Birria Meat
One of the most common ways of preparing meat in Mexican cuisine, used to make fillings for tacos, enchiladas or quesadillas. The meat is cooked in a broth that contains plenty of dried chili peppers, tomatoes, broth, spices, and vinegar. Apparently, this dish has a history of about 100 years. Despite the fact that the time for stewing the meat is long, it is worth it, because the result is truly delicious and aromatic; the meat is soft and juicy.
Preparation time: 30-40 minutes preparation, 4-5 hours stewing meat
Level: Rather easy
Quantity: A little over two kg of birria meat with broth
Ingredients:
1.5 kg of beef
4 tbsp vegetable oil
12 dried guajillo chilies
5-6 dried ancho chilies
If desired, you can also use hotter Arbol chilies
2 large tomatoes
1 medium onion
5-6 medium garlic cloves
1 cinnamon stick about 5 cm long
4-5 bay leaves
0.5 tsp black peppercorns
600 g meat stock
50 ml white wine vinegar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
0.25 tsp ground cloves
1.5 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
Preparation:
- Remove the seeds from the dried chilies and soak the chillies in water overnight
- Coarsely chop the onion, tomato, and garlic and pour into a blender; add the chillies and at least half of the chilli soaking water.
- Crush everything into a smooth, aromatic paste. Make sure to crush for about 5 minutes. Pour the mixture through a sieve to remove the chilli skins and hard pieces.
- Cut the meat into pieces of about 4-5 cm and brown in cooking oil in a thick-bottomed stew pot over high heat in batches so that the meat does not start to boil but browns well.
- Add the crushed mixture of chillies and vegetables. Add the spices, oregano, cumin powder, clove powder, ground black pepper, and sea salt. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, and cinnamon stick. Pour in the white wine vinegar and broth.
- Mix and place in the oven at 170 degrees C for 4-5 hours. Stir the meat every 1.5 hours.
- The meat will become very soft and will start to fall apart. The birria should have a good amount of liquid. Add water if there is little liquid left.
- When the meat is done, tear the pieces of meat into pieces with a fork.
Use the meat to make tacos, enchiladas or quesadillas or serve with Mexican red rice.
Ready!!
