Birria tacos

Birria is a deeply flavoured, soupy stew from Jalisco in western Mexico. It’s traditionally made with goat meat, although nowadays beef is widely used. The meat is cooked in an adobo, a sauce made with chillies, spices and vinegar. The birria can be eaten in a bowl like a soup, or in tacos or quesadillas.

Ingredients

• 1 piece beef osso buco (beef shin on the marrowbone)
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 700g/1lb 9oz braising steak, cut into 10cm/4in chunks

For the adobo

• 5 guajillo chillies, stem and seeds removed
• 2 ancho chillies, stem and seeds removed
• 3 plum tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 onion, cut into chunks
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 6 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cloves
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 15g/½oz sea salt flakes

To serve

• 18 corn tortillas, warmed
• small bunch fresh coriander, chopped
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• spicy salsa of your choice

Method

1. You can make the adobo a day ahead. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and toast the chillies for 15 seconds on each side. Put the chillies in a saucepan, add the tomatoes, onion and garlic and 400ml/14fl oz water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

2. When cool, use a slotted spoon to transfer the chillies, tomatoes, onion and garlic to a blender. Add the oregano and all the spices, vinegar and salt. Rub the sauce through a sieve into a bowl and set aside or chill in the fridge.

3. To make the birria, cut the meat from the osso buco into small cubes, reserving the marrow bone.

4. Heat the oil in a large casserole (ideally cast iron) over a medium heat and brown the beef in batches, removing each browned batch to a large plate.

5. Once all the beef is browned, return it to the casserole, add the marrow bone, the adobo and 2 litres/3½ pints water. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 2½–3 hours, until the meat is very tender and falling apart.

6. When the meat is ready, remove it from the broth, discarding the marrow bone. Shred the meat and place it on a platter.

7. To serve, pour the broth into individual cups. Add some shredded beef to your tortillas and top with chopped coriander, onion, a squeeze of lime juice and some spicy salsa. Dunk the birria taco in the broth.

Recipe Tips

If you can’t find good quality corn tortillas, use flour tortillas.

To serve as a stew, simply spoon the meat and its broth into bowls and top with the chopped onion and coriander. Serve with lime wedges.

To serve as quesabirrias, remove the birria meat from the broth. Drench a corn tortilla in the broth and then add to a hot frying pan and scatter with grated cheese. Top with the beef and then fold in half. Repeat to use up all your tortillas and meat. Serve with the same garnishes as the tacos as well as bowls of the leftover broth, for dunking.

Birria tacos