Birria de res - Mexican stew

Preparation – 30 minutes

Roast the whole peppers for a few minutes in a dry dutch oven, so without any oil or butter. Then transfer the peppers to a small bowl and cover them with boiled water.

Let them soak for about 15 minutes and meanwhile peel the onion and garlic cloves. Finely chop the onion and divide the garlic into halves. Add the garlic along with the soft peppers to a blender.

You can remove the seeds of the chili peppers for a milder version. Add a bit of the pepper-water to the blender and create a smooth mixture. Add cumin, cinnamon and oregano to the mixture.  

Finishing the Birria de res – 6 hours + 30 minutes

Heat a dash of olive oil in a dutch oven and cook the meat until it's beautiful browned on all sides. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker. You can also use the dutch oven to cook the dish, then you can keep the meat into the pan.

Sauté the onion briefly and add a layer of beef stock, you can also add the water from the peppers. Pour the beef stock and juices of the pan into the slow cooker. Then add the rest of the stock, bay leaves, cloves and the pepper mixture.

Season with pepper and salt set the slow cooker to approximately 6 hours on the lowest setting. Turn the meat a few times if you like. If you left the meat in the dutch oven, you can add the remaining ingredients after the onions are sautéed.

Then let it simmer gently for a few hours, until the meat in tender. Check regularly if the stew needs some more water to prevent it from burning. Once the meat is tender, remove it from the liquid and use 2 forks to pull it into pieces.

You can now also remove any fat or muscles. The reason we didn't do this before stewing is because they give a lot of extra flavour to the meat.

Season again with pepper and salt and serve on tortillas with some lime, sour cream and tomatoes. Enjoy!