What Is Quesabirria? The Cheesy Birria Taco, Explained

You'll also see it called a quesataco, or written quesobirria. The cook dips a corn tortilla in the red fat skimmed off the birria, sets it on a griddle, adds cheese and meat, then folds it over until the cheese melts and the outside crisps. That red fat is why it's that color. The broth, called consomé, comes on the side for dipping.

Who invented quesabirria?

Nobody can say. The route is clearer: a Jalisco stew, a Tijuana taco, and then Los Angeles.

Birria itself is old. Larousse Cocina describes it as a Jalisco dish, first of lamb or goat, salted, rubbed with chile sauce, rested about 12 hours, wrapped in maguey and cooked in a pot sealed with corn dough for about four more. Steven Alvarez, who teaches taco literacy at St. John's University in Queens, told CNBC that the goats came with the Spanish, ran wild, and needed slow cooking and chiles to taste good. He also says a taco vendor in 1950s Tijuana swapped goat for beef because it was cheaper. Beef birria also has its own roots in Zacatecas, according to Gustavo Arellano, who says it had been in Los Angeles for decades before anyone called it a trend.

The cheesy taco is more recent. Food writer Bill Esparza told Eater in 2019 that about ten years earlier he began seeing birria on tacos in Tijuana, at a truck that was one of the first he noticed. Some of those vendors added melted cheese, which is common on tacos in northern Mexico. When those taqueros set up in Los Angeles in numbers, the style took off there. As for who coined the word, Esparza says it would be a fool's errand to look: "That's just the way Spanish works. You slap the two words together."

How is quesabirria made?

The taco takes a minute. The filling takes most of a day. This is the usual method, as Wikipedia's sourced entry and Eater describe it, and it isn't a recipe from our kitchen.

1. Stew the beef. Usually brisket, cooked with dried chiles such as guajillo and ancho plus spices, for up to 10 hours.
2. Save the fat. Skim the red fat off the broth. The broth becomes your consomé.
3. Dip and griddle. Run a corn tortilla through the fat and lay it on a hot griddle. Some cooks fry it first.
4. Fill and fold. Add cheese and shredded meat, fold it over, and press until the cheese melts and the outside crisps.
5. Serve. Consomé on the side, chopped white onion and cilantro, and lime. Salsa, radish or pickled habanero are optional.

How did it spread so fast?

Instagram, mostly. Eater's reporting says young fans in Los Angeles followed each new pop-up and posted their food photos, and a small operation could end up with a line around the block. A cheese pull and a dip in red broth make a very good ten-second video. After that came the restaurants, and then the chains.

How do you eat it?

Pick it up, hold it closed, and dunk the corner in the consomé before each bite. Eat it right away, because the cheese sets and the griddled tortilla softens as it sits. Add lime and salsa before the dip, not after. When you're done, drink what's left in the cup. Our birria taco guide goes through the whole routine, and what consomé is.

What makes a good one?

A few things you can see from across the table. The tortilla should be crisp at the edges, not soggy. The cheese should reach the edge and brown a little where it leaks onto the griddle. The consomé should taste like beef and chile, with some fat on top, and not like salty water. And it should arrive hot.

Ours comes on flour

The street version is normally corn, and ours is on a grilled flour tortilla, as the menu says, so it eats closer to a quesadilla. If you'd rather have corn, our birria tacos come on corn.

The birria dishes, with current prices:

Comparing it with other tacos? Our chart of 16 types shows where birria fits.