lamb birria

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

 Birria Recipe 

lbs stew meat (beef, lamb

salt

pepper

——

broth

4 dried guajillo chile (see notes)

Pasilla chilies (optional)

——-

olive oil

onion,

garlic cloves, roughly chopped

tomatoes

vinegar (white

tablespoon dried Oregano(or thyme)

bay leaves

allspice

orange zest

optional: (not traditional) 1-2 canned chipotle peppers

honey, or sugar

small cinnamon stick (or see notes)

(or see notes)

coriander seeds

cumin seeds

8-10 peppercorns

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&#8211; 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&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;.  Decadent, but amazing!

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.

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'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.

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

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.

Been craving birria for a while.  Finally made it today and it was delicious!   As the recipe says, read through the instructions first.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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! :)

At what point do you add the orange zest?

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.

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.

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/QeAc562f.mp4

A video on how to make Birria, an authentic 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! 

how to make Birria Video

Give your Birria tacos a twist with this crazy delicious Lamb Birria! Bursting with flavor and texture—this Lamb Birria tacos recipe is a must-try for taco lovers! This is a crowd pleasing recipe that you’ll be making on repeat—Full guide and VIDEO below.

Lamb Birria

lb American lamb shanks

Guajillo chiles

chipotle in adobo

vinegar white

garlic

oregano

paprika

chilli powder

cumin

chilli flakes optional

onions diced

Tablespoon oil

cinnamon

cloves

stock chicken (beef

mini tortillas flour

cheese Monterey (cheddar

cilantro chopped

onion

jalapenos sliced (optional for extra heat)

Start by soaking your Guajillo chiles in the hot water in a bowl and cover the bowl with a plastic wrap so it softens up. Once the pepper are softened, they're ready to use. Usually this takes around 15 minutes.

In a blender add all the marinade ingredients along with the soaked chillies

Blend until smooth.

Coat the meat with the blender sauce in a large bowl and marinate or proceed with the recipe. You can marinate the lamb for upto 12 hours.

To make the birria stew: sautee the onions with the oil until soft and tanslucent

You can use an instant pot or large stovetop pan for this recipe.

Once the onions are ready, add in the lamb and sauce mixture all at once.

Add to that the whole spices and stock. Now bring the stew to a boil and then cook on medium heat

For instant pot --select pressure high and cook for 40 minutes--depdning on the size of your shanks, you may need 50 minutes.

For stove top -- cover the pot and cook for 1 hour and 24 minutes-2 hours depending on the sizeo of your shanks.

USDA recommends lamb reach an internal temp of 145F

If you want to bake the birria in the oven (no stove top option) -- place all ingredients with onions in an oven safe dish and cover the dish with foil. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour and half.

The stew is ready when the meat comes out tender. Remove the meat from the sauce and reserve the sauce in a bowl.

Take the lamb shanks and use a fork to shred them into fine shreds on a wooden board.

Add the meat to bowl along with 3 ladles of the reserved sauce to flavor up the lamb for stuffing the tacos.

Make the tacos: Dip each tortilla into the reserved sauce to flavor it up. Make sure to quickly dip and remove the tortilla and always work with one tortilla at a time.

In a heavy duty skillet, place the tortilla in to the pan and add cheese over half of the tortilla. Then Add the lamb meat over the cheese and fold over the tortilla to make the tacos shape.

flip the tacos and allow it to sear on both sides a total of 5 minutes until crisp.

Garnish the tacos with cilantros and jalapeños

For the dipping sauce : take 2 cups of the reserved birria stew sauce and add in chopped onions, jalapeno (optional) and remaining cilantro.

Dip the lamb birria tacos in the dipping sauce and ENJOY!

https://mediavine-res.cloudinary.com/video/upload/t_original/v1654698128/b19ucsinusntek4c0g2q.mp4

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The most viewed lamb birria recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine