Birria: what it is, history and the traditional recipe from Jalisco

What is it?

Birria is a Mexican stew of meat (originally goat, today also beef, mutton or lamb) marinated in an adobo of dried chillies, vinegar and spices, slow-cooked until it shreds, served in a bowl with its own consomme accompanied by onion, coriander, lime and freshly made maize tortillas. It comes from the state of Jalisco, particularly the municipality of Cocula, and is considered the emblematic dish of weddings, christenings and celebrations throughout western Mexico. In the last decade, beef birria in its taco version with consomme for dipping has conquered social media and the food trucks of the United States, becoming one of the most successful viral phenomena of contemporary Mexican cooking.

Origin and history

Birria was born in the 16th century in Cocula, Jalisco, as a pragmatic solution to a plague: the Spanish introduced goats to western Mexico and they bred so quickly that they became a problem. The friars and indigenous peasants developed a method to make their meat edible, considered tough and strong-flavoured, by marinating it in an adobo of guajillo, ancho and pasilla chillies with vinegar and spices brought from Europe (clove, cumin, pepper, cinnamon), and slow-cooking it in earth ovens covered with maguey leaves. The word "birria" in old Spanish meant "something of little value or contemptible", and the conquistadors gave that name to the goat stew, never suspecting it would become a refined dish. By the 19th century it was already the dish of weddings and patron-saint festivities in Jalisco. In the 1950s the beef version arose, quicker to make, and in 2018 the worldwide phenomenon of "birria tacos" exploded in Tijuana and Los Angeles.

Characteristic ingredients

The traditional ingredients are: goat meat (or kid, mutton, beef in modern versions), an adobo of guajillo, ancho and pasilla chilli (sometimes morita or cascabel), white vinegar, garlic, ginger, cumin, clove, allspice, cinnamon, bay leaves and oregano. The meat is marinated for at least 12 hours and cooked wrapped in maguey leaves or in a covered pot with avocado leaves for 4 to 6 hours. The consomme is the fat and juices that drip during cooking, collected underneath and served as the final broth. Regional variants: in Aguascalientes "birria de barbacoa" is made in an earth oven; in Zacatecas with mutton; in Tijuana it is served as tacos with consomme and cheese (quesabirria); in Tepatitlan there is beef birria with tomato. In modern recipes a pressure cooker is used to cut the cooking time to 90 minutes.

Cultural significance

Birria is the ritual dish of Jalisco: it appears without fail at weddings, christenings, first communions, fifteenth-birthday parties and wakes. Cocula, its birthplace, was declared the "Cradle of Birria" by the Jalisco government in 2017. It is part of traditional Mexican cuisine, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The media "boom" of birria tacos, attributed to the Aponte birrieria in Tijuana and popularised by taqueros such as Teddys Red Tacos in Los Angeles (2018), generated a second economy of birria in the United States: today there are estimated to be more than 800 formal birrierias in California, Texas and Chicago, and the viral videos of the quesabirria taco "dipped" in consomme have racked up billions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Birria has been the cover of magazines such as Bon Appetit and Eater as "dish of the year" in 2019 and 2020.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between birria and barbacoa?

Birria is marinated in a chilli adobo before cooking, has vinegar and Arabic spices, and produces consomme. Mutton barbacoa (Hidalgo) or beef barbacoa (the north) is cooked without adobo, only with salt and herbs, wrapped in maguey leaf in an earth oven. Birria has a more complex, spicier flavour; barbacoa, a cleaner, more herbal one.

Is birria made with goat or beef?

The traditional Jalisco version is goat. The beef one arose in the 1950s as a cheaper, quicker-cooking alternative, and it is the one that has conquered the United States in taco form. Both are legitimate. Today birrias of mutton, pork, chicken, mushroom and jackfruit are also made.

What is quesabirria?

Quesabirria is a modern Tijuana taco (circa 2014) that combines shredded birria, melted Oaxaca cheese and a maize tortilla dipped in the consomme and crisped on a griddle. It is served with a separate bowl of consomme for dipping the taco, a technique that has gone viral on social media since 2018.

Where does birria come from?

From Cocula, Jalisco, in western Mexico. It originated in the 16th century when the Spanish introduced goats and the indigenous and mestizo population developed a method to soften and flavour their meat through a chilli adobo and slow cooking. Cocula is officially considered the Cradle of Birria.