If you don't care about being traditional, you can make a kick ass beef birria with only about 40 minutes of work the previous day. And then the actual cooking day you set it and forget it.
Here's the recipe I used today:
1 chile de arbol
2 ancho chili
5 guajilo chili
Split and de-seeded. Toss them in a warm pan to toast for 5-10 minutes, until they start getting a little blackened color on the surface. Remove from the pan with tongs and set into a bowl. Cover them with warm water, put a lid on top, and let them steep for 20 minutes.
Now you gotta make your spice mix (I just eyeball it so these are rough measurements, and you can obviously adjust the amounts depending on your individual taste):
2 tbsn smoked paprika
1 tbsn salt
1 tbsn garlic powder
1 tbsn onion powder
1 tbsn cumin powder
1 tbsn dried oregano
1/2 tbsn dried thyme
1/2 tbsn fresh black pepper
Now, wipe down that previous pan or get a new one, and thrown in 1 whole ass stick of butter. Once it's completely melted, add a whole white onion (sliced) and your spice mix. Let it simmer for about 10 mins or until the onions get limp and sugary. In the last two minutes or so, add a shit load of minced garlic (I used about a head's worth, but I like it very garlicky).
Into a blender add:
-Your aromatics + spice mix (and the spice butter)
-Your rehydrated peppers
-Your steeped pepper water (it should smell like raisins)
-1 small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (rinse out the can with some of your pepper juice)
Blend until smooth. That's the basic recipe for your chipotle puree. If you go with just this it's going to be fantastic, but the thing I've learned with Mexican cooking is that you just keep adding shit and more shit with no upper limit.
I put in a heaping tbsn of caldo de pollo, (Mexican chicken bullion, this shit is like crack and is my secret ingredient in all sorts of savory dishes) in addition to a splash of soy sauce, some honey, and a dribble of molasses just for some umphh.
Then you're done. If you taste it, it should be wayyyy too spicy to taste. That's normal, it will mellow out in the slow cooker. I'm not sure if it's the beef fat cutting through or just the cooking process itself. But of course, if you hate spice then just don't use a chile de arbol at the beginning and/or only use the adobo sauce from the canned stuff (and throw the chilies themselves out).
Tomorrow I'll add this puree to my slow cooker with some water (~2 cups), a splash of orange juice, a splash of whiskey, a splash of lime juice. Then you throw in a cinnamon stick (or two) and a bay leaf (or two). Let that get up to temperature.
Then all you've got to do is sear the hell out of your meat for a little flavor and texture. You want a really fatty cut of beef, I'm going with a chuck steak. Previously I threw short ribs in there alongside it, and while they were delicious I found it to be a lot of work for not a huge yield.
Sear it on both sides, toss it into your slow cooker with the sauce, give it a few hours until it gets fork tender, and then you're ready to roll. Remove your meat and shred it into small pieces, then put it back in the stew.
You'll want to siphon off the layer of beef fat that's collected on the top. You'll dip your tortillas in that before you fry them up. Labor intensive, but super worth it IMO. While they're frying, pile in your shredded beef and a bit of cheese. Oaxaca is the best but whole milk mozzarella is a perfectly great substitute. The best is when a little cheese leaks out and gets nice and crispy edges with a little caramelization.
Garnish with fresh cilantro. I usually serve with a side bowl of the birria stew and some crema for drizzling/dipping. People love to add homemade pickled onions to their tacos, I'm not a big fan of them though. The beef + cheese + a little crema is good enough for me.
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