ArticleSources

Tacos de birria

From WikiTacos, the taco encyclopedia · Taco type
Also known as: Birria de chivo, Birria tapatía, Birria jalisciense

Birria is a Jalisco dish of goat or lamb marinated in a paste of dried chiles and spices and slowly cooked until tender, served either in its rich broth or wrapped in corn tortillas as tacos. Long a regional specialty of western Mexico, it became an international taco craze in the 2010s through its beef offshoot from Tijuana.

Contents
  1. Name and origins
  2. Preparation
  3. Serving
  4. Recipe
  5. Where to try it
  6. Reviews
  7. See also
  8. References

Name and origins

In everyday Spanish, birria has long meant something of little value or poor appearance. A popular explanation, repeated by Mexican media, holds that the Spanish regarded goat meat as tough and gamy and left it to the Indigenous population, who made it delicious by seasoning it heavily and cooking it for hours. These accounts are oral tradition rather than documented history. Some Jalisco sources place the dish's beginnings in Cocula in the sixteenth century, as Indigenous and Spanish foodways mixed after the conquest, and connect it to an abundance of goats in western Mexico.

Larousse Cocina counts birria with pozole and menudo among the most representative dishes of Jalisco and describes it as a form of barbacoa.

Preparation

In the classic method recorded by Larousse Cocina, the meat is salted, coated with a chile sauce and left to rest about twelve hours. It is then wrapped in maguey leaves with the rest of the marinade, placed in a pot whose lid is sealed with corn dough to trap the steam, and cooked roughly four hours until it slips from the bone. The juices are separated and simmered with roasted, ground tomato to make the broth, and the meat is returned to it.

The adobo varies from family to family but generally combines dried chiles, garlic, vinegar and spices. Some cooks still roast the meat in a clay oven or a pit covered with hot earth, which gives a smoky flavor. Restaurants in other regions adapt the method; the cook behind Birrieria Zaragoza in Chicago, whose family comes from La Barca, near the Michoacán border, told WTTW that he steams the goat, rests it overnight and then braises it in an ancho chile mole.

Serving

Birria began as a bowl dish: meat in a deep, chile-red broth served like pozole, finished with chopped onion and dried oregano, with lime and hot sauce to taste. Tacos are a natural second use of the meat, piled onto corn tortillas with onion, cilantro, lime and salsa. It is a well-known weekend and hangover meal in Mexico.

Goat and lamb remain the traditional meats, but birria is also made with beef, pork, veal, chicken and even fish, and a single pot may combine two or three meats. The beef birria of Tijuana gave rise to the tacos dorados and quesabirria that spread through the United States after about 2015.

Recipe

Makes About 24 tacos, plus broth · Time: Marinate overnight; 4 hours cooking

Ingredients

  • 2 kg goat or lamb on the bone (shoulder, leg, ribs), cut in large pieces
  • 6 guajillo chiles and 3 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
  • 4 chiles de árbol (optional, for heat)
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1/3 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 4 whole cloves, 6 black peppercorns, 1 small cinnamon stick
  • 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano, plus more to serve
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 4 plum tomatoes, roasted
  • 24 corn tortillas
  • Chopped white onion, cilantro, limes

Steps

  1. Toast the chiles lightly and soak in hot water for 15 minutes. Blend with the garlic, vinegar, spices, oregano, salt and enough soaking water to make a thick paste.
  2. Salt the meat, rub it all over with the chile paste and refrigerate overnight.
  3. Place the meat and marinade in a heavy pot or roasting pan with the bay leaves and 2 cups of water. Seal tightly with foil and a lid.
  4. Bake at 160 C (325 F) for about 4 hours, until the meat pulls easily from the bone.
  5. Lift out the meat. Skim some of the fat from the juices, blend the juices with the roasted tomatoes, and simmer 10 minutes to make the broth; season with salt.
  6. Shred the meat and return some to the broth.
  7. Serve bowls of broth with meat, onion and oregano, or fill warm tortillas with the meat and serve with onion, cilantro, lime and a cup of broth.

Where to try it

Reviews

Reviews and tips open at launch. Readers will be able to share where they found the best version of this and how they make it at home.

See also

References

  1. "Birria". Larousse Cocina. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  2. "6 cosas que quizá no sabías de la birria". El Diario NY. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  3. "Carne para birria: ¿cuál es mejor y cuál es la original de Jalisco?". TV Azteca Jalisco. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  4. "The Goat, the Whole Goat and Nothing but the Goat". WTTW. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
Categories: Goat tacos Jalisco cuisine Lamb tacos Stewed meat tacos Taco types