Chicken Birria Tacos Instant Pot or Stove and Video

Chicken Birria Tacos are quicker and easier than beef, but just as tasty. Indulge your tastebuds with the signature homemade adobo to dip your fried tacos for extra flavor.

• Are chicken birria tacos a thing?
• Making birria tacos crunchy
• Is birria a goat meat?
• What do you serve with birria?
• Recipe

If you’re wondering, yes, these are those delicious looking crispy tacos that you’ve been seeing all over the internet. You can’t even search tacos without seeing a plate of tacos served with a little bowl of consomme for dipping.

Maybe we could describe it as the French dip of Mexico! Work with me here.

Is There Such A Thing As Chicken Birria Tacos?

The word birria means “braised meat”. The most typical meat used is goat and many die-hard connoisseurs will insist that you can’t have birria if it’s not made with goat.

If you are visiting Mexico, you will find birria served in a bowl like a stew or in tacos like the ones here. If looking for chicken, you would ask for “birria de pollo”. It’s not quite as popular as beef, but is popular in many kitchens because chicken is less expensive and doesn’t require a long cook time.

Using chicken makes everything easier and quicker. Since it’s less expensive, you can also enjoy it more often.

How Do You Make Birria Tacos Crunchy?

After working with it several times, I’ve found that the temperature of the frying oil must be high enough that it fries the tortillas instead of soaking into them.

If you are getting soft tortillas, try turning up the heat to fry them more quickly. Be careful to protect yourself from the hot oil, but you will definitely need to use the higher temperatures so the grease doesn’t have a chance to soak into the tortilla.

Make sure that you’re using fat instead of trying to fry them in the chile sauce alone. Keep vegetable oil or lard handy so you can replenish the fat in the skillet, as necessary.

Do I Have to Use An Instant Pot?

While I love using the Instant Pot, I know that not everyone has one. It makes a tender, juicy chicken. But, you could just as easily make this chicken birria on the stove or in the crockpot or even in the oven, if you wanted.

Ingredients

Because the red chile sauce is made from scratch, there are several ingredients. Once you get the sauce out of the way, though, you’ll simply braise the chicken thighs and assemble your tacos.

Although the more traditional birria is made with goat or lamb, or more recently, beef, I’ve decided to change the rules a bit. I’m using less expensive chicken, which also has the benefit of taking less time to cook.

What Chiles To Use In Birria Red Sauce?

For this chicken birria, I didn’t want something super spicy. I used a large handful of dried red Anaheim chiles, also known as California chiles. They smell sweet and fruity-ish. I’ve also used three Ancho chiles for a smoky flavor and only three small Chiles de Arbol since they’re pretty spicy.

Have a browse at all 24Bite recipes to customize your own search.

Anaheim chiles aren’t spicy at all. To me, I feel like they’re like green bell peppers. They’re usually the same peppers in cans of mild diced green chiles.

I tried to add a little more heat by using the El Pato sauce. Although this sauce is spicy alone, it didn’t really turn out to give much heat when mixed in with the birria sauce.

If you want to add more heat, but still want to stick to the red color, try using a can of chipotle salsa instead.

You can also use Guajillo chiles or more Chiles de Arbol. Check out my Scoville Heat Scale to learn more about each of the chiles and how spicy they can be.

If you want, just shake in some cayenne pepper. That will definitely give it some kick.

What Cheese In Quesabirria Tacos?

I guess I should explain the difference between birria tacos and quesabirria tacos first. It’s easy. Quesabirria means that the tacos are made with meat and cheese. Queso=cheese.

Although I’ve used Chihuahua cheese (Menonita), you can use any melty cheese you can find. Oaxaca would be great, but it’s not available around here.

Try Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack for a spicy alternative. Mozzarella cheese could be used as well.

How Long Does It Take To Make Birria?

There are quite a few steps to making birria. It’s especially time consuming if you need to cook the beef two or three hours until tender.

To shorten the time involved, I’m using chicken, but there are still a lot of steps.

Like my tamales recipes, I’ve learned to do things by splitting up the steps. My tip? Make the sauce first, even the night before.

If you make the sauce the night before, the fat will set on the top, making it easier to remove and use to fry the tortillas the next day.

Using An Instant Pot

I’ve used an Instant Pot to braise the chicken in the red chile sauce. The Instant Pot is a great way to steam meat and tamales, making it great for Mexican food.

I’ve included instructions on using a covered skillet as well. It’s easy to use either one here.

Have a look at this Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System (aff link) at Amazon. It’s the one we use and includes the blender, a food processor bowl and two to-go cups.

Can This Recipe Be Used For Beef?

It’s very easy to make these tacos with beef instead of chicken. Instead of a 10-minute cook time, you’ll need 70 minutes with natural release for a 2.5-3 pound chuck roast.

What To Serve With Birria?

If you decide to eat the birria as a stew, you can serve it with any typical sides. Check out my list of things to serve with tamales. You can use any of these.

If you decide to serve the meat assembled as chicken birria tacos as I’ve done, I don’t mind telling you that you don’t need any sides. I could easily eat them without anything else.

Okay, if you really want to add some sides, a little side salad and sliced avocado would be delicious. My Spanish rice recipe would be excellent as well.

I was able to find more history on birria and how birria became the hottest new taco trend.

Now, you’ll be able to jump on this trend right in your own home!

Recipe

Follow 24Bite:

Twitter  |  Facebook  | Pinterest