I decided to make this soup because one of the chef's in the company I'm working for talked about some tacos they had eaten in California. Though I've had birria a number of times, I don't believe I've ever made it in a professional setting. I've done similar pulled meat braises that I used for appetizers and entrees, but never an authentic birria.
Birria is a meat braise from Mexico, specifically Jalisco, that starts by marinating your meat overnight with a mixture of chilies, vinegar, garlic, herbs, and spices. Afterwards you braise it and pull the meat. I approached this a little differently and omitted the vinegar in the marinade, but added an orange flavor to the braise instead.
This is another one of my soups that I approached in a two part method. First I made the "traditional" birria and separated the meat from the broth and bones. The next part was to take the broth and create a soup from there, adding cabbage, corn, and potatoes. From there I added peppers and the pulled meat to the soup. I finished the soup with some sour cream and radishes.
The nice part of this soup is that you can do practically anything with it. You can adjust the dried peppers, you can change the ingredients, it's really just the marinade and long braise process that gets you where you need to be.
I am going to break this recipe into two parts. The first recipe is the birria itself, while this one is the building of the actual soup.
As I said with this soup, feel free and change the ingredients, adjust the heat and acid, make it your own. I will say that the ingredients I chose to compose this soup, made a bright flavorful finished product, that had a smokey heat which didn't overwhelm.
Enjoy.
Ingredients
Birria meat 4-6 oz per soup
Birria broth 2 qts
Water 1 qt
Onion, sliced 3 ea
Cabbage, chopped 1/4 head
Potatoes, peeled and chopped 8 ea, small-mdm
Corn, off the cob, cobs reserved 3 ea
Peppers, sliced, small 10 ea
Tomatoes, canned, diced 28 oz
Garlic, sliced 2 ea cloves
Salt & Pepper to taste
Hot Sauce like Tapatio to taste
Garnish
Radish and sour cream
Method of Procedure
Prepare your lamb and beef as per my birria recipe.
Saute your onions, garlic, and corn in your soup pot while stirring, to get color.
Add your potatoes and cabbage then continue to stir.
Pour in your water, birria broth, tomatoes, and corn cobs into the mixture.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and hot sauce.
In a seperate pot, place your birria meat and heat. Add your sliced peppers and saute to soften.
Add your stew mixture and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Garnish with sour cream and radishes.