This tasty slow cooked Mexican stew is absolutely stunning, its not normally cooked with pork so you can use any meat that lends itself to slow cooking. Trust me when I say that you HAVE to try this, I thought I had tacos nailed until I cooked this, dipping it in the cooking liquor will change your life!!
Prep time 30mins
Cook time 3.5hours
1.2kg boneless pork shoulder, crackling removed and cut in half
2 large onions, diced
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 red chillis, medium heat, sliced
2 large dried ancho chillis, seeds removed
1 dried red chilli, seeds removed
2tbsp dried oregano
1.5tbsp cumin
1tsp dried thyme
1 bunch of fresh coriander, about 70g roughly chopped
Salt and pepper (to taste)
3tbsp of olive oil
700ml veg.or chicken stock or enough to cover meat in the sauce pan
Grated mozarella
8 small tacos
1/2 diced onion from above ingredients
1/3 of your fresh coriander from above ingredients, chopped
2 limes
1tsp salt
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 spring onions, finely sliced
Shredded Iceberg lettuce
Season generously with salt and pepper and lightly oil your meat and brown in a large saucepan, set aside. In the same pan add 2 tbsp of olive oil and add 1 of your diced onions, leaving 1 dice onion to one side, gently sauté for a few minutes then add 1 of your fresh fresh chillis and 6 of your sliced garlic cloves, add a small splash of water and allow to soften on a medium heat.
Next add, oregano, thyme, ground cumin, cook for another 2 mins, you can always add another splash of water if the ingredients begin to stick. Add your meat back into the saucepan, add enough hot stock to cover the meat by about 2cm and 2/3 of your chopped coriander, reserving 1/3 for garnishes, cover with a lid, bring to the boil and them turn the heat down and simmer for 1 hour. Once this hour is up you will need to transfer to an oven so be sure to get a casserole dish big enough and preheat the oven to 160ºc fan.
During that hour we need to make the chilli sauce to add into the stew, to do this take all of your deseeded and destalked dried chillis and add them to a bowl of boiling water so that they're fully submerged, leave for 15 mins or until they are rehydrated, drain and add to a blender along with 1/2 of the remaining diced onion, the remaining 2 garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, the juice of a lime and 1 ladle of your pork cooking broth, blitz until smooth and then add to the saucepan, allow to cook on the hob for the rest of the hour is up.
After an hour transfer the contents of the saucepan into a casserole dish with a lid and cook in the preheated oven for another 2 hours, or until your meat is cooked and falling apart. During the cooking time do check every now and again to make sure there's enough liquid, topping up if need be but I didn't have to at any point.
Towards the last 20 mins of cooking prepare your garnishes, use the remaining 1/2 diced onion and put in a small bowl with some coriander, the juice of 1/2 a lime, extra virgin oil and a small amount of salt, allow to pickle slightly just to take the bitterness away. Slice your spring onions very thinly.
Once your stew is cooked remove the meat and shred. There's two ways you can enjoy birria... traditionally you can serve the meat in a bowl and ladle over the broth with all the ganishes on top as a soup, but I like mine in a taco with a pot of cooking liquor to dip it in to.
To assemble the tacos, heat a non stick frying pan and brush with a little oil, take 2 ladles of the cooking liquor into a separate dish and dip 1 taco in it, coating it both sides, place the taco into the heated pan, add some of your cheese and cook until the cheese begins to melt, then add some of your shredded meat and a sprinkle of the onion and coriander garnish, some shredded lettuce then fold over and cook, carefully flipping once until the taco is slightly crispy and the cheese is fully melted, repeat with the rest of the tacos, leave them in an oven on low to keep warm while you make each one.
Serve with a cup or small bowl of the remaining cooking liquor and sprinkle the spring onion and left over pickle onion into the bowl.
I can also recommend sweet potato wedges to go with this dish, the sweetness cuts through the spice really well, or you can just double the ingredients and have loads of these delicious tacos!
Any slow cooked meat is perfect, particularly beef.
Pork cheeks are delicious, and cheap to, for 500g I paid less the £3 and it was the tastiest pork I've ever eaten.
