Low Effort, High Reward Birria Tacos

I’m sorry to say that I did not get any photos of the tacos the day we ate them, they were devoured in minutes. I did, however, get this leftovers pic, which were pretty bloody glam leftovers, but sadly lacking in accompaniments (ie consommé, lime or onions and cilantro)

We eat a lot of tacos in our household. Not that surprising given that my studio is in Mexicantown and I walk past two Mexican grocery stores on the way home, a luxury I do not take for granted. Our family favourite is birria- braised beef cooked in a lovely aromatic jus and then shredded and served in a taco with a cup of the cooking broth, consommé, on the side. You can also serve the beef and accompanying broth not as a taco but with instant ramen noodles which is insanely good! There are food trucks for both available to me within walking distance so I had never really thought about making them at home, buuuut it is so rare for there to be something we all agree to love in our house I figured it was worth trying at home.

This is a simplified version of recipes I found, using ingredients that I usually have in my fridge or pantry, or that at least aren’t difficult to find. It’s very low fuss for the reward which is exactly what I want from my home cooking. Making this reminded me that if you don’t have a stick blender (aka immersion blender or barmix) I highly recommend getting one. Mine is a no frills machine that cost me $50, a fraction of the price of a regular blender, and it is worth every penny for the amount of time and effort saved in transferring soup to a cumbersome gadget to blend, not to mention then having to wash. It also works perfectly well for smoothies and hummus and all that good stuff.

Making the corn tortillas is so insanely easy, especially if you have a tortilla press. I had my kids do it and they were more than happy about it. If you don’t have a press you can mimic one using a cast iron skillet and some body weight to press them between layers of baking paper. We made enough tortillas to save for leftovers and also used some for quesadillas later in the week. They keep perfectly well for a couple of days in a well-sealed container just large enough to hold them. Of course, you do not have to actually make your own tortillas, which would make the process even that much easier.

I’m always going to try to stretch the meat I have, so I also cooked a pot of pinto beans (you can find my method for cooking beans here)- with an onion and a couple of bay leaves- to serve inside the tacos too.

This is a pretty mild recipe (aka youngest child friendly) so feel free to add more chillies to yours.