Quick Quesabirria Birria Tacos (Easy! Weeknight Dinner)

Recipe: Quesabirria Birria Tacos Recipe »

This Quesabirria recipe makes the best birria tacos at home including that incredible consome dipping broth! I'll show you how to make these beef tacos using the simplest ingredients that you can easily get at the supermarket. The pressure cooker or Instant Pot cooks this to perfection in 45 minutes. They'll taste just like your favourite birria food truck!

Birria tacos for a weeknight dinner? Yes! Your pressure cooker does all of the work. Or if you prefer to use a slow cooker or crock pot this can easily be done in the morning too. I used my Instant pot for these tacos but you can use a multi cooker or a pressure cooker. You can also make this in the slow cooker too.

About Birria Tacos

What is a Quesabirria taco? Get prepared for one of the best tacos you will ever eat. It's like a cross between a taco and quesadilla and is made with soft beef and cheese in a folded over tortilla. The tortilla is crisp as it is fried in the fat that comes from the beef cooking process. It's garnished with chopped coriander, onion and served with lime. It originated in Tijuana Mexico and I love this dish because you know it came from not wanting to waste a single thing. Originally birria is made with goat but quesabirria usually uses beef.

What's the difference between queso birria and birria tacos? Queso birria has cheese added to the taco (which always makes it better IMHO). But if you don't like cheese you can leave it out and just add coriander, onion and lime.

What is so special about birria tacos? Not only is it delicious but it is also served with a dipping consome broth ( it is spelled consome, not consomme). You know how I mentioned not having anything go to waste? The consome is the beef cooking broth! I mean you'd be crazy to throw it away because it has so much flavour.

You can make this using dried Mexican chillies but honestly they can be a bit difficult to source. I've found a great sub for this - tinned La Morena Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce is a great substitute and you can get this at the supermarket! Notspon!

If you want to take the low and slow way (and there's nothing wrong with that!) then try my birria taco recipe using goat meat and dried ancho, guajillo and pasilla chillies.

Ingredients for Quick Quesabirria Birria Tacos

• Onion - you can use a white, red or brown onions. I really like those tearless brown onions that are now available (notspon!)
• Garlic - Just regular old garlic cloves! Peel and roughly chop your garlic
• Spices - we use a basic spice mix including ground cinnamon, dried oregano, ground cumin, whole cloves and whole bay leaves

• Beef chuck and cheek - Beef chuck is a fantastic cut of beef as it is economical and perfect for birria tacos. I like to use a mix of beef chuck and beef cheek as I love the combination of the two similar but different textures. You can also use all chuck or all cheek too. Others use beef brisket, some use rib or a combination of beef cuts.

• Chicken stock - to flavour the broth.
• Diced tomatoes - I use tinned diced tomatoes for this recipe

• La Morena Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce - I've found these to be a fantastic sub instead of trying to get dried Mexican chillies!
• Apple cider vinegar - to give the broth depth
• Mini flour tortillas - most quesabirria uses doubled up corn tortillas but I find these can crack and I really like flour tortillas for these. I use the mini or street sized ones.
• Cheese - Typically Chihuahua cheese is used but you can sub with shredded mozzarella and tasty or cheddar cheese.
• Limes, coriander and white onion to give the rich beef and cheese balance. Use fresh lime wedges, white onion and fresh coriander.

Tips For Making Birria Tacos

1 - This recipe makes a lot of consome because we wanted to have it with ramen too. You can use just 3 cups of chicken stock if you don't want as much consome. Just make sure that the beef is covered.

2 - Cut the beef chuck into large chunks around 1.5 inches square. Don't worry about cutting up the beef cheek into chunks, I just cut it into 3 pieces (it can be hard to cut beef cheek up.)

3 - Make sure to get 200g/7ozs of the the La Morena Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce (they also sell it in 100g/3.5oz tins so just check the size).

4 - Save the fat for brushing the tortillas and this gives the tacos the signature orange colour. Some stores dip the tortillas in the consome but I like brushing them. I think dipping makes sense if you're using corn tortillas as they can be a bit dryer and need the dip.

5 - Serve this with my 4 ingredient corn dip. Seriously, this is an amazing combo. Or try it with Esquites aka Mexican street corn salad too!

6 - To make birria ramen, cook 150g of ramen noodles and drain and place in a bowl. Then heat 1.5 cups of the broth along with 150g/5ozs of the meat in a saucepan until simmering. Add the broth and meat on top of the ramen. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped white onion and coriander and a wedge of lime.

Quesabirria Birria Tacos Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

Serves: 4-6 people with sides

Ingredients Needed

• Oil for frying
• 1 yellow or white onion, peeled and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.2kgs/2.6lbs beef chuck and beef cheek (can use all chuck), cut into large chunks
• 4 cups/1 litre chicken stock
• 400g/14oz diced tomatoes
• 200g Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
• 1/4 cup/60ml/2flozs apple cider vinegar
• 2.5 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 12 mini flour tortillas
• 200g/7ozs shredded mozzarella (I do half mozz, half tasty/cheddar cheese)
• Limes, coriander and white onion to serve

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Set your instant pot to sauté for 15 minutes and once hot, add 2-3 tablespoons of oil and fry the onion until translucent (around 5-6 minutes) adding more oil if needed. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Then add the spice mix (cinnamon, oregano, cumin, cloves and bay leaves) and fry for a minute. Then add the beef chunks and allow to brown turning over to ensure the pieces are browned all over.

Step 2 - Blend the Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce with the tomatoes in a food processor or Thermomix (20 seconds, speed #8) until smooth. Add this mixture along with the chicken stock and apple cider vinegar to the pot. Add salt, sugar and pepper and set to pressure cook on high for 45 minutes. You can also cook this in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours on low.

Step 3 - Release the pressure and remove the beef from the broth reserving 1/3 cup of broth and discard the bay leaves. At this point you can place the rest of the broth in a container in the fridge or freezer so that the fat starts to separate on top if you make it a day ahead of time. Or you can just skim the fat off the top with a spoon or you can use a pastry brush to just brush the top of the liquid where it will catch the fat.

Step 4 - Take the meat and shred with two forks and mix with the 1/3 cup of broth. Place a large skillet on medium heat. Brush the orange coloured oil on one side of the tortillas and place the tortilla oil side down. Add some beef and cheese on one half of the circle and cook for 1-2 minutes then fold over the tortilla using a spatula. Fry on both sides until crispy and the cheese is melted. Open up each tortilla a little and add a tablespoon or so of coriander and onion. Taste the consome for seasoning adding more if needed and then serve tacos with a bowl of hot consome and a wedge of lime and enjoy!

Personal Note

I've left this for Mr NQN's dinner a few times this week when I went out and he absolutely loves it. He will happily devour three tacos or a big bowl of birria ramen. The other night I went out to dinner with Laura leaving Mr NQN at home. It was a big week where I was out every single night and that's a lot for introverted Mr NQN so I decided to leave him at home with some food and the dogs which is his happy place. I arrived back home around 11pm. The street parking was completely full so I parked in our driveway. I also don't mind driving by myself because I can really crank up the music which Mr NQN doesn't like and I can sing along to my favourite songs.

Mr NQN's office is in the front of the house and at any hour you can find him tapping away at his computer. I could see the light on so he must have been waiting up for me. When I parked I went to the front door he opened it for me. "How did you know I was here?" I said.

"I knew you were here as soon as you pulled up, I could hear your music," he said chuckling. I was surprised because I always thought that your car was a bit of a cone of silence. Sure I've seen people pull up next to me playing music loudly but their windows were always down but apparently even with all the windows up you can definitely hear the music! No wonder people look at me when I pull up to a light!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like birria tacos? Do you play music loudly in the car?