Chicken Birria

Skip the taco taco truck… make chicken birria at home.

Restaurant-quality birria made in less time than its beef counterpart. This Chicken Birria is an ode to the traditional Mexican dish, featuring a rich adobo sauce infused with smoky, fruity chilies, earthy spices, and just the right touch of heat. The result? Tender, melt-in-your-mouth chicken that’s perfect for tacos, quesadillas, or simply savoring on its own. Does it require a little elbow grease? Yes, but let’s be honest, all truly delicious dishes do.

WHAT IS CHICKEN BIRRIA?

Birria is a traditional Mexican dish made by slow-cooking meat in a rich, flavorful sauce of chiles, tomatoes, and aromatics. The result? Tender, melt-in-your-mouth shredded meat in a deeply flavored sauce that’s slightly spicy, earthy, a little fruity, and finished with a subtle zing. Traditionally prepared with beef or goat, this chicken birria captures all the familiar flavors in a quicker, approachable version. While birria is often enjoyed in tacos, where corn tortillas are dipped in the consommé, then pan-fried with shredded meat and Oaxaca cheese, here we’re serving it over rice, letting the bold flavors shine in a different way (and making it a touch easier).

WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR CHICKEN BIRRIA

• Chicken Thighs – Use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. If you can’t find them (they’ve surprisingly become harder to find lately), you can use bone-in, skin-on thighs instead, just peel back the skin and cut out the bone as a backup option. Chicken breasts, however, will not work for this dish.
• Guajillo Chiles – A mild-to-medium heat dried chili, the guajillo has a distinctive smoky and slightly fruity flavor profile. Recognizable by their deep red color, guajillos look similar to New Mexico chilies, but they are not the same and will not provide the flavor that chicken birria requires. Unless you have access to a Hispanic specialty market or your local grocery store carries a good selection of Hispanic ingredients, these chilies may be hard to find. I order most of my spices and chilies online from The Spice House, where guajillo chilies can be found HERE.
• Ancho Chilies – Dried poblano peppers add a layer of warmth to the dish. They are slightly sweet, a touch fruity (similar to a raisin), and carry a subtle earthiness. Ancho chilies are commonly used in mole to add depth of flavor, and they do exactly that here. I usually purchase mine from The Spice House HERE.
• Chile De Arbol – Hello, heat! You might be able to find these chilies at your local supermarket, but if not, you can purchase them HERE. The recipe calls for three chilies, which gives the sauce a subtle heat. If you’re a spice lover like me, feel free to increase that to four or five.
• Onion – Yellow, Spanish, or white onion.
• Garlic – Fresh only!
• Cilantro
• Chicken Broth – Boxed broth is fine here, or use Better than Bouillon.
• Crushed Tomatoes – So many cans of crushed tomatoes come pre-flavored these days. Avoid those for this recipe (the last thing you need is basil and roasted garlic flavor added to this traditional Mexican dish).
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Olive Oil – I prefer to use olive oil, but it can be swapped out for a canola oil or vegetable oil as well.

SPICES

• Mexican Oregano – This variety of oregano is more robust than its distant relative, Greek oregano. Its bolder flavor is perfect for standing up to the strong chili notes in this dish. You can substitute Greek oregano in a pinch since Mexican oregano can be a bit harder to find. It’s available to order online HERE.
• Ground Cumin
• Dried Thyme
• Cinnamon
• Spanish Paprika
• Dried Bay Leaves

SERVING

Can you make chicken birria tacos from this recipe? Absolutely! Below is what you need to have the chicken birria in a bowl.

• White Rice
• Onion – Whatever onion you used above works here as well. And yes we top the dish off with raw onion, trust the process, it just works.
• Cilantro
• Lime

TOOLS NEEDED

• Blender – The bulk of the work in this recipe comes from making the sauce, which needs to be blended until smooth. Unfortunately, a food processor or immersion blender won’t achieve the smooth consistency we’re after.
• Fine Mesh Strainer – It’s a bit of a pain, I know, but the blended sauce also needs to be strained. While a blender can process the chilies, it still leaves behind some unwanted grit in the sauce. For best results, you’ll need a strainer THIS! *affiliate link
• Deep Skillet / Large Dutch Oven or Saute Pan – A large enough pan or pot to hold about 3 cups of sauce and the chicken without boiling over.

HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN BIRRIA

Toast the Chiles – Heat your pot or pan over medium. Once hot, tear the chilies and add them to the pan, discarding the stems. Toast for 3–4 minutes, mixing every 20–30 seconds or so to ensure even heating. Remove the chilies (along with any loose seeds) from the pan and place them in a large bowl. Add just enough hot water to cover, then set aside to soak.

Sear the Chicken – Add a tablespoon of oil to the same pan over medium heat. Season the chicken with a pinch of kosher salt on both sides. Once the oil has heated up, add the chicken and sear for 4 minutes on each side. Don’t worry if it’s not completely cooked through at the end of the 8 minutes. Remove the dried chiles from the pan.

Make the Sauce – Add another tablespoon of olive oil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Toss in the chopped onion and cook for 2 minutes, then add the sliced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the spices (cumin, oregano, thyme, cinnamon, and paprika), leaving out the bay leaves out for now. Stir continuously for about a minute to keep the spices from burning. Pour in the chicken broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

To a blender add: the rehydrated chilies + 1/4 cup of the soaking liquid, crushed tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, 1/2 bunch of cilantro (thoroughly washed, bottom half of the stems discarded), and a heavy pinch of salt. Blend on high for 30 seconds or until smooth.

HOW TO CONT…

Pull it Together + Simmer – Return the chicken, along with any juices that collected on the plate, back to the pan. Working in 3 batches, pour the blended sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into the skillet, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids. Add the bay leaves to the skillet.  Bring the pot to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once it reaches a simmer, season with salt to taste, then reduce the heat to low. Cover with the lid and simmer for 45 minutes.

Pull + Enjoy! – After 45 minutes, the chicken should be tender enough to shred. Depending on the size of the thighs, you may need a bit more time. If the chicken doesn’t pull apart easily, continue simmering for another 15 minutes. You can either remove the chicken and shred it in a separate bowl before returning it to the pot, or shred it directly in the sauce. 

Serve in warm corn tortillas for chicken birria tacos, or spoon the shredded chicken over a bowl of white rice. Garnish generously with cilantro, diced white onion, a squeeze of lime, and a good amount of of birria sauce.

FAQS

Can I swap chicken thighs for chicken breasts? Unfortunately no. The sauce needs the fat from the thighs to tie it all together.

I have a high sensitivity to heat, can I remove the chiles? Yes, but only the chiles de arbol since that is where the heat comes from. The guajillos and anchos are for flavor.

STORING/REHEATING

This chicken birria is a great make-ahead recipe that you can enjoy all week long. Store it in airtight containers in the refrigerator for 4–5 days. Surprisingly, the best way to reheat it is in the microwave. Heat in short intervals until warmed through. Alternatively, you can reheat it on the stovetop by placing the desired amount in a saucepan with a splash of broth to loosen it up, then warm over low heat.