Costco List:
Boneless Beef Chuck Roast
(4-5 lb. $6.29 per lb)
Corn Tortilla
(100 count $9.99)
Shredded Mozzarella
(5 lb. in 2 bags $14.99)
Other things you might need list:
1 can Tomato Paste herbs & spices some type of broth or bouillon greens & garnishes like lettuce
Time for yet another Costco cooking piece. The other day, my kids were craving this thing I had never heard of: birria tacos. Now that I am actually earning enough money to eat out — yes, that’s a thing: having enough money to eat out — I dutifully went to a taco truck in Waikiki to pick some up. Two plates of birria tacos were $37 after taxes and each plate contained three average sized tacos.
I suppose I should have bought the right amount of plates to feed the family, but alas, I still cringe every time I have to pay for restaurant food. The six total tacos were split between the two kids and my husband. I took a few sips of the consommé dipping sauce just to get a taste of what I was missing.
Then, I set to work looking up birria taco recipes on the internet.
Here’s how I’ll describe the search. I looked up various techniques and suggestions, then picked the easiest, pressure stewing beef in an Instant Pot. For the consommé broth, I picked flavors that caught my fancy and threw them into the soup. Then I coarsely chopped (about 6-oz sized pieces) and braised some chuck roast which I bought from Costco and placed it into the soup before pressuring cooking it. I made sure the broth had lots of umami things like garlic, onions, tomato, mushroom, etc.
In this particular instance, I had leftover soup from a hot pot dish we had made the day before, so that became part of the base. It was largely shoyu and miso flavored. Then, I added a can of tomato paste (which I think is a critical step for flavoring), some cumin and coriander seed, bay leaves, rau ram, lemongrass and culantro from the garden, and some of the standard umami favorites: garlic, ginger, onions, and mushroom. All of these ingredients would later be strained out, so I just chopped coarsely, if at all.
I had set the pressure cooker to high for 20 minutes, then let the meat sit another 30 minutes or so in the soup to let off the pressure. Then I removed the pieces of beef and set aside while I strained the broth. This broth, in addition to being a dipping sauce, would later serve as the flavored oil that the tortillas are dipped into before pan frying. The oil rises to the top, then the tortilla is dipped in and fried.
I shred the beef, then dipped and pan fried tortillas in the consommé oil at the top of the soup, flipping the tortillas so both sides started to brown and get crunchy. Then I placed shredded mozzarella cheese and beef on top of the tortilla. Once the cheese was melted, I folded the tacos, making both sides were crunchy then serving with the consommé which is the dipping sauce.
It was a hit, and about 1/10th the price of buying them ready-made. Four and a half pounds of beef made approximately 40 tacos. We’ll certainly make them again.