Goat is traditionally used in birria, but I make it with beef chuck roast.
If you want to try the OG version of birria, the WinCo on SE 82nd and Powell usually has goat meat in the frozen meat section. Sometimes I grab some when the curry mood is upon me.
My favorite is a brushfire from Torchys taco.
Jamaican jerk chicken, jalapenos, cilantro, mango and haberneo sauce. There are some copycat recipes out there if you want to make yourself.
Thier queso is pretty damn good as well.
Don’t know as I’ve ever had goat. I’ve had mutton, and am not a fan.
Goat is less gamy overall but really needs some serious cooking, it’s braise it or deal with the toughest shoe leather you ever tried to chew.
I’ve found them really variable and I suspect that is just down to local availability and the age of the meat when prepared (or maybe the age and quality of the goat being slaughtered). I’ve had a really good goat taco and one which was frankly rank.
I usually don’t mess with them for that reason. Too many other more consistently delicious meats. Tongue is definitely slightly off-putting to me texturally.
I live right by perhaps the best birrieria in the city, so I’m lucky. Never had a bad dish there. They only serve two things: goat and quesadillas (well, and you can get fresh tortillas to go, so I guess three things.)
These rojo tacos have been popping up on my YouTube lately.
I must say they look quite delish. And easy to make.
Can you link to a video with a recipe? I’d like to try these out. The ones I’m finding are either taquitos or deep fried tacos, so I’m not sure I’m finding the right ones.
They’re called Barria tacos.
Here’s the one that I want to make.
Yeah. I was confused at the recipe for birria upthread that was made with beef. I’ve only had birria with goat.
I thought “birria” MEANT “goat”, at least in culinary terms (haven’t tried it).
Oh, those I’ve seen. I thought the rojo tacos was something else.
I can tell you that the ones made with beef are the bomb. It’s the sauce, of course. If you take the time to rehydrate dried peppers, etc. for it, the result is a bit of heaven. And when the meat is gone, there is still all that lovely, deep red sauce left over to put on your eggs or on a bowl of rice.
This thread made me all kinds of hungry and whaddaya know, the local taco truck that parks right down the street does alambre, which I’ve never tried. Holy shit, that was some kind of amazing, especially for someone who tries to avoid carbs. I left most of the tortillas, just used one to mop up the container. Thought seriously about licking the durned thing clean, it was THAT good.
At first, I thought birria meant only goat. But the word is applied to goat, lamb, or beef stew. The restaurant where we tried tacos rojos for the first time is in Castroville, California. Here’s their menu.
You can get the stew (any of the three meats) on a plate with a cup of the meat consomme on the side, or you can get it in the form of tacos. Their tacos rojos are beef only.
And this place makes their own homemade corn tortillas, the best I’ve ever had.
Castroville is only 150 miles away. I could be there by lunch.
The tacos are dipped in the stew before frying. Since there is a significant amount of fat in the stew, no oil is required in the pan. I’m craving some now, and I’ve got the peppers for it, so. . .
Here’s a food truck in L.A. cooking up some. This is the youtube video best representing what we had. Dang, I just had some, and now I want some more.
Yeah, those I see sold as birria quesatacos (or quesotacos) around here. I’m mostly familiar with the straight-up goat birria taco, served as a regular taco with onions and cilantro. (Or I’m just as likely to eat it as a stew with the tortillas on the side.) I’ll have to try this sloppy version one of these days.