Birria Flatbread

This birria flatbread takes everything you love about birria tacos and serves it up as if it were an open-faced puffy taco. Of course you can also dip the crust in consommé!

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If you’ve ventured out into the world at all in the last two years, I bet you’ve come across the latest taco trend – birria tacos!

Fun fact: Birria is a Mexican dish from the state of Jalisco and is traditionally a slow-cooked stew made from a combination of chili peppers, goat meat, garlic, cumin, bay leaves, and thyme. But here in the USA it’s more commonly made with beef, stuffed into a corn tortilla with oaxaca cheese, fried, and dipped in the broth.

When I set out to make my own birria tacos at home, I gathered up my ingredients after picking through various recipes online, and even though the tacos we made with it were not the most structurally sounds creations, it was absolutely worth it. But then we ran out of tortillas and still had a ton of birria leftover.

Enter, birria flatbread.

This creation was the result my usual trip to the grocery store, where I spied a stack of par-baked flatbread crusts with discount stickers on them. Since we love making random pizzas with whatever we have in the fridge, it seemed like the perfect route (but also could have made thin crust pizza dough).

I topped the flatbread with some of the birria, shredded oaxaca cheese, and toast them up into gooey goodness. Sprinkled chopped onion and cilantro on top and it was like an open-faced birria puffy taco. Especially when dipping the crust into the consommé!

But the first time I made it I had no plans to share the recipe until after I ate it. So back to the store I went for more discount flatbread crusts to make it again for you! The sacrifices I make…

BIRRIA FLATBREAD

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Yield: 4-6 Servings Prep Time: 10 Hours Cooking Time: 1 Hour 15 Minutes 1 Hour 15 Minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

BIRRIA

• 8 cups water
• 4 lb. boneless beef chuck roast or beef shank*, cut into 4-inch cubes
• 1/2 large white onion
• 8 garlic cloves
• 1 Tbsp dried ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1/2 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 sprigs fresh marjoram (or oregano)
• 1 sprig fresh mint
• 2 springs fresh thyme

SAUCE

• 4 dried guajillo chiles
• 4 dried arbol chilies
• 4 dried chipotle chiles
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 2-3 cups water
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 large white onion
• 1 Tbsp vinegar
• 2 tsp salt

FLATBREAD

• 2 par-baked flatbread crusts (or one recipe thin crust pizza dough divided in half)
• 1 cup prepared birria
• 8 oz. Oaxaca cheese, shredded
• Chopped onion
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Lime wedges, for garnish

Directions

1. In a slow cooker add water, beef, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, black peppercorns, bay leaves, oregano, marjoram, mint, and thyme . Cook on low for 8-10 hours or until cooked through and tender.
2. Remove the beef, discard fat pieces, shred meat, and place back in the slow cooker with the liquid.
3. While the meat cooks, prepare the sauce. Preheat a large Dutch oven over low heat and add the chilies to toast them, turning as needed for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Once cool enough to touch, remove seeds and stems, and place in a large bowl.
5. In a small pot, bring the water to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the peppers. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
6. Place the cooled chiles, garlic, onion, vinegar, salt, and liquid in blender. Blend until smooth.
7. Strain red chile sauce through a fine sieve into a bowl. Discard skins and seeds. When the meat has been shredded, add the sauce the slow cooker and stir (this is the consommé).
8. Preheat oven to 425 F.
9. Top both flatbread crusts evenly with 1/2 cup birria each, followed by shredded cheese. Place topped flatbread directly on the middle oven rack and bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly.
10. Top with chopped onion and cilantro. Slice and serve with lime and consommé.

Notes

* I use boneless short ribs

Source: Adapted from Muy Bueno Cookbook and Girl Carnivore.

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