Ground Beef Makes This Traditional Mexican Dish Cheaper And Ready In Less Time

Birria is a popular Mexican dish made by slowly braising meat in a stew of flavorful broth. It's a beautiful dish that is also a labor of love. But while it is not the traditional preparation, using ground beef to make birria cuts a decent chunk of the cost and the cooking time without sacrificing any of that incredible flavor.

Mexican cuisine is beloved for its flavorful dishes packed with chilis, herbs, and warm spices. While there aren't too many classic Mexican beef dishes that call for ground beef specifically, using this protein when preparing birria tacos is a great hack. Birria is most popularly made with goat meat, but beef cuts like chuck roast, brisket, short ribs, shank, and more are commonly used, too. When you don't have time to slow-stew a big piece of meat like chuck, you want something that can still soak up that delicious birria flavor and deliver juicy consommé in every bite. Luckily, ground beef does all of the above while also being much cheaper and faster to prepare.

Simply make your favorite birria broth recipe and allow it to simmer while you season and cook the ground beef. Then, combine the meat with the sauce to make a thick, soupy stew and let the ground beef soak up the flavors. You can serve this stew over rice with whatever fixings you'd like or make ground beef birria tacos by adding the saucy meat, shredded Oaxaca cheese, cilantro, onions, and a squeeze of lime atop corn tortillas and pan-frying until crispy. Bonus points if you dunk the tortillas in the birria broth before bringing them to the pan.

The difference in time it takes to cook ground beef versus a large hunk of chuck or other cut of beef is clear. Rather than stewing your meat for literal hours, a pound of ground beef can be browned in the pan in 5 to 8 minutes. Ground beef also tends to be cheaper than its cousins in the butcher shop because it's usually made with trimmings from the processing of other beef cuts (and we have some handy tips for buying the best ground beef when shopping at the grocery store).

While the slow-cooking process that is required in a traditional birria recipe creates a necessary depth of flavor, you can still add great flavor to birria made with ground beef in a pinch. If time and forethought allow it, prepare the birria consommé in advance so you can give it lots of simmer time to develop those yummy flavors. Then, store the broth in an airtight container for up to six days in the fridge and up to six months in the freezer. Whenever you're ready to prep your ground beef birria, season and brown the beef before adding the premade consommé for a dish that comes together in just a few minutes but tastes like it took hours to make.