Birria Quesa Spring Rolls
Birria tacos have been really trendy lately and for good reason. They are so flavorful and when the tacos are crisped up on the edges with that crispy cheese and flavorful dipping sauce… SO GOOD. I thought it would be fun to put a new spin on this dish, but I wanted to retain the dipping sauce, the crispy elements, and that super tender flavorful meat. I decided spring rolls would be a great way to keep the essence of the original dish intact but serve it in a unique way. I grabbed the Birria recipe from A Cozy Kitchen as a baseline but tweaked it a bit based on what I had on hand, and started cooking!
Break up the dried chiles and toast them in the pan. Make sure you open the windows!
The sauce and meat is ready to bake for a few hours.
Separate the meat from the sauce and shred it up, then roll it in the wrapper with some cheese.
Then just fry em up!
Serve with the sauce for dipping. Amazing! Georgina and I had no problem eating a huge plate of these in minutes. So flavorful and delicious.
Birria recipe adapted from A Cozy Kitchen
Birra Quesa Spring Rolls
A twist on birria quesa tacos, the tender flavorful meat is served in a crispy spring roll complete with the cooking liquid as a dipping sauce.
Servings: 20 rolls
Ingredients
BIRRIA
- 7 arbol chiles trimmed and de seeded
- 3 chipotle chiles trimmed and de seeded
- 3 guajillo chiles trimmed and de seeded
- 2 cups water hot
- 2 pounds beef stewing meat
- 1 onion diced
- 1 head garlic about 10 cloves, peeled
- 3 to matoes quartered
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 2 sprigs fresh oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon clove
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon red vinegar
- 2 cups beef or chicken broth
ROLLS
- spring roll wrappers
- chihuahua cheese
- diced onion
- diced cilantro
- oil for frying
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325
- In a large heavy bottom pot over medium heat, add the pepper pieces and cook about 3 minutes until they slightly change color. Beware, this step will always make the kitchen a little hard to breath in! Add the chiles to the hot water and allow them to steep while you continue the next steps.
- Add some oil to the same pan and add in the meat. Sear to brown on all sides. Remove the meat from the pan and add them to a baking dish.
- Add the onion to the pan the meat was cooked in and saute for about 5 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure all the brown from the meat is incorporated. The onions will start to brown on the edges if you keep the pan on high heat. Add in the garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add in the tomatoes and cook another 5 minutes.
- Add in the pepper, both oreganos, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, clove, bay leaf, and vinegar. Pour the chiles and chile water in as well. Stir to combine and scrape the bottom of the pan again to make sure everything is incorporated into this delicious liquid. Bring to a strong simmer and reduce the heat to low. Simmer about a half hour.
- Pour the mixture into a blender, or you can use a hand blender right in the pot. Blend until smooth. Strain this mixture through a mesh strainer to remove any grittiness and pour it over the meat. Add in the stock and stir to combine. Cover and put in the oven. Bake about 3 hours until the meat is falling apart.
- Remove the chunks of meat from the pot and mash them up to shred. The meat mixture should be fairly dry with a decent amount of liquid left in the pan. Allow to cool.
- Follow package instructions on the spring rolls for thawing and holding. Put a spring roll wrapper onto your work surface. Add some cheese and meat. Make sure not to overfill! Roll it up like a thick cigar and brush on a little water on the last corner to help seal. Continue until you have made as many as you want.
- Preheat oil to 350. Fry the spring rolls for about 2 minutes until crispy and a few shades darker on all sides.
- Pour some of the birra broth into a bowl and top with diced onion and cilantro. Serve the spring rolls with the sauce for dipping.
I am excited to try this recipe but I don’t really like fried foods. Would you recommend baking it, or do you think it would end up getting soggy?
You can bake on high heat if you brush them with oil. You can also air fry!
This is cultural appropriation
Lol shhhh 🤫
Which culture in particular, Ashle?
Which culture is being appropriated here?
The birria culture or the spring roll culture?
This is ignorance. It’s called fusion cuisine.
I’ve made this twice now since my sister sent me this link. The first time I used pork butt and the second time need short ribs. They came out great, excellent recipe!
I’m half Mexican-American and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised with the flavor profile and the spring roll skin is a great twist.
Definitely a keeper. Thank you
Thank you Daniel! Love to hear that!