4.99 from 130 votes

About Me: I have more than 20 years of cooking experience & share my favorite recipes on this blog.
Have a question? Please post a comment, I’m happy to help. 🙂

These Quesabirria Tacos have the perfect balance of crunchy tortilla, tender meat and melty cheese! Save the extra stew broth for a simple dipping sauce.

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love This Quesabirria Recipe
Ingredient Notes
How to Make Quesabirria Tacos
Serving Suggestions
Tips for Success
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
Ways to Use Leftover Birria Meat
Get the Recipe

Featured Comment

If you told me I could make these at home I wouldn’t have believed you but this recipe is easy and so tasty! These quesabirrias taste like something from a taco truck! Well done.

– Hector

66 More Comments

Why You’ll Love This Quesabirria Recipe

Authentic. Growing up near the Mexican border I often visited Tijuana with my Nana to see family and do some shopping. This recipe reminds me of the Mexican street food we’d munch on!
Flavorful. This recipe makes fall-apart-tender beef that is bursting with flavor. Once it’s made into tacos, fried up, and dipped in sauce? Unbelievably delicious.
Incredible leftovers. You can use extra birria meat in a wide variety of ways. I share lots of ideas below in the section about using extras to make other recipes.
Tested & highly rated. Not only have I made this recipe many, many times, but so have readers. These quesabirria tacos are consistently described as delicious, tasty, and amazing.

“My house smells amazing while these are in the oven. The neighbors even came a knockin…”
– Donna, in a December 2022 comment on this post

What Are Quesabirria Tacos?

A quesabirria is a cheesy version of a birria taco. Traditionally, birria tacos are made with stewed goat meat but you can also make them with beef. The meat is marinated in a flavorful adobo sauce, then cooked in a broth until it’s fall-apart tender. Then you stuff it in a corn tortilla and top it with a squeeze of lime and some fresh cilantro.

Once you add cheese (queso) to the mix, the taco becomes a quesabirria. Sometimes this is also called a quesotaco. The quesabirria originated in Tijuana and is basically what you get when a taco and a quesadilla come together and create something amazing.

Ingredient Notes

Here’s what you’ll need to make quesabirria tacos along with my notes. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for specific amounts.

Meat – Short ribs and beef chuck roast.
Seasonings – Salt and pepper.
Chili peppers – Dried guajillo peppers + chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
Apple cider vinegar
Tomato paste
Aromatics – Onion and garlic.
Dry spices – Oregano, smoked paprika, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, bay leaves and ground cinnamon.
Olive oil

For assembling the tacos:

Yellow corn tortillas – My favorite brand is La Tortilla Factory. Don’t use thin tortillas or they will fall apart when you are cooking the tacos.
Oaxaca cheese – This is a stringy, melty cheese that’s usually found in Latin American grocery stores. If you can’t find it you can use another melty, mildy flavored cheese like mozzarella. Use “low moisture” mozzarella in this case.
Fresh cilantro – You could also use fresh parsley if you are not a cilantro fan.

How to Make Quesabirria Tacos

Ready to dive in? Here’s a quick overview on how to make birria tacos. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for more details.

Marinade in a blender — Make the marinade.

Beef cubes in a bowl with marinade — Make the marinade.

Prepare the Birria

Prepare the meat: Trim and season the meat.
Soften the dried chilis: Soak them in hot water for 10 minutes.
Make the meat marinade: Blend the marinade ingredients together until smooth.
Marinate: Pour the marindate over the meat in the container. Cover with the lid and marinate for at least 1 hour. Do not rush the marinade time! More than an hour is better as it gives the meat more time to absorb all the flavors. I prefer to let it marinate overnight.

Beef cubes ready to be cooked in broth — Combine stew ingredients in a pot.

Beef and bay leaves cooking in a broth — Combine stew ingredients in a pot.

Cook the Birria Stew

Preheat the oven to 325F.
Cook the onion and sear the meat: Cook the marinated meat with all the sauce. Mix in the cinnamon, bay leaves and beef broth.
Cover and braise the beef in the oven for 3 hours. The meat will get nice and tender.
Remove the stew from the oven and skim some of the fat off the top. Place the fat in a separate dish and set aside. We are going to use this fat to cook the tacos!
Remove meat and shred with a fork. Return to the dutch oven once finished. Stir to toss the shredded meat with the sauce.

Shredded birria taco meat in broth — Shred the meat with two forks.

Shredded birria taco meat on a plate — Shred the meat with two forks.

Make the Quesabirria Tacos

Warm the fat: Add 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved fat into a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Assemble and cook the tacos:
- Dip the tortillas. One at a time, dip one side of the corn tortillas into the stew and place coated side down onto the heated skillet with the warmed fat.
- Add your taco fillings. Top the tortilla with the shredded Oaxaca cheese. When the cheese is starting to melt, top it off with shredded beef and fold over one side onto the other.
- Fry on both sides until crispy.
- Serve. Sprinkle more cheese on top, add some cilantro. Use the extra stew broth for dipping.

Serving Suggestions

You can eat quesabirria tacos just as they are, right off the griddle. Usually, they are eaten with a little cup of extra stew broth. You dip your taco into the broth before taking each bite.

But maybe you want your quesabirrias to be a bit extra? I feel that! Here are some of my favorite topping ideas:

Homemade Guacamole – Add on top of or to the inside of your tacos after they are cooked.
Salsa Macha – Also called “black magic oil” this spicy sauce will add a real kick to your tacos!
Pico de Gallo Salsa – Open your tacos and stuff some inside.

Tips for Success

Don’t rush the process. Making tender, flavorful birria meat takes time so I recommend giving the raw beef plenty of time to marinate (overnight is best), then letting it cook low and slow for the full 3 hours. Don’t try to rush the process by cooking on the stovetop or using an Instant Pot.
Fry the tacos in the skimmed fat. Cooking them in fat from the stew adds incredible flavor! You can supplement with olive oil if you really must, but I say embrace the process. 🙂

Quesabirria tacos, one with a bite taken out

How to Store and Reheat Leftovers

Tacos: It is difficult to save the cooked tacos for later, so loosen your belt and gobble them up! But if you must save leftovers, you can store cooled quesabirrias in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days. Reheat them by frying them again on the stovetop until warmed through, or placing them in an oven preheated to 350F until the insides are warm (about 8-10 minutes).
Birria Meat: This recipe makes a generous amount of stew, so you will have leftover meat. You can store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. You may also freeze it for up to 3 months. See below for some tasty ways to use it!

Ways to Use Leftover Birria Meat

Leftover birria meat is incredible in burritos, made into more tacos, or just spooned on top of Instant Pot Mexican Rice. You can also serve it on top of Vegetarian Dirty Rice as long as you don’t mind your meal not being vegetarian anymore. 🙂

I also have some recipes showing you how to use extra birria meat:

Birria Pizza – Homemade pizza dough topped with extra birria sauce and meat, then topped with melty cheese.
Birria Quesadillas – A classic way to use up extras in Mexican households.
Birria Mulitas – Essentially these are birria quesadillas with the WORKS. So good.
Birria Enchiladas – A cozy Mexican dinner idea made with homemade enchilada sauce.
Tortas – You can also use birria meat in place of pork carnitas to make tortas ahogadas.

Enjoy!

p.s. I also have a chicken birria tacos recipe!

Quesabirria Tacos