- Is there anything more delicious than a perfectly made taco? Well, I'm gonna show you
the creme de la creme, and they're known as birria tacos. They are ridiculously tasty, absolutely bursting with flavor, not too hard to make, but
it does take some time. You are gonna love this recipe. (soft pop music) Now, you have to learn to roll those Rs when you say this dish, birria. Birria was created in Jalisco, Mexico, which is on the western
side of the country, just west of Mexico City. Now, birria is actually what
is created from barbacoa. Maybe you've heard that
word "barbacoa" before. It's actually a cooking technique. They have a pit, sometimes a fire, sometimes some very hot stones. They would take some meat,
wrap 'em in banana leaves, put 'em in their, cover it, let it cook for a long period of time until it's very tender. They would then take that
meat and add it to a consomme to make birria consomme. Now, while I'm probably not
gonna dig a pit in my backyard, although I may wanna get in my
studio, I have to tip my hat to the creators of this down in Jalisco. It's an absolutely delicious recipe. And the first thing we need to do is make that birria consomme before we can make those birria tacos. Sound good? Let's cook. In Chef Billy Parisi fashion, of course we're gonna start
with prepping up an onion. White onions or yellow onions will do. We're going to slice off the ends, slice 'em in half, of course,
remove that outside peel, and then just give them a rough chop. It does not have to be perfect in any way. Once they are chopped, we're just gonna set them
to the side in a bowl. And then, I have some vine-ripe tomatoes. Now, you may see these
in some classic recipes and you may not. I like it because it
provides flavor and acid and helps cut down on some of the heat. So, go ahead and, using a
paring knife or your chef knife, just remove that core on the top. And then, just like the yellow onions, we're going to roughly chop them. Again, no need to be perfect 'cause we're gonna puree
all of this anyways. Now, add that to a bowl. Again, set them to the side. And I've got some dried chilies. This is so important in this recipe. I've got a combination of
guajillo and ancho chilies. Another chili that you may
see in this classic recipe would be cascabel, but
these are fantastic. They are loaded with flavor and you can absolutely find these in your local Latin supermarket. So, what we need to do to prep these are remove the stem on the outside and get rid of the seeds or the pith. If you can't do it by hand, just use your knife and slice off the end. Absolutely no problem. Pull out the pith in the inside and remove as many of
the seeds as possible. And you know me, I am a weakling when it comes to tolerance for spicy food, and the seeds have a ton of heat in them. If you love spice, you can
leave some of the seeds, but I still recommend
taking out most of them. For me, I can only have about a max of four each guajillo and ancho chilies. You can absolutely add a few
more again if you like spice or you can scale down if you
absolutely cannot handle spice, even on a softer side compared to me. The same thing goes with the ancho. You saw me do the
guajillo, I did the ancho. We're gonna set them
to the side in a bowl, put them to the side, and now let's take out our carne, or meat. So, I've got a combination
of lamb and beef. Classically, this recipe
would be made with goat, and then it became mutton or lamb. And then, oftentimes in
Northern Mexican regions, you would find that they use beef. For me, I always love the combination, just like in my kofta recipe. So, I've got some lamb shanks, some beef chuck, some beef shanks, which you can always
find and are super cheap. And then the last cut
of meat I'm going to use is a beef top round. Now, you can use any one of
these cuts, a combination. I just sort of had all of
these, so it worked out perfect. But what I wanna do is
simply slice these down into smaller pieces so they
can actually cook quickly. So, first with the big chuck, and then of course with the top round. And again, I want to say again, you can use all of these different cuts, one of these different
cuts, a combination. You choose. Find out what's on sale. Find out what's available to you. Now, what we wanna do is
season generously on all sides with some salt and fresh
cracked black pepper. Once they are nice and
seasoned up on both sides, we're gonna take them over to
a very large pot or rondeau. Now, classically, you
wouldn't probably sear these, but I'm going to. So, add some olive oil to that pot. Make sure it's smoking
before you add in your meat. Obviously, this pan isn't big enough, so I'm gonna cook it off in batches. And using my method where you
sort of move the meat around as much as you can to make sure you brown as much surface area as
possible, just move it around, see all that flipped
perfectly golden brown. It's gonna take about six to
eight minutes on each side for this to be a beautiful
golden brown all the way around. Once they are completely
browned, let's take them out. Set them to the side on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper
or a plate or a platter, whatever you have. Now, go back over to your pot. I'm going to add in our onions. You know when it comes to
cooking onions and to me, you can pull so much
flavor by caramelizing. Now, you do not need to do
a 45-minute caramelization, but a 20- to 25-minute caramelization will be absolutely ideal
to enhance the flavors. And you see all that fond, all that goodness stuck to the bottom from searing off the meat? It's gonna add so much more flavor. Next, we're gonna add
in some garlic cloves. Really, just give this a
saute, maybe for three to four, maybe even five minutes here just to bring out some
of those garlic flavors. And at this point, what
we're gonna do next is add in all of those tomatoes, and this is gonna start
to pull away the fond from the bottom because
there's liquid in the tomatoes. Next, all of those chilies. And what we're gonna do again, similar to the garlic, saute
for a little bit longer, maybe six to eight minutes. We want to start to tenderize the peppers and bring out some of the flavors. And now it's time to add quite
a bit of dry spices in here, starting with some all spice berries. If you only have ground
allspice, that's totally fine. Next, we have some cinnamon
we're gonna put in there, followed up with some cumin seeds. And again, if you only have
ground cumin, totally fine. Now, I've got some black peppercorns, a little bit more spice in there. Now I'm going to add in some oregano. You may see marjoram also in this recipe. We're gonna hit it with some bay leaves and then, last but not
least, some dry thyme. You also may see ginger in this recipe. I'm not going to put it in there, but you may in some other classic recipes. So, move all of those things around, start to infuse some flavors,
and then de-glaze with water. This will help reconstitute
the peppers even more, but also make it really easy to puree. So, we're gonna cook
these for about 15 minutes on medium heat or until about
half of the amount of liquid is left in there. This is perfect. Gonna concentrate the flavor,
make it even more delicious. What we're gonna do at this
point is take it all out and add it right into a blender. There's not a lot in here, so honestly it should fit
in your blender no problem. Now, because this is hot, I do want to show you a little trick. Once you put the top onto the blender, remove that center cap. If you don't remove it, it's gonna explode and you're gonna be cursing my name. But what I do like to do is
add a little towel on there and leave a little opening like you see on that bottom
left corner of the cap. You can start by pulsing it
or just puree on high speed. Let it run for about 45 seconds. You want this to be really, really smooth so there's not any huge
chunks going on in there. Once it is done processing,
it looks fantastic. You should even put your finger in there and give it a little taste
or a spoon, whatever you got. Now, let's transfer
this goodness right over back to our large pot that
we cooked everything in. Remember to keep using this pot. There's so much flavor
in there from the fond and everything we've cooked in there. One pot, my friends,
that's all we're gonna do. Use a spatula to get all that
goodness out of the blender. And now, it's not traditional, but I think it's gonna add more flavor, I've got some beef stock. It is absolutely more
classic to use water. I've got beef stock from
a recipe I just did. It will absolutely enhance
the flavors of this. Now what we're gonna do is just move some of those ingredients around, no big deal, nothing crazy. Just push some things
around with the spoon. And then generously, I
mean, generously season this with salt and pepper. This is your braising liquid to your meat to flavor every single thing up. In fact, take a taste to make sure. And now add all the meat
back in to that pot. What we wanna do is put
everything in there. And then, I'm just gonna grab a spoon and start to move some things around. I don't want stuff just on
the bottom or on the top. Just completely move it
around, submerge everything. And then, on medium to medium-high heat, almost to a lightly bubble or a low boil, we wanna cook this for about two hours. So, add a lid. This is a huge pot; I actually
don't have the lid to this. So, if you don't have a lid, like me, just flip a large saute pan
over and put it over top. Again, two hours, maybe
even two-and-a-half, until it's completely tender. And with about five to 10 minutes left in the cooking process,
we're just gonna come back. We've got some Oaxaca cheese, which would be absolutely classic to use with the birria tacos. Now, if you can not get Oaxaca, you can absolutely use
panela or even Chihuahua. Those would be great cheeses
in the tacos as well. So, once you've shredded it,
just simply set it to the side. Let's go over to our birria consomme. Take the top off. Oh my goodness, does it smell amazing
in this house, no joke. You see how tender that beef is. It looks fantastic. And again, the smells are to die for. So, at this point, what we want to do is take out all the beef,
is take out all the beef and of course the lamb, let's not forget about the lamb in there, and put it to the side
in a pan or a plate, whatever you have. I happen to have that saute pan that I flipped over, and it's perfect. Gosh, does this look so good. It's gonna break down and be amazing. We're heading right over
to my cutting board. Transfer all of this goodness right on to that cutting board. We're literally just using
the pan to transfer this. Once it's all on there, what I like to do is first go through and get out as many bones as possible, especially from the beef shanks. There'll definitely be bones in there. But for sure cook with them because it does add more
flavor to the stock. And then using a large knife, I happen to have a cleaver,
start to chop this up; shred it. If you don't have a cleaver,
maybe just use two forks like you would a pulled
barbecued recipe and go through- Oop, see the lamb shank
there, the bone there? We're just gonna take that out and scrape as much meat
off it as possible, put it away, and then
just continue to chop it until it's finally chopped. Think about small bite-sized
pieces; tender, delicious. I'm telling you right now,
this right here is so amazing. Just take a fork and take
some of this out and taste it. You will be so amazed. Now, because this is a consomme, which is a beef broth liquid, we wanna strain it, get all
of that stuff outta there. There may be some peppercorns in there that didn't grind all
the way in the blender. If you can't get it through your chinois or your fine mesh strainer, what I like to do is add
a small ladle in there or a rubber spatula and
move some things around to get all of that goodness outta there. This is amazing, my friends. And what we're gonna do to start is serve up the birria consomme, which would be a classic dish served. It's almost like a stew, a beef soup. So, put some of the beef into a bowl. Now, we're going back over
to where our consomme is that we just strained. Add a few ladles into there. Again, you want this to be
almost like a stew, not a soup. So, it's thin, you want
chunks of beef in there. And then, why not go to a little slow-mo for a quick plate-up? Squeeze in some lemon
juice to help cut the heat. Add in some finely diced
onion and cilantro, radish for an option. And this stew is absolutely to die for. You can eat it as-is. So, here's one way to prepare this recipe. And the next way, of
course, is to make tacos. To do this, you have
to use corn tortillas. Dip the corn tortilla in the top. It's got some of that meat fat and some of the consomme in there. We're gonna add it right to
a large cast iron skillet. The fat in there will
help cook it immediately. Spread some of the cheese right on top. We're gonna grab a nice scoop
full of the chopped-up meat. Eh, maybe a little bit too much
there; let's take that out. We're gonna put it on the
half side of the taco shell. And this part is optional, add on some onions and
cilantro if you want. Definitely not a classic version, but you do see it in some
recipes around in Mexico. So, now fold that taco over
after maybe 90 seconds or so. We wanna crisp it up. Be sure to flip it over
and catch the other side. And, oh my gosh, I cannot wait
to get into this, my friends I tell you all the time
it's all about understanding these classic fundamental
cooking techniques. It doesn't matter if the
technique was in France, Italy, or founded in Mexico. You start to put these into practice, your everyday cooking, my promise to you, will be so much better. And when you make it
homemade from scratch, it's going to be amazing;
knowing which chilies to use, knowing when your beef is tender enough to start to pull it and shred it. Now it's a time of glory
for the tacos, at least, so let's plate those up
one more time in slow-mo. It's very classic to serve the tacos up with a side of the consomme
that has no beef in it, so just the liquid. Put it in a small ramekin or a small bowl. We're going to squeeze in a
little bit of the lemon juice. But unlike the original birria consomme, we're not gonna add in onions. We're just gonna hit it with cilantro. Add some tacos right
onto your cutting board. I thought the cutting board
would be a nice touch. And then, this is how
you eat them, my friends. You dip this goodness in that consomme and it makes for the juiciest, most delicious taco of all time. And, my oh my, check out these beauties. (soft pop music) Yep, started with three
tacos, already down to two. Sorry, couldn't help myself. You have to make these. They are the tacos of tacos, no joke. Be sure to subscribe to my channel. Definitely like and share this video. Check out this video right here. I made it just for you all. We'll see you on there. (soft pop music)
