Birria: what it is, history and traditional Jalisco recipe

What is it?

Birria is a Mexican meat stew (originally goat, today also beef, mutton or lamb) marinated in an adobo of dried chiles, vinegar and spices, slow-cooked until it shreds, served in a bowl with its own consommé accompanied by onion, coriander, lime and freshly made maize tortillas. It originates in the state of Jalisco, particularly in the municipality of Cocula, and is considered the emblematic dish for weddings, christenings and celebrations throughout western Mexico. In the last decade, beef birria in taco form with consommé 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 sixteenth century in Cocula, Jalisco, as a pragmatic solution to a plague: the Spanish introduced goats to western Mexico and they reproduced so quickly that they became a problem. Friars and indigenous peasants developed a method to make their meat edible, considered tough and strong in flavour, by marinating it in an adobo of chile guajillo, ancho and pasilla with vinegar and spices brought from Europe (cloves, 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 despicable", and the conquistadors used it to refer to the goat stew, never suspecting it would become a refined dish. By the nineteenth century it was already the dish for weddings and patron-saint festivals in Jalisco. In the 1950s the beef version emerged, quicker to prepare, and in 2018 the global 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 chile guajillo, ancho and pasilla (sometimes morita or cascabel), white vinegar, garlic, ginger, cumin, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, bay leaves and oregano. The meat is marinated for at least 12 hours and cooked wrapped in maguey leaves or in a pot covered with avocado leaves for 4 to 6 hours. The consommé 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 became tacos with consommé and cheese (quesabirria); in Tepatitlán there is beef birria with tomato. Modern recipes use a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time to 90 minutes.

Cultural significance

Birria is the ritual dish of Jalisco: it appears as a must at weddings, christenings, first communions, quinceañeras and wakes. Cocula, its birthplace, was declared the "Cradle of Birria" by the government of Jalisco in 2017. It forms part of the traditional Mexican cuisine inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The media "boom" of birria tacos, attributed to the Aponte birria house in Tijuana and popularised by taqueros such as Teddy's Red Tacos in Los Angeles (2018), generated a second birria economy in the United States: today more than 800 formal birrierías are counted in California, Texas and Chicago, and the viral videos of the quesabirria taco "dipped" in consommé have accumulated billions of views on TikTok and Instagram. Birria has been on the covers of magazines such as Bon Appétit 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, contains vinegar and Arab spices, and produces a consommé. Barbacoa, of mutton (Hidalgo) or beef (the north), is cooked without adobo, only with salt and herbs, wrapped in maguey leaves in an earth oven. Birria has a more complex, spicy flavour; barbacoa is cleaner and more herbal.

Is birria made with goat or beef?

The traditional Jalisco version uses goat. The beef version was born in the 1950s as a more economical, faster-cooking alternative, and it is the one that has conquered the United States in taco format. Both are legitimate. Today there are also mutton, pork, chicken, mushroom and jackfruit birrias.

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 consommé and crisped on a griddle. It is served with a separate bowl of consommé for dipping the taco, a technique that went viral on social media from 2018.

Where does birria originate?

From Cocula, Jalisco, in western Mexico. It originated in the sixteenth 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.