Quesabirria Tacos: rich and crunchy

We first had Birria tacos at Fusion Street Eatery, in Dunedin, Florida: they were slow-cooked beef shank, wrapped in a crunchy fried tortilla. A week later, I stumbled across this YouTube video which was clear and direct: soak chilis, blend, fry in oil, cook meat in the sauce; to assemble, paint the corn tortillas with oil from the sauce, fry then fill and fold, fry until crisp. The "quesa" in the name is from letting the cheese melt on the tortilla while it's frying.

I cut down his recipe by half: 6 tacos were enough for the two of us for dinner, and we had lots of the cooked meat, sauce, and oil to make more anytime we want -- enough for two more dinners. My first stab at this took more than the 30 minutes prep that the chef claims, but now that I understand the process, I expect that's a reasonable time; the meat cooks in the sauce for 3 hours, so plan ahead. The recipe's slightly adapted from the print version on Vice.com.

For sauce and meat:

2 oz    60 g   guajillo chilies (about 8), stemmed
4              morita/chipotle chilies, stemmed
1              ancho chilies, stemmed
1              small plum tomato
2              garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp          oregano
1 tsp          ground cumin
1/2 tsp        black peppercorns
1 whole        clove
1              bay leaf

1/4            white onion, peeled 
1/8 C   60 g   kosher salt
2.5 Tbs 40 ml  white vinegar

2.5 Lb   1 Kg  beef shoulder (or shank, etc)
3/4 C  200 ml  vegetable oil

For the tacos and serving:

Shredded cheese: Monterey Jack,Cheddar, Mozzarella, or Mexican cheese
Corn tortillas
Cilantro, minced
White onion, finely chopped (we used pickled red onion)
Lime wedges

Cover chilis and tomato with 4 C / 1 L water, bring to boil, remove from heat, cover, and let soften 10 minutes. Strain, retaining the liquid.

Put 2 C / 500 ml liquid into a blender, and blend the chilis and tomato, and all the other sauce ingredients (excluding the meat and oil).  Add the oil to a sauce pan over medium heat and fry the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

While that's cooking, cut the meat into roughly  2 inch / 5 cm cubes, and season generously with salt and pepper. 

When the sauce is finished cooking, add the meat, and the remaining 2 C / 500 ml chili liquid to the pot. Cook until meat is tender, about three hours. 

Strain everything through a coarse sieve to hold back seeds and other bitter bits. Shred the meat by hand, forks, or a large knife.

Skim off the fat from the top of the sauce into a separate small bowl. I had about a cup / 250 ml of oil and 2 cups / 500 ml of sauce.

Sauce, meat, oil

Add some of the sauce to the meat to keep it moist.

To assemble, dip one side of the tortilla in oil, or paint it with a pastry brush. Place on hot skillet until pliable, top with cheese, meat, cilantro, onions, etc. Fold over the tortilla before it becomes too firm, and continue to fry until crispy; flip and crisp the other side. 

To serve, add some sauce to a small bowl, and add cilantro and onion. You can stuff other condiments in the taco as you like. Dip the taco in the sauce and "shove it in your mouth". It's a bit messy, but so good.