Our Beef Birria Chile-Loaded and Versatile
We first encountered birria when we tried it in the infamously amazing tacos served at Teddy’s Red Tacos in Venice, CA. It was love at first bite, and we’ve been working hard to create a birria recipe that’s easy enough to make at home, but still bursting with the beefy, chile-y, spicy goodness that stole our hearts. And sure enough, we eventually figured it out. This recipe hits the spot! Birria is a traditional dish from the Mexican state of Jalisco, though it can be found throughout Mexico these days, not to mention in homes and restaurants all over the U.S..
Similar to Barbacoa Beef, it’s rich with chilies and cozy, warm spices like cinnamon and ginger, birria is a stew-y braised meat dish that’s most authentically made with goat meat, but beef birria (or ”birria de res”) has become popular, too. It’s a lot easier to find beef than goat meat here in the U.S. so that’s why our birria recipe uses beef. Serve the birria in our cheesy Birria Tacos with Carne Asada and Crock Pot Chicken Taco Meat to make the most unforgettable taco night.

Meet Your Main Beef Birria Ingredients
Beef birria is a wonderful recipe to make on a weekend day, when you have time to just let the beef braise slowly—good old low-and-slow—and fill your home with its deeply spiced, wonderfully heady aromas. Though you will need to set aside some time, you won’t need to make any special grocery runs for the ingredients. The main components of this recipe are just:
- Beef! Beef birria recipes really vary a lot in terms of what cut of beef they call for. We favor chuck roast, which is ideal for a low-and-slow braise like this because it’s nicely marbled, and falls apart after a long time in the oven. Plus, it’s not usually too expensive.
- Dried chiles. We love a combination of three easy-to-find dried chiles! Ancho chiles (which are dried poblanos), guajillo chiles (a tangy, sweet chile that’s really delicious), chiles de árbol (a thin, classic Mexican chile that’s six times as hot as a jalapeño!). Look for dried chiles in the same area where you’d find other Mexican ingredients, like canned chipotles and Tajin.
- Dried herbs and spices: Cinnamon, oregano, cumin, bay leaves, ginger
- Onions & garlic
- Beef stock
- Fire-roasted tomatoes
- Vinegar




How to Make Birria
If you’ve ever made a braised beef dish, like regular Pot Roast or Mississippi Pot Roast, this whole process will be mostly familiar. Here’s how to make beef birria:
- Prepare the dried chiles. Seed, toast, and soak the chiles. It sounds like a whole thing, but it only takes about 20 minutes. Detailed how-to is in the recipe at the bottom of the page.
- Brown the beef. Cook the beef in batches if need be, and make sure you get a nice browning on all sides. Set it aside, or just go ahead and put it right into your Dutch oven.
- Make the birria sauce AKA broth base! There should be some fat and oil left in the pan from searing the beef, and that’s a good thing! Use it to cook the onion wedges a bit, then add garlic, cinnamon, oregano, cumin, bay leaves, and ginger. After a minute or two, pour in the beef stock and vinegar.
- Time to blend: Add the seeded, soaked and drained chiles. Blend with an immersion blender! If you don’t have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work, it’ll just be a little more work to transfer the braising liquid to the blender and back again.
- Pour your chile sauce over all of the beef into a Dutch oven, and cook for about 4 hours, until the meat is falling apart.




How To Serve Birria
There’s so much you can do with beef birria! Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Serve it as a hearty, rich stew in bowls, garnished with chopped onion and cilantro with warm tortillas on the side.
- As a filling for quesadillas.
- Or making Birria Tacos.


More Rich & Beefy Braises

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