Loved a recipe? Have a question? Please share a comment. 🙂
These Quesabirria Tacos have the perfect balance of crunchy tortilla, tender meat and melty cheese! Save the extra stew broth for a simple dipping sauce.
Featured Comment
If you told me I could make these at home I wouldn’t have believed you but this recipe is easy and so tasty! These quesabirrias taste like something from a taco truck! Well done.
Why You’ll Love This Quesabirria Recipe
- Authentic. Growing up near the Mexican border I often visited Tijuana with my Nana to see family and do some shopping. This recipe reminds me of the Mexican street food we’d munch on!
- Flavorful. This recipe makes fall-apart-tender beef that is bursting with flavor. Once it’s made into tacos, fried up, and dipped in sauce? Unbelievably delicious.
- Incredible leftovers. You can use extra birria meat in a wide variety of ways. I share lots of ideas below in the section about using extras to make other recipes.
- Tested & highly rated. Not only have I made this recipe many, many times, but so have readers. These quesabirria tacos are consistently described as delicious, tasty, and amazing.
“My house smells amazing while these are in the oven. The neighbors even came a knockin…”
– Donna, in a December 2022 comment on this post
What Are Quesabirria Tacos?
A quesabirria is a cheesy version of a birria taco. Traditionally, birria tacos are made with stewed goat meat but you can also make them with beef. The meat is marinated in a flavorful adobo sauce, then cooked in a broth until it’s fall-apart tender. Then you stuff it in a corn tortilla and top it with a squeeze of lime and some fresh cilantro.
Once you add cheese (queso) to the mix, the taco becomes a quesabirria. Sometimes this is also called a quesotaco. The quesabirria originated in Tijuana and is basically what you get when a taco and a quesadilla come together.
Ingredient Notes
Here are some helpful notes on some of the ingredients in this recipe. Scroll down to the recipe card for a printable list of ingredients with instructions.
- Yellow corn tortillas – My favorite brand is La Tortilla Factory. Don’t use thin tortillas or they will fall apart when you are cooking the tacos.
- Oaxaca cheese – This is a stringy, melty cheese that’s usually found in Latin American grocery stores. If you can’t find it you can use another melty, mildy flavored cheese like mozzarella. Use “low moisture” mozzarella in this case.
Tips for Success
- Give it time. Making tender, flavorful birria meat takes time so I recommend giving the raw beef plenty of time to marinate (overnight is best), then letting it cook low and slow for the full 3 hours. Don’t try to rush the process by cooking on the stovetop or using an Instant Pot.
- Fry the tacos in the skimmed fat. Cooking them in fat from the stew adds incredible flavor! You can supplement with olive oil if you really must, but I say embrace the process. 🙂
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
- Tacos: It is difficult to save the cooked tacos for later, so loosen your belt and gobble them up! But if you must save leftovers, you can store cooled quesabirrias in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days. Reheat them by frying them again on the stovetop until warmed through, or placing them in an oven preheated to 350F until the insides are warm (about 8-10 minutes).
- Birria Meat: This recipe makes a generous amount of stew, so you will have leftover meat. You can store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. You may also freeze it for up to 3 months. See below for some tasty ways to use it!
Ways to Use Leftover Birria Meat
Leftover birria meat is incredible in burritos, made into more tacos, or just spooned on top of Instant Pot Mexican Rice. You can also serve it on top of Vegetarian Dirty Rice as long as you don’t mind your meal not being vegetarian anymore. 🙂
I also have some recipes showing you how to use extra birria meat:
- Birria Pizza – Homemade pizza dough topped with extra birria sauce and meat, then topped with melty cheese.
- Birria Quesadillas – A classic way to use up extras in Mexican households.
- Birria Mulitas – Essentially these are birria quesadillas with the WORKS. So good.
- Birria Enchiladas – A cozy Mexican dinner idea made with homemade enchilada sauce.
- Tortas – You can also use birria meat in place of pork carnitas to make tortas ahogadas.
Enjoy!
p.s. I also have a chicken birria tacos recipe!
Quesabirria Tacos
This easy quesabirria tacos recipe will have you making delicious Mexican street food right in your own kitchen! The finished tacos have the perfect balance of crunchy tortilla, tender meat and melty cheese.
Ingredients
- 4-5 short ribs, deboned and cubed
- 2 lbs beef chuck roast
- 1 tablespoon sea salt, or kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Marinade Sauce:
- 6-7 dried guajillo peppers
- 1 chipotle pepper, from a 7 oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Stew:
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 cup white onion, chopped
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves
- 32 ounces of beef broth
Tacos:
- 16 yellow corn tortillas
- 1 ½ cups Oaxaca cheese, shredded
- Fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
Prepare the Birria:
- Prep the meat. Trim and cube the chuck roast and short ribs. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a large container with a lid.
- Soften the dried chilis. Bring a medium sized pot of water to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and soak the guajillo chilis for 10 minutes. Remove the peppers from the water and remove both the stems and seeds.
- Make the marinade. In a blender, place the guajillo peppers, one chipotle pepper, all of the adobo sauce, apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, garlic, oregano, cumin, paprika and cayenne. Blend until smooth.
- Marinate the meat. Pour the sauce over the meat in the container. Cover with the lid and marinate for at least 1 hour.
Cook the Stew
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Cook the onion and sear the meat. Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a french or dutch oven. Heat oil over medium heat and add the chopped onion. Cook for 3 minutes or until softened. Add the marinated meat and all the sauce. Mix in the cinnamon, bay leaves and beef broth.
- Cover and braise the beef in the oven for 3 hours.
- Remove the stew from the oven and skim some of the fat off the top. Place the fat in a separate dish and set aside.
- Remove meat and shred with a fork. Return to the dutch oven once finished. Stir to toss the shredded meat with the sauce.
Assemble the tacos:
- Melt the reserved fat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved fat into a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Fry the tacos. One at a time, dip one side of the corn tortillas into the stew and place coated side down onto the heated skillet. Top the tortilla with the shredded Oaxaca cheese. When the cheese is starting to melt, top it off with shredded beef and fold over one side onto the other. Fry on both sides until crispy. Remove and set onto a serving platter. Repeat with the remaining tacos.
- Serve! Top the tacos with more Oaxaca cheese and cilantro. Pour some of the birria stew broth into a cup for an easy dipping sauce.
Last Step: Please share a rating and comment if you enjoyed this recipe! Your feedback helps this little blog thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.
Notes
You will have some birria meat leftover. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You may freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1taco | Calories: 202kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 713mg | Potassium: 259mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 165IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as a courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Did you make this recipe?💖 I love hearing how my recipes came out for others! If you tried this recipe, please share a comment. 💖
