- This episode is sponsored by Trade Coffee.
Instead of blindly guessing
what kind of coffee you may enjoy,
take the personalization quiz from Trade
and receive the selection of coffees that match your taste
and preferred brewing method delivered right to your door
in Trade's compostable packaging.
Be one of the first a hundred people
to get 50% off your first bag
with code BABISH50,
by using the link in the video description.
Now let's get down to the basics of Birria tacos.
(upbeat music)
All right,
So the first thing we got to do is make a spice paste.
So to do that,
here I have eight guajillo chiles for flavor
and four chiles de arbol to bring some heat
from which I'm both going to remove the stems and seeds.
Before I bring them on over
to the stove top to give him a toast
in a dry pan, over medium heat,
I'm going to tear up the chiles
and toast them for about five minutes
until they're nice and fragrant, but not smoking.
I'm also gonna add about two teaspoons of whole cumin seeds.
And once everybody smells nice and good
I'm going to add about two cups of water.
Crank that mixture up to medium high
bring everybody up to a simmer,
kill the heat and cover
which not only looks cool,
but steeping the chilies for 10 minutes also softens them up
which is going to allow us to puree them
in a high powered blender.
So into our very favorite blender goes all the chiles
and the steeping liquid
one entire head of garlic
cloves separated and peeled
one teaspoon of Mexican oregano
and a quarter teaspoon of ground clove.
I'm also going to add half a small onion
and make a weird face for some reason,
we shot this a while ago.
I can't remember why I did that.
Then depending on how spicy and smokey you like things
I'm going to add two canned chipotle chiles
in some of their accompanying adobo sauce.
Then I want to add enough water to generously
cover everything and blitz.
We want to blend this guy on high-speed for
at least a full minute, cause we want a nice smooth sauce.
Then you can give it an optional taste
but it is unseasoned pretty raw and pretty spicy.
Go ahead and set that aside
because now we must contend with our meats.
I have here a whole three and a half pound beef chuck roast
which I'm going to divide
into nice stew appropriate chunks.
First, we're going to separate the two
sort of lobes of meat that are in a chuck roast.
This is going to make cleaning excess fat
and connective tissue easier.
And you might notice
that my cutting board is sliding around a little bit.
So don't forget to reinforce your board
with a moistened towel,
which will lock everything in place.
So we don't lose any fingers.
Like I said, we're going to start
by removing any excess fat, connective tissue,
sinews, silver skin, all that gross stuff.
And then we're cutting this guy up into two inch chunks
which is just going to help keep them in whole pieces
and make retrieving them from the stew that much easier.
I'm plopping these on a sheet pan
sprinkling them with two teaspoons of kosher salt
giving them a toss and letting them sit at room temperature
for at least 40 minutes.
It's going to help them stay juicy during their long braise.
Next step and this is optional.
I've got two pounds of oxtails.
What little meat these guys have gets tender
and delicious when braised
and all the bone marrow and cartilage
is going to deeply flavor our sauce.
I'm plopping these into a wide stainless steel roasting pan
drizzling them with a little bit of vegetable oil
tossing them around to coat, spreading them out
and then roasting them in a 475 degree Fahrenheit oven
for 15 to 20 minutes.
Or until deeply brown.
All this maillard on the surface of our meat
is going to bring a lot of flavor to the sauce.
Next I'm adding a 14 ounce can of whole plum tomatoes
all of our beautiful, oniony, garlicy spice paste
and just enough water to bring the liquid
about halfway up the sides of the oxtails.
Then we're going to start nestling
our chunks o'chuck in the liquid.
We want most of the meat to be submerged
but just one facet of the meat to be sticking out.
And I'm topping with one tablespoon of coriander seeds
and one tablespoon of black peppercorns
and then nestling two Mexican cinnamon sticks
or just regular cinnamon sticks
if you can't find those,
five Bay leaves and three sprigs of fresh margarine
around the meats in the braising liquid.
I'm also going to tuck one whole onion quartered
into each corner of the pan.
It doesn't matter where you put it, really,
I just think that looks nice.
Then this guy's headed into a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for three hours.
Halfway through, we're going to take it out of the oven
and give everybody a flip.
As you can see the meat that has not been submerged
has formed a beautiful crust and we want that all over.
So we're going to flip everybody over
exposing their previously submerged underbellies
and pop this guy back in the oven
for the remaining hour and a half.
After which time everybody should emerge
with a beautiful deep brown crust
and a paring knife should pass through the meat
like it's not even there.
Next step,
we need to separate our meat and our sauce.
So I'm going to tong out our chuck and oxtails
onto a large rimmed baking sheet,
and using two forks commenced to shredding.
Nothing too crazy here.
You just want small bite sized pieces
for your eventual tacos.
And don't forget the meat on the oxtails.
That's good stuff.
And then we're going to strain the solids out of liquid
leaving us with a hyper flavorful consomme.
Make sure you get every last little itty-bitty drop,
ladle a couple ladle fulls over your meat,
to keep it moist.
And then everything needs to be covered
in plastic wrap and fridged for one very important reason.
We want to separate the fat and the consomme.
Once the liquid is refrigerated,
the fat will solidify in a scoopable layer,
which we're going to scoop off
and plop into an awaiting fry pan,
dump the consomme and to a large saucepan.
And then we're headed over to the stove top
where we have our taco assembling station
which should look something like this.
First the tortillas will be dipped in the melted fat
then transferred over to a ripping hot cast iron skillet
filled with the bubbling braised beef
and some torn Oaxaca cheese
folded over and fried on both sides.
Now this would normally be the time
that I would tell you to make your own corn tortillas
but it's very difficult to get them thin enough
so that they can stay flexible
and survive the dipping and folding process.
So this is one of the few times that you'll hear me
say the store corn tortillas are probably your best bet.
First we're gonna toast them a little bit on both sides
on the cast iron skillet,
and then dip them generously
in the fat harvested from the consomme.
Once it's thoroughly coated on both sides
it's headed back over to the skillet
where it's going to receive its filling.
Some of our delicious braised beef
and a healthy helping of Oaxaca cheese.
If you can't find Oaxaca cheese,
you can just use string cheese
torn into beautiful long shreds like this.
Then we're folding the taco over,
sort of like a quesadilla,
frying on one side for about a minute
or until golden brown,
flipping, frying for about another minute
and then getting ready to plate up.
Stack up at least three of these bad boys.
Trust me, that is the bare minimum
that you're going to want to consume.
Serve it with a steaming cup of consomme
and some chopped white onion,
a few lime wedges,
and more chopped onions,
some sliced jalapenos,
and torn cilantro over top of the tacos.
And there you have it,
the tacos you've been craving
from seeing them on Instagram for the longest time.
And finally get to messily try for yourself
Birria tacos and san cilantro, of course.
I think we might've stumbled upon
one of my new favorite foods.
It is beefy saucy, cheesy, crispy, spicy, and tangy,
you know, all of the most important food groups.
And while generally speaking it pairs best
with a frosty Mexican beer
at the end of the day,
beer doesn't keep me alive, coffee does.
So thank you to Trade Coffee for sponsoring this episode.
Trade has a massive amount
of high quality coffees from the nation's top roasters
customized to your preferences
and continually evolving to suit your tastes.
With their quick and easy quiz,
you'll be matched with the best roasters and beans
for your brewing practices.
For me lately,
that's been La Familia Guarnizo,
a light Colombian roast
with notes of caramel, honey and clementine.
Once you've received your coffee
you can rate what Trade sent
to refine your selection on future orders.
Be one of the first hundred people
to get 50% off your first bag by using code Babish50
with the link in the video description.
(upbeat music)