Slow Cooker Birria Tacos
, Updated Feb 28, 2024
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Homemade Birria Tacos – cook the birria stew in your slow cooker until the beef is tender, dip your tortillas in the birria sauce, fill and pan fry until crispy. Delicious!
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Birria Tacos have become a Tiktok sensation and deservedly so! Making them at home is easy and the results are nothing short of incredible.
The whole family fell in love with them and I can see myself making this recipe very often. Delicious, easy and loved by fussy kids? We are on to a winner for sure.
What is Birria?
Birria is a rich slow-cooked stew from Jalisco in Mexico. It comprises of meat, typically lamb, cooked with dried peppers and tomatoes and spiced with oregano and cumin. The stew is served with cilantro, chopped white onion and lime wedges.
What are Birria Tacos
Birria Tacos take the delicious braised meat and use it as taco filling for corn tortillas together with cheese… but wait, there’s more!
The corn tortillas are first dipped in the birria taco sauce and pan fried until the cheese melts. You can dip the tacos in the sauce for extra messy deliciousness.
Birria Tacos Ingredients
I have simplified the Birria Tacos recipe to use ingredients available to me. If you have access to Mexican Oaxaca cheese (also known as quesillo) then use it instead of the shredded mozzarella I settled for.
- Dried guajillo peppers – if you splash out on one ingredient then make it these amazing dried peppers. They can be found on Amazon or a Latin shop if you are lucky to have one nearby
- Chipotle paste –adds a wonderful smoky / spicy flavor
- Vinegar and Worcestershire sauce
- Fresh tomatoes and tomato paste
- Onions and garlic
- Salt, sugar, cumin, oregano, smoked paprika
- Beef stock cube
- Fresh oregano, bay leaves and cinnamon stick
- Beef – chuck steak, brisket, braising steak
- Corn tortillas, onion, mozzarella, cilantro, limes to serve
How to Make Birria Tacos
Full measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page. Please take a look at the steps and video before attempting this recipe!
Put the dried peppers in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave them to soak for about 20 minutes until softened. Discard the water, pull out the stems and remove the seeds.
Add all the ingredients for the sauce to a food processor and blend until smooth.
Pour the blended paste into your slow cooker and add the meat, stirring to combine. Top with water, add the bay leaves and cinnamon stick, cover and cook for 8-10 hours on HIGH or 6-8 hours on LOW setting. You can even cook the stew overnight if you like.
Shred the beef using two forks. Strain the sauce into a bowl and discard the cinnamon and bay leaves.
Dip a corn tortilla into the bowl of birria sauce to coat.
Add to a non-stick skillet set over medium heat. Cover one side of the tortilla with the cheese and top with a generous amount of the meat.
Pour a little sauce over the beef, close the tortilla and pan fry on both sides until the cheese has melted and tortilla is crispy. Repeat to make more birria tacos – don’t stack them on top of each other as the heat will soften the tortillas.
Serve with cilantro, onion, lime wedges and a small bowl of the sauce for dipping!
Recipe Notes
- You can replace the beef with lamb or mutton. Diced shoulder of lamb would work great!
- Store leftover shredded beef and sauce in the fridge for up to three days.
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Have you made my Birria Tacos recipe? Leave a comment, post a rating or tag me on Instagram with #supergoldenbakes
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Video
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 2 dried guajillo peppers
- ⅓ cup (80g) Chipotle paste (Chipotle in adobo)
- ¼ cup (60ml) red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 5 fresh tomatoes , seeds removed
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 onion , roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp fresh oregano (optional)
- 2 beef stock cubes , crumbled
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
For the Birria
- 2 pounds (900g) chuck steak / brisket/ braising steak, cubed
- 1 cup (240ml) water
To serve
- 8 Corn tortillas or as needed
- 1 cup (225g) grated mozzarella or Oaxaca cheese if you can find it
- 1 Onion diced
- Cilantro (coriander)
- limes
Instructions
- Put the dried peppers in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave them to soak for about 20 minutes until softened. Discard the water, pull out the stems and remove the seeds.
- Add all the ingredients for the sauce to a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Pour the blended paste into your slow cooker and add the meat, stirring to combine.
- Top with water, add the bay leaves and cinnamon stick, cover and cook for 8-10 hours on HIGH or 6-8 hours on LOW setting. You can even cook the stew overnight if you like.
- Shred the beef using two forks. Strain the sauce into a bowl and discard the cinnamon and bay leaves.
- Dip a corn tortilla into the sauce to coat.
- Add to a non-stick skillet set over medium heat. Cover one side of the tortilla with the cheese and top with a generous amount of the meat. Pour a little sauce over the beef, close the tortilla and pan fry on both sides until the cheese has melted and the tortilla is crispy.
- Repeat to make the birria tacos – don’t stack them on top of each other as the heat will soften the tortillas.
- Serve with cilantro, onion, lime wedges and a small bowl of the sauce for dipping!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate, and will depend on quality of ingredients and serving sizes.
