Smoked Beef Birria

Smoked beef birria is a BBQ inspired riff on the traditional Mexican stew recipe that can be made on your charcoal or pellet grill.

Course Grilling

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword beef birria, smoked beef birria

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 6

Servings People

Calories 514kcal

Author Bon Appeteach

Ideally the meat is most flavorful when prepped a day in advance, at minimum the spices should marinade for at lest 2 hours.
Start by trimming your chuck roast into 3-4 inch pieces. Trim larger pieces of fat off of the meat and discard.
Trim the fat cap and silver skin off the top of the short ribs.
Lightly oil all of your meat so it's completely coated.
In a bowl, whisk together the dry rub ingredients. Remove 2 tsp and set it aside for the consommé.
Coat the meat pieces in the rub mixture and place them on a baking sheet and cover lightly and let sit overnight in the fridge.

Trim the stems off your dried peppers and cut or slice them open to remove the seeds. Set the dried peppers aside.
In a large shallow pan, combine the 1/4 cup of olive oil and the dried chiles and simmer over medium heat. Stir frequently to move them around the pan to start rehydrating them.
After 5 minutes, carefully pour the beef stock into the pan (be mindful of the hot oil). Bring the heat to medium-high and let the stock and chiles simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Remove from the heat and let cool briefly.
While the stock mixture cools slightly. Prep the onions, garlic, remaining dry spices, -roasted tomatoes, and vinegar. You can add directly into your large pan if you want to immersion blender or carefully transfer the prepped ingredients and the hot stock mixture into a large blender. Carefully blend until smooth (please take caution).
Pour the blended consommé into a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl. Use a whisk to help move the mixture through to create a light, smooth, and thinner consommé. Discard the remains in the strainer and set the consommé aside to be used as the braising liquid for later.

Preheat your charcoal grill or pellet smoker (or a smoker of choice) to 250 F. and set it for indirect heat. Hickory is a great wood to use for this cook!
Place all of your large pieces of chuck roast and beef short rib directly onto your grill grates and smoke for 60 minutes.
After an hour, spray some beef stock over the meat to help the bark form. Spray every 45-60 minutes until the internal temperature of each piece reaches at least 165 F. (approximately 3 hours or so).
Heat the consommé up in the microwave or on the stove. You want it hot before adding the meat to it.
Remove the pieces of beef and place them in a large aluminum pan (or a Dutch oven you can use on your smoker). If you used the short ribs, I recommend cutting the meat off the bone for easier shredding later. Pour the reserved consommé over the beef pieces to begin smoking and braising your beef birria.
Return the pan to the smoker and continue to smoke for another 2-3 hours. You want the meat to be fork tender and it should be easy to shred and pull with forks or by hand. You can also chop it with a knife. I usually check for an internal temperature of 203 F. or higher for tenderness.

Serve the meat as is like a stew in a bowl. Add lime wedges, cilantro, and diced onions over the top. Additionally, this meat is perfect for making the popular food truck tacos called quesabirria.

Store the leftovers in the fridge and allow the fat to harden at the top. Skim it and use it to fry your quesabirria tacos up.