Birria Tacos

I simmer the chiles in chicken broth to make simple work of stem/seed removal. I add a few African Birds Eye and jalapeños, along with many garlic cloves. I toss in red/green roasted peppers. I cook this all down after using my immersion blender on the broth. The sauce is thicker than a traditional birria but it’s smoky and delicious.

I asked for Avocado Leave at my local Mexican Supermarket, where I can get dozens of varieties of chilies, and sometimes Goat, and the Produce Lady just shrugged. They don't carry them and never have.

Why use bone in, if you are just going to cut it off the bone into chunks?

Has anyone tried with mushrooms or a different vegetarian approach? What did you think?

I will be getting a boneless leg of lamb. My Butcher will remove the bone and I’ll make the broth with it the day before.

Four teaspoons of salt is a lot. I halved the recipe, so blithely threw in two teaspoons. Regretted it. Just go easy at first and adjust later. The meat, however, came out fabulous.

The guajillo chilis add a subtle, delicious flavor to the goat meat so don't skimp on them. Any self-respecting Mexican store has dried avocado leaves. As others note, adding garlic amps up the flavor. I used goat from a local butcher and served the tacos with pinto beans flavored with some epazote leaves and pico de gallo on the side. We loved it.

I agree with another chef and added garlic (about 6 cloves). I substituted pork for goat or lamb and skipped the first step of the recipe. Tasted AMAZING!

This recipe is badly written and takes way too much time given the very bland results, even after increasing the number of chili peppers, using hotter varieties, and adding lots of garlic based on earlier suggestions. Why bother cutting the lamb into chunks first if you’re supposed to put he bones In the cooking broth and boil it to death? The meat will fall off the bones anyway, with far less work.

I made this and it was such a miss! I’m going to take some partial responsibility here — I was definitely distracted while making it, but the end result was pretty flavorless. I added a head of garlic and 3 bay leaves since I couldn’t quickly access avocado leaves, but it still tasted so bland. I’m wondering how it came out for others... all of the comments so far are about subs for avocado leaves.

Avocado leaves can be found on multiple sites on the internet

In lieu of avocado leaves, use bay leaves + 4-5 anise seeds (or fennel/fenne powder). Also add a ton of garlic to broth.

I have never seen avocado leaves in markets here in France. Glad to know, thanks to other notes from readers, that there are substitutes, like bay leaves + oregano. Personally, I do not like the flavor of anise, so that is out for me, but garlic is certainly a useful -and flavorful- addition.

Please feel free to add garlic to the recipe because the broth will lack a ton of flavor. You can use Mexican oregano or just plain oregano and a few bay leaves to substitute the avocado leaves. Just add garlic though. It’ll taste a million times better.