Matt Preston shares his take on the TikTok viral birria taco trend

The current birria taco obsession in the US is matched with a growing interest in Mexican food overall here in Australia.

The LA neighbourhood of Boyle Heights might have a reputation for gang violence, but it’s also famed as the site of many of the earliest birrierias in the US.

Here, until his passing last year, birrieria pioneer Silverio Moreno plied his trade for decades, slinging his own take on this goat stew that has become one of the hottest dishes in the US.

It’s a dish that, in its traditional form, could well be the perfect one-pot meal.

Recently, TikTok has taken this dish from a simple stew served with tortillas into something more.

With the tortillas dipped in the red fat that sits on the top of the braise before being fried crispy, and a filling of shredded slow-braised meat and melting cheese, birria tacos were one of the trending dishes of 2022 — and are still favourites today.

For more food, travel and lifestyle news, go to delicious.com.au

Birria actually dates back to when Spanish conquistadors handed over a booming goat population to the First Nations people around the Mexican state of Jalisco. The meat was deemed too tough and gamey for the conquistadors’ snobby palates, hence the name ‘birria’, which translates to ‘rubbish’.

Matt Preston’s quesabirria tacos. Picture: Supplied

Matt Preston shares the history of birria.

But the use of Indigenous marination techniques and local dried chillies vastly improved this meat, turning birria into a hit.

This current birria obsession in the US is matched with a growing interest in Mexican food here.

On delicious.com.au, Mexican food is now the fourth most-popular cuisine.

I hope you’ll add this birria recipe to your regular rotation of Mexican-inspired dishes, whether as a one-pot wonder or as the core of these crispy quesabirria tacos. For either of them, rubbish they are not!

Make Matt Preston’s quesabirria tacos HERE.

For more food, travel and lifestyle news, go to delicious.com.au

Originally published as Matt Preston shares his take on the TikTok viral birria taco trend