Birria Chile Adobo (Adobo para Birria)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy dry skillet
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Small clay cazuela or heavy skillet
• •Nonreactive bowl or glass baking dish for marinating

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo, ancho, and cascabel chiles separately, 15 to 25 seconds per side, pressing them flat with tongs until the skins darken slightly and smell deep. Do not blacken them. Guajillo turns bitter fast, and bitter adobo gives you bitter birria. Así se hace y punto.

   The chile guajillo gives Jalisco birria its clean red color. The chile ancho gives sweetness and body. Cascabel adds a nutty roundness. If you only use guajillo, the adobo tastes thin.
2. 2

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover them with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soften for 20 minutes, turning once so every piece relaxes. Boiling water toughens the skins and can pull bitterness into the soaking liquid. Drain the chiles and discard that water unless your chiles were very clean and sweet.

3. 3

   Char the aromatics

   On the same comal, toast the unpeeled garlic and onion slices until they show brown spots and smell sweet, about 5 minutes. Peel the garlic. This little bit of char matters. Raw garlic in an adobo shouts. Roasted garlic knows how to behave.

4. 4

   Grind the spices

   Crush the Mexican oregano between your palms into the blender. Add the cumin, black pepper, thyme, canela, cloves, crumbled bay leaves, sesame seeds, ginger, salt, vinegar, 1 cup hot water, softened chiles, roasted garlic, and onion. Blend until completely smooth, at least 90 seconds. Stop and scrape the jar if needed. You want paste, not chile confetti.

5. 5

   Strain the adobo

   Pass the blended adobo through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing hard with a spoon. Discard the skins and seeds left behind. This is the difference between a rough marinade and one that clings cleanly to the meat. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. They strain.

6. 6

   Fry the paste

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a small cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the strained adobo carefully. It will sputter because vinegar and chile are meeting hot fat. Stir for 6 to 8 minutes, until the paste darkens from bright red to brick red and the fat leaves a glossy ring at the edge. La manteca es el sabor, and here it also cooks the raw edge out of the chile.

7. 7

   Balance and cool

   Stir in the piloncillo and taste. It should be salty, tart, warm with spice, and deep with chile. It should taste too strong to eat by the spoon because it is meant to season several pounds of meat. Cool completely before rubbing it onto goat, lamb, or beef. Hot adobo starts cooking the surface unevenly. Cold adobo penetrates.

8. 8

   Marinate the meat

   Rub the cooled adobo over 4 to 5 pounds of goat, lamb, or bony beef cuts, working it into every crevice. Cover and refrigerate at least 12 hours, preferably 24. Birria is not a hurry-up dish. The vinegar, chile, and spices need time to enter the meat before the slow cooking begins. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Buy flexible dried chiles with shine and aroma. If the guajillos crack like paper and smell like dust, leave them with the vendor. You can have perfect technique and bad chiles and you will get bad birria.
• •Goat is the Jalisco meat. Lamb is the closest common substitute outside Mexico. Beef shank, chuck, or short rib works when that is what the market gives you, but it makes a different birria. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Do not replace Mexican oregano with Mediterranean oregano and pretend nothing changed. Mexican oregano is more citrusy and sharper. If you cannot find it, use less Mediterranean oregano and know what you are missing.
• •The adobo should rest on the meat overnight. Four hours is what you do when you planned badly. Twenty-four hours is what you do when you respect the dish.
• •This adobo is not supposed to taste like tomato, chipotle, or barbecue sauce. If a recipe starts with canned tomato sauce and calls it birria, close it. This is a 32-state cuisine.

Advance Preparation

• •The finished adobo can be made 3 days ahead and kept refrigerated in a covered glass jar. The chile and spice flavor deepens as it rests.
• •For longer storage, freeze the adobo in 1-cup portions for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and stir well before using.
• •Once rubbed onto meat, marinate at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours before cooking birria. Do not hold raw marinated meat longer than 2 days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)