An authentic recipe for Birria, a flavorful Mexican Stew made with beef, lamb or goat, that can be cooked in an Instant Pot, Dutch Oven or Slow Cooker. Serve as a stew- in a big bowl or make Birria Tacos – the best! Watch the video below!
Divine guidance always arises like a whisper. It does not yell and it does not insist. It is a quiet thing. We cannot hear the whispers of divine guidance until we have embraced who we are. ~Adyashanti
Oh hello Birria! (Pronounced “beer-ya” with a lovely rolling rrrrr.) Turns out Birria, though hailing from Mexico, is all the rage down here in Southern California. And it’s not hard to see why. Tough cuts of meat are cooked until tender and juicy with flavorful chilies and Mexican spices. Traditionally goat is used, but more often here in the states, we see it with lamb or beef.
Using an Instant Pot takes a third of the time and yields the tenderest of meat in about 45 minutes of pressure cooking time. You can also roast this in a dutch oven or simmer on the stove for about 3 hours. Lastly, you can cook this in your slow cooker for 6-8 hours. Lots of options here friends.
Serve Birria up like a stew, topped with all the good stuff (pickled onions, queso fresco, cilantro, avocado) or make Birria Tacos, also super delicious.
How to Make Birria! |a 60-second Video
What are Birria Ingredients?
- Stew meat (You can use beef, lamb or goat)
- chicken or beef broth
- dried guajillo chiles
- dried Pasilla chilies
- onion
- garlic
- diced tomatoes
- vinegar
- honey
- spices!!!
Optional Garnishes: Cilantro, Lime, chopped onions, radishes, cucumber, pickled onions, Hot Sauce, Mexican cheese, avocado, sour cream. Chipotle Mayo, Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
Serve with: Tortillas, Cilantro Lime Rice, Mexican Pinto Beans, Mexican Slaw
It starts with seasoning the meat with salt. Here I’m using a combo of beef and lamb stew meat. A good rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon salt per pound of meat.
Chop one onion and 4-6 garlic cloves.
Toast the Spices! Birria has the best flavor when you use whole spices and toast them – cumin, coriander, cloves, and cinnamon. But in a pinch, ground spices work well too.
Make a Paste! You’ll toast dried chilis, hydrate them in hot broth and blend into a paste for the flavorful broth.
Here I’m cooking everything in an Instant pot– which turned out surprisingly easy and fast! Of course, you can do this on your stovetop in a dutch oven, in the oven or in a slow cooker.
After 45 mins of pressure cooking the meat is tender and easily shreddable.
Shred with two forks and place back into the flavorful juices.
From here, you can simply serve as a stew, dividing among bowls. For a brothier soup, add more chicken stock and season with salt to taste.
Top with cilantro, onions or pickled onions, queso fresco if you like or sour cream and avocado is nice. Radishes are also a nice touch.
Now to make the traditional Birria Tacos- dip tortillas right into the flavorful fatty broth at the top, then onto a greased griddle, flat top, or skillet. This will also help to skim some of the fat from the stew itself.
See notes about removing fat.
Flip, then top with melty cheese and some Birria. Both queso fresco or Oaxacan string cheese works great here.
Then top the Birria Tacos with all your favorite fixings.
The leftover Birria can be used in enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos, or even frozen for another time.
Serve Birria with any of the following:
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Mexican Pinto Beans
- Mexican Slaw
- Homemade Tortillas
- Mexican Papaya Salad!
- Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
- Pickled Red Onions
I hope you enjoy this Birria Recipe as much as we do! Please let me know what you think in the comments below!
You may also enjoy:
- 20 Instant Pot Recipes from around the Globe!
- How to Create a Mexican Feast!
- Chicken Carnitas
- Mexican Short Rib Tacos
- Pulled Pork Tacos with Five spice
- Grilled Steak Tacos with Cilantro Chimichurri Sauce
- Greek Lamb Tacos with Minted Yogurt Sauce
Birria Recipe
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 8
- Category: Stew, beef, lamb
- Method: Instant Pot, Baked, Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
How to Make Birria- a traditional Mexican Stew (with Beef, Lamb, or Goat) in an Instant Pot, Dutch Oven (Baked or Stovetop), or in a slow cooker. Serve in a bowl as a hearty stew, or use inside tacos. Great for meal prep and freezes well. Serve with Cilantro Lime Rice and Mexican Pinto Beans
Ingredients
- 3 lbs stew meat (beef, lamb or goat) cut into 1- 2 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon salt
- pepper to taste
- ——
- 2 cups chicken or beef broth
- 4 dried guajillo chile (see notes)
- 2 dried Pasilla chilies (optional)
- ——-
- 1–2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted (and juices) or 1 1/2 cups fresh, diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons vinegar (white or apple cider)
- 1 tablespoon dried Oregano(or thyme)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- optional: 3-inch piece of orange zest ( 1/2 inch wide) use a veggie peeler
- optional: (not traditional) 1-2 canned chipotle peppers or 2-3 tablespoons adobo sauce (from the can) for a smoky flavor.
- 1 tablespoon honey, or sugar
Toasted Whole Spices
- 1 small cinnamon stick (or see notes)
- 6 whole cloves (or see notes)
- 2 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 8–10 peppercorns
Optional Garnishes: Cilantro, Lime, chopped onions, radishes, cucumber, pickled onions, Hot Sauce, Mexican cheese, avocado, sour cream. Chipotle Mayo, Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
Serve with: Tortillas, Cilantro Lime Rice, Mexican Pinto Beans, Mexican Slaw
Instructions
- Read all the way through before starting. 🙂
- Season meat with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Break dry chilies apart, remove stems and most seeds, and toast them in a dry large skillet over medium-low heat until fragrant and slightly darkened (do not burn- or they get bitter!). Place toasted chiles in a small pot with the chicken broth, bring to a simmer, cover, and let stand 20 minutes covered, turning the heat off, until softened.
- In the same warm skillet, toast any whole spices you are using-cinnamon stick, cloves, cumin, coriander, peppercorns– until it smells amazing- 1-2 minutes, turn the heat off, set aside.
- Heat oil in Instant pot on SAUTE setting, (or large Dutch oven over medium heat) and add onion and garlic, stirring and sauteing until fragrant, tender and golden. Add tomatoes and their juices,, simmer 2-3 minutes until tomatoes are breaking down, then add vinegar, oregano, the toasted cinnamon stick, (or ground cinnamon) bay leaves and allspice. Stir and scrape up any browned bits (important, to prevent burn error) using a wood spoon. Turn heat off.
- Place the softened chilies and broth to the blender along with the toasted spices plus roughly one cup of the tomato mixture from the Instant Pot (leave the rest of the tomatoes in the instant pot). Place a towel over the blender lid, and hold it firmly down (to prevent a blender explosion!), starting on low, and increasing to high, blending until smooth. Turn blender off. (At this point you could add the canned chipotle peppers if using. 1-3 peppers will suffice, or for milder, just use the adobo sauce out of the can.) Blend again till very smooth.
- Pour this flavorful sauce back into the instant pot or Dutch oven and stir. Add the salted meat and stir to coat well. Feel free to add a piece of orange zest if you like.
- INSTANT POT: Set instant pot to 45 minutes on high pressure. Let it naturally release. Shred the meat using two forks. You can skim the fat if you like, or use it for dipping tortillas, before frying them (traditional).
- Dutch Oven: If using a dutch oven, cover tightly, and either simmer on the stove over medium-low heat, 3 hours or bake in a 350F oven, 3 hours. Check at hour 2, for dryness, adding a little more broth if you think necessary.
- SLOW COOKER: You could also place this in a slow cooker for 6-8 hours.
- Season: After the meat is shredded and mixed back into the cooking liquid, stir in the honey. Taste, adjusting the salt, honey or vinegar to your liking. Sometimes I’ll add a little more ground cinnamon or cumin to taste.
- Serving Options: BOWL OF STEW: you could serve this as a hearty stew (feel free to thin this out with a little more broth if you prefer) in a bowl, topped with cilantro, radish, cucumber, chopped onion or pickled onion, cotija cheese or sour cream and lime. (Fresh chopped things add good texture.)
- TACOS: You can use Birria as a taco filling. Often you’ll see (Food truck versions) the tortillas dipped into the rich broth, before being fried in a skillet, covered in melty cheese (Oaxacan string cheese) then filled with the Birria and all the fixings’. Decadent, but amazing!
Notes
If cooking in a Dutch oven, preheat oven to 350F
SPICES: sub 1 teaspoon cinnamon (for cinnamon stick) and 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Use dry mild chilies like Guajillo and Pasilla Chiles, to add flavor and depth – but not too much heat. (Feel free to use other dried chilies, paying attention to heat level.) Add Chipotle for more heat and smoky flavor. If you want a milder stew, I suggest using only Guajillos (like 6). You can always add more spice at the end (cayenne, chili flakes, chipotle powder) if not sure. Using dried chilies really makes this dish.
If you prefer a brothier stew, you can always add more chicken or beef broth at the end of cooking, seasoning with a little more salt.
MEAT: I used a mixture of lamb and beef. Tougher cuts of meat work great here like stew meat. Shoulder, shank, leg, etc. Goat meat is traditional.
FAT: This can be made ahead; cooled – the fat will solidify, and then can be removed more easily if going for a leaner version.
Keywords: Birria Tacos, Birria Recipe, How to Make Birria, Instant Pot Birria, Slow Cooker Birria, Beef Birria, Lamb Birria
Definitely read and understand all of the directions before starting! 🙂 I inadvertently put the whole spices into the tomato mixture instead of the blender – whoops. Even still, it turned out AMAZING! This recipe is an unexpected and delicious blend of flavors and we love it, like all of the other recipes by Sylvia that we tried! The orange peel added a nice touch – wow!
This will be our first attempt at birria and your recipe looks delicious; I can almosst taste and smell it from the photos! What is your opinion on using a beef brisket?
It should be fine, just be sure to cut into chunks.
Amazing and easy! This is my go to recipe. I make it almost weekly. I have used different cuts of meat and comes out perfect every time! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
★★★★★
Great to hear Dawn!
What size instant pot did you use for your serving size?
6 quart
When adding the broth to the blender do you blend the whole spices in with it?
Yes, just not the cinnamon stick. 🙂
At the end, do you just pick out the cinnamon stick? Or what happens to it? I got lost in the recipe and didn’t follow along to see what happens to the cinnamon stick 🙂 Thank you!
After it’s pressure cooked, yes just fish it out.
Great recipe, full of flavour. I will add additional chilli’s next time as I do like lots of spice. But this is was perfect for the whole family.
★★★★★
At what point do you add the orange zest?
★★★★★
Stick it in the instant pot before pressure cooking.
I have a huge family so 3lbs will probably feed like 3 of us haha but wanted to see if I tripled it, should I add less of certain things or just triple all the ingredients like you would in baking.
Looking forward to making this for tomorrow! 🙂
★★★★★
I would triple everything. 🙂
Looks like a great recipe! Pretty close to my version. The only thing it’s missing is the pimienta gorda aka allspice. I use three in my recipe. Also, I’ve never used chipotle in mine. My Mexicano husband would think that was muy interesante but I’m going to try that for a little different spin next time. Yum!
P.S. Birria is awesome when made with pork. 😉
I should wait to rate this, but I can tell it’s going to be incredible. I first had Birria at a Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio. Unfortunately now closed. But I would order the Lamb Birria EVERY time I went. Rather than tacos, they served it over rice with chopped raw onion and cilantro. I will give you an update after I make it, but thanks for posting this!
★★★★★
Perfect David!
This was fabulous! Can’t believe my husband I had never heard of birria before this – Used venison stew meat and some sort of sweet pepper that we smoked ourselves instead of the pasilla chile; otherwise followed recipe precisely and served over the lime cilantro rice. WOW! New fall/winter recipe to add to our repertoire – thank you!
★★★★★
Glad you liked this Karen!
Looking forward to trying this recipe but trying to plan out the calories over it, do you happen to have a breakdown of how you got the nutritional info? I put the ingredients into my MFP and results came out different.
Hi Stacy- what type of meat are you using? Can you tell me more about where the discrepancy is? I basically copy and paste the recipe into a nutrition calculator and it spits out the results.
Read through and memorize this recipe because you will need no other! Going on a scavenger hunt to find the right chiles was so worth it. The aromatics, the spices, the dry roasted chiles all play their part in this rich, deep, flavorful sauce. Tried my first birria taco at a food truck and now I can have it whenever I want! Thank you, Sylvia, for bringing these birria tacos into my home!
★★★★★
Awesome Sarah! Glad you liked this!
Hi Sylvia,
You mention to leave the whole cinnamon to the side after toasting. At what point do you add it? Thanks. Juan
Sorry about that, just put it in the instant pot with the tomatoes. 🙂
Any thoughts on a vegetarian substitute?
Jackfruit? Just guessing here, have not tried this. 😉
Mushrooms work great!
i made this recipe about a month ago and it was delicious! initially, i didn’t think 3lbs of protein was much, but it was plenty for 4 people and enough for my husband and i for the next couple of days. easy recipe to follow; it was my first time making tacos without a package mix! the only change i would make for my own taste preference is less cinnamon. next time, i’ll use half a stick. for those making this recipe for the first time, add the cinnamon stick directly into the instant pot and remove after cooking.
there is a taco truck near me that makes fantastic birria tacos (cars lined down the street waiting to order) and my husband said, this recipe has more flavor/spices. thanks for a great recipe!
★★★★★
Great to hear! Glad you liked this!
Been craving birria for a while. Finally made it today and it was delicious! As the recipe says, read through the instructions first.
★★★★★
I’ve been craving this for a while as I see posts of Birria tacos on social media. Finally made it with beef today. Excellent recipe, so delicious.
As the recipe says, read instructions thoroughly first.
★★★★★
Made this last night, didn’t have the right chillies so used what I had and added bit of smoked paprika. It was delicious.
★★★★★
This is my first time making this I forgot to put sugar in it I’m cooking it in my instant pot hope everything come out good
★★★★★
Getting ready to make this for dinner tonight — so excited! I love birria tacos!
I read through the instructions and had 1 question – once you toast the cinnamon sticks with the spices, do you just discard it? Your recipe says to put all the spices other than the cinnamon stick in the blender but doesn’t mention if we add the cinnamon sticks in the instant pot at some point or just discard it. Thanks!
Add it to the Instant Pot, sorry. Will fix.
I am preparing to make this with beef. I’m tempted to use the Insta pot but worried that the slow braiding in the oven would produce a better result? What do you think?
I agree. If you have the time to slow braise in the oven, do it!
I’m not sure what we did wrong here, but the meat was extremely tough (as if it had seized up), it was quite greasy and grossly lacking in flavor. We followed the recipe exactly as written. This is the first and only recipe we have made of yours that we were unhappy with.
★★
Strange. Sorry about that Mary. It sounds undercooked? Can you tell me if you used an Instant pot or stovetop? What type of meat did you use? Was it frozen?
I think it was previously frozen stew meat in the instant pot.
My guess is that it didn’t cook long enough. Maybe pieces too big, I’m not sure.
I immediately thought the pressure valve was released instead of natural release…maybe.
Oh maybe that was it?
I made this and I’m not sure what is really supposed to taste like. I
Mine tasted like Clove &!cinnamon. My meat was bland. What is the real flavor of this suppose to be?
Oh no! I’m sorry. I wonder what could have happened here- it really is not a bland recipe-quite opposite. Did you happen to use the recipe multiplier to make a bigger batch? Do you remember if you seasoned the meat with salt beforehand? Did you blend the sauce ingredients? The clove and cinnamon should only be hints. Something is off, sorry it didnt work for you.
Could you use pork??
I don’t see what not?! should work great!
Fabulous recipe! I have now made it 3 times in 2 weeks and it is such a hit. The family keeps asking for it again.
★★★★★
I have been craving Birria tacos since I first had them from a truck in Jackson Heights, Queens this February. These are killer! Definitely do the multiple kinds of chiles. I needed a some extra water to add to my dutch oven to make it more like a broth, added the stems from my cilantro (tied in twine for easy removal), and seared an oxtail in my dutch oven to add to the rest of the beef for extra collagen. An excellent recipe though, my wife and I both loved it.
★★★★★
Appreciate this! Glad you enjoyed!