Easy Slow Cooker Birria Tacos
Social media is awash with birria tacos content and we love it. Shredded beef and cheese is stuffed into tortillas that are soaked in a smoky beef broth and fried. However, some of the recipes can be quite daunting, requiring you to rehydrate different types of dried chillis and using ingredients you probably won’t find in your local supermarket. We decided to create an easy version of slow cooker birria tacos – by no means traditional, but packing tons of flavour!
We use beef short ribs in this recipe – they have so much flavour and really benefit from slow cooking. However, you could substitute them for other cuts of beef that shred well, such as braising steak (or ‘chuck’). All good butchers will sell beef short ribs, as well as many supermarkets. You just need to think about how many ribs you can fit in your slow cooker. We use large meaty short ribs and can only fit 4 in a 3.5L slow cooker – so be careful!
Chipotle paste is also key to creating a smoky flavour in this recipe. It’s readily available at most supermarkets and is usually found with the herbs and spices, or with the fajita and taco ingredients. We use Waitrose’s own chipotle paste in this recipe.
To make this recipe you need to go through a few stages. First, you need to brown the beef short ribs. Next, you’re going to slow cook them in a mix of stock, herbs and spices. After removing the beef and shredding, you’ll be blending up the slow cooker mix to create your consommé for dipping. To finish, just dip your tortilla wraps, fry them and add plenty of shredded beef and cheese. Prepare to get your hands messy while enjoying this one!
Easy Slow Cooker Birria Tacos
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- Frying Pan
- Hand Blender
Ingredients
For the slow cooker
- 4 Beef short ribs approx. 1kg
- 1 Small white onion Roughly chopped
- 2 Small tomatoes Roughly chopped
- 4 Cloves garlic Roughly chopped
- 2 tsp Chipotle paste
- 1 tsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- 500 ml Beef stock
- 2 Bay leaves
- 0.5 tsp Chilli flakes optional
- 1 Cinnamon stick
Also
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
For later
- 8-10 Small tortilla wraps
- 100 g Grated chedder and mozzarella
- Diced red onion Optional, to serve
- Chopped coriander Optional, to serve
Instructions
Slow Cooker
- Combine all of the slow cooker ingredients listed above, apart from the beef short ribs. Stir well.
- In a hot pan with a little oil, brown the beef short ribs for a couple of minutes on each side.
- Place the browned beef short ribs in the slow cooker, meaty side down.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
- Carefully remove the beef short ribs and place into a bowl. Remove the bones and shred the meat with two forks.
Tacos
- Remove the bay leaves and the cinnamon stick from the slow cooker. With a hand blender carefully blend the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker to make your consommé. Set the slow cooker to warm.
- Put a little vegetable oil in a pan on a medium heat. Carefully dip tortillas into the consommé and fry for 1 minute on each side.
- Place shredded beef and grated cheese on one half of the tortilla, carefully fold and fry for a further 1-2 minutes. Optionally add diced red onion and coriander.
- Spoon extra consommé into a bowl for dipping the tacos into and enjoy!
Nutrition
Why not try?
Like the idea of beef short ribs, but don’t fancy tacos? Check out our beef short ribs with red wine recipe instead.
