Meals · Tacos, burritos & enchiladas

Birria tacos

Name: Birria tacos
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 180 min
Total time: 210 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 1/2 lb chuck roast, cut in big chunks; 4 dried chiles ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded; 3/4 cup crushed tomatoes; 1 white onions, quartered; 5 cloves garlic; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp dried oregano; 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon; 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar; 3 cups beef broth; 2 tsp salt; 12 tortillas corn tortilla; 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded; 1/2 white onions, finely diced; a handful fresh cilantro, chopped

The slow-braised Mexican beef that took over the internet: chuck roast in a dark ancho-chile broth, shredded into tortillas with melted cheese, crisped, and dunked in its own consommé.

Time: 210 min (30 prep + 180 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 629 kcal
Protein: 50 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

Birria

2 1/2 lb chuck roast, cut in big chunks1200 g
4 dried chiles ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded30 g
3/4 cup crushed tomatoes200 g
1 white onions, quartered150 g
5 cloves garlic20 g
2 tsp ground cumin4 g
1 tsp dried oregano2 g
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon1 g
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar30 g
3 cups beef broth700 g
2 tsp salt10 g

Tacos

12 tortillas corn tortilla300 g
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded170 g
1/2 white onions, finely diced80 g
a handful fresh cilantro, chopped15 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Cover the anchos with boiling water and soak 15 minutes. Blend them with the tomatoes, onion, garlic, spices, vinegar and a cup of the broth into a smooth red sauce.
Season the beef with the salt, pour the sauce and remaining broth over it, and braise covered at 150°C (or low in a slow cooker) for about 3 hours, until it shreds with a fork.
Shred the beef in the pot. Skim the red fat off the top of the broth and keep it — that's what stains and crisps the tortillas.
Dip each tortilla in the skimmed fat, lay it in a hot pan, top with cheese, beef, onion and cilantro, fold, and crisp both sides. Serve with cups of the consommé for dunking.

What do I do with the leftover consommé?

The dish is a two-for-one: the tacos eat like a meal and the leftover consommé is tomorrow's soup with nothing added but a squeeze of lime.

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

32% of kcal

69% water

9 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 3773 kcal goes into the pot, 2912 g of ingredients comes out as ~2300 g of food → 164 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 164
Protein: (32%); 13 g
Fat: (47%); 8 g
Carbohydrates: (21%); 9 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 2 g
Sodium: 369 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.