Birria Tacos!

This week for my learning project I decided to make birria tacos because they are one of my favourite foods! Although I only have ever had them once at Leopold’s Tavern, they were so delicious! Anytime I see a post on social media about birria tacos my mouth starts watering because they look and taste so good. Mexican food is one of my favourite cuisines to eat because my family and I have vacationed in Mexico a lot. One of the reasons I chose to make this is because it is very hard to find birria tacos at a restaurant. When I got them from Leopold’s Tavern they were only a limited-time menu option for a month during summer. I also decided to try making this because it seemed like it would be a difficult meal to make. 

This week I chose to use TikTok as my new online source to find my recipe. I found a TikTok with a step-by-step slide show which clearly showed how to make the tacos. Many other videos I found made it seem much more complete than it needed to be which is why I enjoyed this TikTok. The only downside to TikTok is there weren’t exact measurements for things like the spices, so I just had to eyeball it. Most of the items and spices I had at home as well which was nice. The only items I had to buy beforehand were limes, cilantro, and small tortillas. The recipe I found started with cooking the chuck roast in a pan, making the sauce, cooking the meat in the sauce for 3 hours, and then shredding the meat. I adjusted the recipe to meet my needs since I did not want to eat supper at 8 pm. I set the roast beef into a crock pot all day on low heat while I was gone at work. By the time I came home, the beef was already cooked and I just had to make the sauce. This turned out just as delicious and was much easier compared to all of the other recipes I have seen.

Here are the steps I took for each step:

1. I began by cutting the white onion, purple onion, and tomato. ½ of each of the white and purple onions was diced while the other halves were just a rough chop. The tomato was also a rough chop.
2. Next, I added cumin, oregano, thyme, cinnamon, turmeric, paprika, and minced garlic. These I just eyeballed for the amount. I had to remember that I can always add more spices but cannot take them away!
3. I then cut two of my peppers and scooped out the seeds. I added the peppers and beef stock into the pot. I let this simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes.
4. I checked on my meat in the crock pot to see if it was ready.
5. I then prepared my toppings. Since I already diced the onions, I just had to cut and clean the cilantro and limes.
6. Next, I took out the peppers. Save these for later!
7. I took my immersion blender and blended up the rest of the ingredients left in the pot. This took about 5-10 minutes to make sure it was smooth.
8. I took my roast out of the crock pot and placed this into the pot with the blended sauce. I added the pepper back in as well. I also added 2 bay leaves, rosemary, and a little salt. I left this simmer on low for about an hour.
9. After an hour, I took the beef out of the pot and shredded it with 2 forks. I also added about 3 ladle scoops of the sauce to keep the meat moist and add flavour!
10. Now it was time to assemble the tacos! I grabbed a clean pan and sprayed the pan with oil. I took my tortilla and dipped it in the sauce. I added the shredded meat, cheese, diced onions, and cilantro to the taco. Once the side was crispy I folded it in half.
11. I served it with lime wedges and a side of the sauce to dip it in!

Throughout the cooking process, I had to make some modifications. For example, my peppers were not the typical peppers used in this recipe. I could not find the specific kind at my local grocery store, so I just bought the ones that looked similar in size, colour, and shape. I also adjusted the recipe by cooking the meat differently than usual. If I compare the tacos I made to the ones I ate a Leopold’s Tavern, they taste the same if not better. As a result, I do not think the way I cooked the meat impacted the meal and flavour. I think this allows for the meal to be more accessible to people who don’t have enough time to prepare this meal for many hours during the day. The recipe also called to add harissa spice which I did not have, so I skipped out on. I also differed from the receipt by not having the meat simmer in the sauce for 3 hours. I think that if I had more time I would have done this as it would’ve enhanced the flavours even more!

I would make this meal again as it was much easier than expected! The birria tacos I spent at Leopold were around $18 not including taxes and tipping. This is almost the same amount of cost that the ingredients cost me. I also got only 3 tacos at Leopold’s Tavern while I got to serve my mom, sister, and myself plus all of the leftovers we had! My family and I all rated this meal a 10/10 as well! The taco was flavourful, juicy, and unique and the lime juice added a refreshing taste to the meal. It also reminded us of the many different street tacos we would get while vacationing in Mexico. The only downside was the tacos got pretty messy while eating them. However, I feel like this is inevitable to eat any handheld food. I am glad that I went out of my comfort zone to learn this meal. I also really enjoyed finding the recipe on TikTok because there were many different versions to choose from. In addition, I could also look under the comments of the video to see if people liked the recipe. I definitely will be making these again in the future and I am glad to have learned a new unique recipe to use with my family that we all enjoy!