat your tortillas and dip your tacos in!