Oven Birria is about to become your favorite Mexican Beef Stew. Birria is a much beloved Mexican dish. You can find it in every restaurant, eatery and even street cart worth its salt. Although it originated in the beautiful state of Jalisco, it is a country-wide comfort food.
Presentations and ingredients vary from one place to the other. Purists enthusiastically engage in never-ending debates surrounding this emblematic Jalisco dish: “Soupy or dry?” “Goat or beef?” “Chile Ancho or Chile Pasilla?”
And you might spend the rest of your life arguing what’s best, what’s the original recipe and so on. I’d rather pass the time trying different recipes to find my favorite and then savor my Oven Birria instead of raving and ranting about it.
This Oven Birria is pretty easy to make. It took a long time, and some amounts of tweaking and fidgeting, in olden times to make it.
For starters, they didn’t have electric blenders. Everything had to be ground by hand in a pre-hispanic utensil called metate, a large, flat mortar still (surprisingly) in use to this day. Who has time for that? Obviously only people who haven’t heard of the advent of the internet, commutes and stress!
Furthermore, try to keep a constant low to medium temperature in a brick oven or even in a hole dug in the ground. Then cook the meat for endless hours after carefully wrapping it in maguey (agave) leaves. It’s no wonder that this practice is virtually defunct now.
Indeed, it was an excruciating process! I have no doubt the end result must have tasted out of this world but in these days, with our busy schedules, the need to simplify must prevail.
Also, this Oven Birria is perfect right now that many of us are doing home office. Put it together and marinate it the day before. Next day pop it in the oven while you are working and enjoy it by the end of your shift!
If you are still going out to work and as busy as always, you might want to try our equally easy and delicious Crock Pot Birria!
You might want to try this salsa to go with this dish.
Oven Birria
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. Beef Chuck Roast cut in 1" cubes
- coarse Kosher salt to taste
- 2 Roma tomatoes ripe
- 1/4 white onion
- 3 garlic cloves peeled
- 2 Dried Guajillo chilies seeded and deveined
- 1 Dried Ancho chili seeded and deveined
- 2 cloves (spice)
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2` tsp dried cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp ground allspice or 4 whole allspice berries
- 6 tbsp pineapple, apple or white vinegar
- 2 cups beef broth homemade or commercial
- Soft tortillas to make tacos
- Chopped onion and snipped cilantro for garnishing
- 3 Mexican limes, quartered optional to squeeze juice on tacos
- Hot sauce your favorite
Instructions
- In a large bowl soak the meat in water (just enough to cover it) with plenty of coarse Kosher salt to rid it of any blood.
- In a griddle or cast iron skillet roast Roma tomatoes, onion, garlic cloves and dried chilies. Start by roasting the tomatoes, onion and garlic cloves and add the chilies at the end and roast them very lightly, lest they become bitter. You don't want to burn them, you just want to enhance and release their flavor by applying some heat. In the blender process chilies, onion, garlic cloves and tomatoes with all the spices and the vinegar. If the paste is too thick add a bit of water, just enough to keep the blender going.
- Discard the meat soaking water, rinse perfectly and place meat in a plastic zipper bag or an airtight container, pour the chili mix on top and marinate overnight (at least for 8 hours).
- Preheat oven at 355 F, place meat and marinade in a baking dish and roast for 3 to 4 hours (depending on your oven) checking on it often, adding beef broth/stock as needed to desired thickness of the sauce; roast uncovered until fork-tender and cover dish if meat browns too much; you don't want it to burn. Season with salt, if necessary, but wait almost until the end of the oven time, as the sauce gradually thickens, increasing the level of saltiness.
- Serve with rice and/or beans and eat in tacos garnished with chopped onion and snipped cilantro; squeeze some lime if you 'd like to, and top with your favorite salsa.
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