birria as technique

Birria tacos. Snore, right? Yeah, it’s been done before. But I’m not here to talk about birria tacos—although I did do a very deep dive into the subject for EATNOM.

In fact, I thought so much about birria tacos, and made so many birria tacos, that I realized that birria tacos are more than a trendy dish. It’s a technique that home cooks can use to make delicious and easy tacos, with or without the traditional Mexican recipe for long-stewed meat.

The technique is the process of “wetting” the tortilla in some kind of broth, stuffing it with a meat-like filling plus cheese, then grilling or frying it on the stovetop. I found that you can even make these tacos ahead of time and keep them on a low heat in the oven to stay warm.

I’ve now practiced this with a variety of tortillas (corn, flour, even low carb), and a variety of fillings (chicken, beef, pork, tofu). It’s the technique of pan-frying the moistened taco that achieves the crispy exterior and melted cheese phenomenon and that makes birria tacos so, well, delicious—and photogenic.

My go-to recipe is usually a small flour tortilla that I dip in hot chicken broth, stuff with shredded chicken and shredded cheese, then pan-fry on a greased skillet. This is the most basic version and it works with so many different ingredients.

Check it out here:

Give it a try! And let me know how it goes.

Michael and I are trying to make a conscious effort in the new year to eat less meat and Melissa Clark’s NYT article about eating less meat in 2020 got us thinking…about faux meat or meatless meat. Is it good? Is it actually healthy? Will the kids eat it? Will we like it and replace meat with it?

On date night, in Pleasantville, we bemoaned our current Williamsburg-less life and instead went out to eat at a lively upscale pub where Michael ordered… a plantburger. The first bite screamed Boca Burger to me— a frozen convenience that I frequently ate when single. It wasn’t terrible, with plenty of fixins, it could fulfil the burger craving. But it easn’t yummy and neither of us finished it.

The first cooking experiment was Saturday night when I replaced our normal beef tacos with Beyond Beef Tacos. As a pushed the mush around in the pan, trying to mask it with lots of taco spices, memories of my microwaved plastic-y Boca burgers flooded back. It looked fairly repulsive and the ingredient list was long. Wasn’t this against my resolve to eat REAL food, something I’ve stuck to for years? I forged on and as the burger cooked and slightly browned, it started to look and smell more appetizing.

We didn’t tell the kids that we were substituting meatless beef— I just set the table as always and told everyone to dig in. Michael and I exchanged glances over the boys but neither said anything like this tastes weird, or I don’t like this. Nate, uncharacteristically, only ate one taco but no complaints were uttered. Still, it just wasn’t as delicious and hard to know if it was a success. The next day, we noticed a high volume of gas eminating from ourselves and our kids and vowed to not make meatless meat a habit.

thriller tacos

It was a majorly shitty week so it seemed like a good time to deep-fry the crap out of something. I'd never deep fried anything before—so messy, so tricky, so unhealthy. But it's been on my mind for some time now and I had a piece of cod in the fridge which wasn't quite enough to feed all of us so I did a bit of research and came up with fish tacos. The final recipe combined an epicurious recipe and a recipe from a book on Mexican street food that I picked up somewhere. 

The frying part was pretty straight forward—flour/season the fish and add to very hot oil for a short time. It emerged looking so delicious that I was immediately fired up to throw more things into the bubbling caldron and turn them into gold. Vegetables? Soccer cleats? But I hadn't planned ahead and only had a few flour tortillas on hand so I cut them in triangles and threw them in. The "chips" tasted a bit like wontons but had that perfect crunch that you can really only get from a deep fry. 

The tacos were delicious and I highly recommend you give them a try. Despite the deep fry aspect, they are very healthy and well-balanced and even kid-friendly (sans hot sauce.) Even if frying is not an option, I would still make these with broiled or grilled fish. Just remember, everything is better fried, and in the movies.

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tbsp salt
• 3 tbsp chile powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 pound cod (or any white firm fish)
• 1 lime
• 1/2 head cabbage, sliced and chopped
• 4 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 3 tbsp mayo
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 c plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup green salsa
• 1/2 red onion sliced very thinly
• warm tortillas
• salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste

1. Mix flour and next three ingredients in a bowl. Cut fish into 2-inch pieces and coat with flour mixture. Shake off extra.
2. Heat enough canola (or vegetable or peanut) oil in a pot to reach three inches and attach a candy/fry thermometer. 
3. Meanwhile, combine cabbage, mayo, yogurt, 1/2 lime's juice, 2 tbsp cilantro, red onion. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
4. When temperature reaches 375F fry fish for about 2 minutes until light brown. Drain on paper towels then add to bowl, along with worcestershire, rest of lime's juice, salsa and cilantro. Mix, slightly breaking up fish pieces. 
5. Place fix mixture on tortilla and top with slaw. Add hot sauce.