Birria Tacos are easier than you might think to make with this crazy delicious homemade adobo sauce. While this Birria Tacos recipe does take some time, it is so worth every minute for enjoying the most juicy, tender, and incredibly flavorful Birria beef shredded tacos – plus, it’s great for making ahead and freezing.

This savory beef Birria tacos recipe with homemade adobo sauce creates the most flavorful Birria shredded beef - and is great for making ahead and freezing. #beefbirria #beefbirriatacos #birriatacos #birriarecipe #howtomakebirria #shreddedbeeftacos
Birria Tacos (Tacos de Birria) Garnished With Onions and Cilantro

Although traditional Birria Tacos (Tacos de Birria) are made with hard-to-find goat meat or more expensive lamb meat, my easy Birria Tacos recipe uses quality beef. My experience has been that the chuck roast and beef short ribs add depth of flavor and succulence.

Ingredient for Birria Tacos on a work surface. Top down view show meat in a bowl, peppers, spices, and tongs.
Birria Tacos (Tacos de Birria) Ingredients

🥘 What You Will Need To Make Birria Tacos

  • A heavy skillet for making the adobo sauce.
  • A Dutch oven or other deep oven-safe dish for cooking the beef Birria.
  • Ingredients for homemade adobo sauce. You’ll need guajllio and ancho chiles, canned crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and spices: black peppercorns, dried Mexican oregano, fresh thyme leaves, and ground cumin.
  • Ingredients for our Birria Tacos recipe. Both boneless chuck roast and beef short ribs, plus kosher salt, whole cloves, bay leaves, a cinnamon stick (optional, but recommended for great spicy flavor), and chicken broth.
  • Birria beef shredded tacos ingredients. Vegetable oil, corn tortillas, fresh chopped onion and cilantro, plus limes cut into wedges.
Pouring adobo sauce over meat in a casserole dish for birria tacos - top down view.
Pouring Adobo Sauce Over Meat For Marinating

🍳 How to Make Adobo

First, heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat and add guajillo and ancho chiles to the skillet. Stir continuously as you cook them for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Remove from the pan and set aside.

In a large saucepan over high heat, add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. Transfer the chilies to the water and then immediately remove from the heat. Let the chilies soak in the water for about 7 minutes, until soft.

Once softened, drain the chiles and discard the water. Holding the tip of the chiles, snip off the stem and scrape out the seeds. Discard the seeds and stem, and set the cooked and cleaned chilies aside.

Use a paper towel to wipe the large skillet dry before adding 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and heating until shimmering. Then add the tomatoes, onions and garlic, and cook while stirring frequently. After the onions and garlic are lightly browned, add peppercorns, oregano and thyme. Cook, stirring frequently, for several minutes or until the flavors are melded. Let cool slightly.

Transfer the cooled mixture to the blender along with the chiles. Add the cumin, apple cider vinegar and 2 cups cold water. Blend for about a minute or until perfectly smooth. Use a sieve to strain mixture and reserve the sauce for making Birria tacos.

Birria tacos marinating- top down view.
Birria Ingredients in the Dutch Oven

🔪 How to Make Birria

When you’re ready to prepare Tacos de Birria, follow these simple steps:

  1. Begin by preheating the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and remove the marinated beef from the fridge.
  2. Transfer the adobo-coated chuck roast and ribs to a Dutch oven. Heat on the stovetop on medium heat, and add broth, bay leaves, cloves, and cinnamon sticks. Stir as you bring to a simmer.
  3. Once simmering, transfer the Dutch oven to the preheated oven and cook for 4 hours. Be sure to check after 2 hours, however, and add more water if needed to keep the beef Birria from drying out.
  4. When the beef for your Birria tacos is fork-tender, remove from the oven and discard the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and bay leaves. Move the roast and ribs to a clean work surface, and use two forks to shred the meat. Then return back to the Dutch oven, and stir the beef back into the adobo sauce. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes to really get that wonderful melt-in-your-mouth texture that is the hallmark of tacos de Birria. Discard the fat and bones before serving.
Shredded Birria beef for Birria Tacos in a black speckled bowl with a fork. Bowl is resting on a colorful striped placemat with Mexican styling.
Shredded Tacos de Birria

🍚 What To Serve With Birria Tacos

birria des res top down view garnished with onions and cilantro. tortillas on the side ready for filling

📋 Birria Taco Recipe

Beef tacos take on a whole new level of deliciousness when cuts of beef get a long simmering bath in flavorful adobo sauce.
4.67 from 6 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Marinating Time 4 hours
Total Time 8 hours 30 minutes
Author Marilyn
Course Main
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 8 16 tacos
Calories 560 kcal

Ingredients
 

Adobo Sauce

  • 6 large dried guajillo chiles
  • 2 ancho chiles
  • 8 cups water divided
  • Vegetable
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
  • 1 large onion, cut into 12 wedges
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Birria

  • 2 pounds boneless chuck roast
  • 2 pounds beef short ribs, bone-in
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cinnamon stick optional
  • 4 cups no salt added chicken broth

Tacos

  • Vegetable oil
  • 16 corn tortillas see Tip
  • 1 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 limes cut into wedges

Instructions
 

Adobo Sauce

  • Heat a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add guajillo and ancho chiles to the skillet; cook, stirring continuously, 2 to 3 minutes or until fragrant. Set aside.
  • In a large saucepan over high heat, add 6 cups water and bring to a boil. Transfer the chilies to the water and remove from the heat. Let stand 7 minutes or until the chiles are softened.
  • Drain chiles and discard water. Hold the tip of the chiles and snip off the stem. Scrap out the seeds. Discard seeds and stem. Add chiles to a blender. Set aside.
  • Using a paper towel, wipe the large skillet dry. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering. Add the tomatoes, onions and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions and garlic are lightly browned. Add peppercorns, oregano and thyme. Cook, stirring frequently, 9 minutes or until the flavors are melded. Let cool slightly.
  • Transfer mixture to the blender with the chiles. Add the cumin, apple cider vinegar and 2 cups cold water. Blend about 1 minute or until smooth. Strain mixture, reserving the sauce.
  • Arrange chuck roast and short ribs in a large nonreactive casserole dish. Season all over with the salt. Pour adobo sauce over the meat and turn to coat with the sauce. Cover tightly and refrigerate 4 hours or up to 2 days.

Birria

  • Preheat oven to 300°F.
  • Transfer adobo and beef mixture to a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon stick (if using) and chicken broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until simmering, Cover and bake 4 hours or until meat is tender. Check stew after 2 hours, adding more water as needed. Discard cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.
  • Transfer chuck roast and short ribs to a work surface. Using 2 forks, shred beef and return to sauce. Simmer 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Discard bones and excess fat.

Tacos

  • In a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, coat bottom surface lightly with oil.
  • Using tongs, dip 1 tortilla in broth and add to the skillet. Repeat with 1 to 2 more tortillas or as many tortillas will fit without overlapping. Add about 1/4 cup meat on one-half of each tortilla. Cook, 1 to 2 minutes or until tacos are lightly browned and crisp. Fold tortillas in half and gently press together with a spatula. Transfer to a serving plate. Repeat with remaining tacos and filling. (see Tip)
  • Sprinkle tacos with onions and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges. Ladle adobo broth into serving bowls for dipping.

Cooks Tips

Variations:

Replace the beef short ribs with 1 additional pound of chuck roast.
The Adobo Sauce can be cooled to room temperature and then covered and refrigerated up to 2 days. Continue with remaining steps when ready.
Make the Birria through step 9. Cover and refrigerate overnight. When ready to serve, spoon the congealed fat from the Birria and discard. Reheat and continue with step 10 or serve as a soup.
Birria Soup or Stew: Omit the steps for assembling the tacos. You may want to add more water or broth to the stew before serving. To serve, ladle stew into bowls and top with chopped onion, chopped cilantro, sour cream and lime wedges.
Birria Tacos with Cheese: Sprinkle a Mexican melting cheese such as queso Oaxaca or queso asadero on the tacos before topping with the beef birria.
Omit dipping the tortillas in the adobo sauce in step 11. Simply heat the tortillas in the skillet for 1 minute. Transfer to a serving platter and top with 1/4 cup beef birria and cheese (if using). Continue with step 12.
Corn versus Flour Tortillas. Use corn tortillas if you are planning to dip them in the adobo and fry them. Corn tortillas hold their shape better than flour. If you are not dipping them, you can use either flour or corn tortillas.

Nutrition

Calories: 560kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 46gFat: 25gSaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 127mgSodium: 2042mgPotassium: 1327mgFiber: 9gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 3229IUVitamin C: 17mgCalcium: 126mgIron: 7mg
Collections Comfort Food, Holiday
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was @MavenCookery or tag #mavencookery!
Visited 1 times, 1 visit(s) today

3 Comments

  1. This Birra Taco Recipe turned out Awesome n Delicious!! Made them today for the first time! It’s not that hard to make but make sure you follow the recipe step by step. I forgot to soak my Tortilla in the Birra Sauce prior to putting it in the pan to crisp up but it still turned out ok. I’ll just remember next time.
    Here’s a Tip:
    For the Adobe Sauce, I bought 3 Chipotle peppers in Adobe Sauce in a can in substitution of the Guajuillo n Ancho Chiles n it worked out great plus it’s much quicker too!

  2. 5 stars
    I loved this recipe! but I also used the 123 method using a product called insta-birria by el sabor products. If you look them up on google they should pop up. Their flavor is out of this world! its easy and simple. just add water, sauce and meat. I loved both recipes but insta-birria had a flavor that just blew my mind. so flavourful. I love my birria.

4.67 from 6 votes (5 ratings without comment)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating