These crispy, cheesy, delicious fried tacos are only made better with Beast Hot Sauce.
Birria tacos are the undisputed king of all tacos - Slow-cooked shredded beef and melted cheese in a fried taco shell, dipped in a chili-pepper based stew and covered in Beast Hot Sauce. Seriously, there's not much better. We make ours in an instant pot, but you can also take your time and make them in a slow-cooker or on the stove top as well.
The recipe below may appear daunting at first, but it's really only a few steps - Make the sauté chilis, brown the beef, make the stew, fry the tacos...
Eat the tacos covered in hot sauce!
Instant-Pot Beef Birria Tacos
Serves 4-6
Beef
3 lb beef shank, chuck roast, or similar
Marinade
3 dried guajillo peppers
3 dried ancho peppers
1 Tbsp Vegetable oil
1 medium onion chopped
5 cloves garlic minced
2 TBSP Tomato Paste
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
chicken stock to cover sodium free, about 1 quart
Tacos
4" corn or flour tortillas as needed, 12-16
1 medium onion chopped, optional
1 bunch cilantro chopped, optional
1 cup mexican cheese blend grated, optional
Directions
Set instant pot to sauté. Remove stem from dried chilis and cut into smaller pieces - You could also remove the seeds here, but you are reading this recipe on a hot sauce company's page, so I suspect not.
Add chilis to pre-heated instant pot and toast until fragrant, 4-5 minutes. Remove toasted chilis and set aside.
Cut beef smaller pieces so it can fit in a single layer in the instant pot. Pat dry, and season beef with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil in Instant Pot. Add beef to hot instant pot and brown for 5min per side. Remove beef and set aside, leave the caramelized goodness (fond) on the bottom of the pan to help flavor the stew.
Add chopped onion and garlic to Instant Pot and sauté until translucent. Deglaze bottom of pan with 1 Cup of Chicken Stock. Add tomato paste and remaining spices; stir well to incorporate.
Return toasted chilis and seared beef to the pan. Add enough chicken stock to cover. Put the lid on the Instant Pot and pressure cook on high for 45 minutes. Naturally release the pressure for at least 15 minutes.
Once cooking and venting has completed, remove beef and set aside. Remove cinnamon stick , cloves, and bay leaves from stew. Transfer stew to blender and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
Shred the cooked beef with a fork. Place shredded beef in a frying pan to keep warm. You can turn up the heat and crisp the beef in the frying pan if you want.
Heat a large frying pan to fry tacos. Pre-heat a small amount of oil to prevent tacos from sticking to the pan. Add shredded beef and cheese to a tortilla. Fold in half and dip entire taco in the stew. Add dipped taco to the frying pan and cook until cheese is melted and tortilla is crisp (1-3 min). Repeat until you have all the tacos you want. TIP: If making a large batch - keep pre-made tacos warm in your oven set loq.
Serve birria tacos with chopped white onion, cilantro and limes, alongside a ramekin of the stew for more dipping and BEAST Hot Sauce for more heat.
Need A Beer Pairing? Here's what we're drinking: BREW DETROIT Cerveza Delray ($5.99/4pk)
Did you make this recipe? Let us see it! Tag us on instagram and facebook and use the hashtag #feedthebeast