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Venison Birria Tacos

Venison birria tacos are stupid tasty. Spicy, crispy, braised venison wrapped in a tortilla and fried in spice-infused fat—they’re like grown-up taquitos with a dipping sauce. Deeply savory, with complex spice flavors, mixed textures, and rich yet fresh-tasting at the same time. They’re as close to a perfect dish as I can imagine.
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Prep Time 4 hours
Servings 4 poeple

Ingredients
  

  • 2 to 3 venison shanks or neck roast
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 8 garlic cloves
  • 5 bay leaves
  • 8 to 10 guajillo peppers dried
  • 8 to 10 ancho chili peppers dried
  • 2 tsp. Mexican oregano dried
  • 2 tsp. cumin ground
  • 1.5 tbsp salt
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 2 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 qt. stock
  • 3 cups pork lard
  • 1 cup shredded quesadilla cheese or Monterey jack
  • Corn tortillas

Instructions
 

  • Season the venison with salt and pepper. Brown all sides in a high-sided, heavy-bottomed pan. Once browned, add onion, garlic, bay leaves, dried peppers, spices, tomatoes, pork lard, and enough stock to cover the meat.
  • Cover and simmer for 2 to 3 hours until the meat is almost tender. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside. Remove and discard bay leaves and cinnamon. Skim the fat from the top of the liquid and set it aside; you’ll use this later. Blend the remaining braise liquid with a stick blender or pour into a conventional blender. Return meat to the braise and simmer for another 1 to 2 hours until it's fork-tender.
  • Once tender, pull meat from the pot and shred. Set braising liquid aside.
  • Working in batches, fry the shredded venison meat in a pan with a few tablespoons of oil. You’re looking to crisp it up, so don’t stir it constantly—let it sit and form a nice crust in the pan—then use a metal spatula to scrape and turn it periodically. Use the spatula to further break the meat apart into small pieces while you do so. As each batch finishes, scrape it out into a bowl and add fresh oil to the pan for the new batch.
  • At this point, you should have a bowl of reserved fat, a bowl of reserved braising liquid, and a bowl of fried, shredded meat. Now you’re ready to assemble the tacos.
  • Dip corn tortillas in the reserved, melted fat, coating both sides. Add cheese and shredded venison and fold. This is messy but worth it. Set each assembled taco onto a cutting board and work your way through assembling until you’ve got as many as you’d like to cook (or run out of ingredients).
  • Preheat a large skillet to medium-high heat, add some of the reserved fat, and fry tacos until both sides are crispy, about a minute on each side. There is usually a lot of spattering that happens, so if you have one, use a splatter guard while frying.
  • Top off tacos with lime and fresh cilantro and serve with a bowl of the reserved braising liquid to dip in.

Notes

Venison birria tacos are stupid tasty. Spicy, crispy, braised venison wrapped in a tortilla and fried in spice-infused fat—they’re like grown-up taquitos with a dipping sauce. Deeply savory, with complex spice flavors, mixed textures, and rich yet fresh-tasting at the same time. They’re as close to a perfect dish as I can imagine.
Venison shanks and necks are the perfect cuts for this recipe. They’re flavorful and have plenty of connective tissue that will break down in a braise, adding richness and body to the liquid and the meat. Venison’s naturally earthy flavor also pairs well with the bold seasonings.
The only downside to using venison in this dish is that it lacks any substantial amount of fat. The rendered fat that soaks up the flavors of the spices in the braise is essential in this dish. Without it, you have braised taco meat, which is fine, but it's not what makes a birria taco. I’m all about modifying a recipe to suit what you have in your pantry, but in this case, added fat is non-negotiable. In order for this recipe to work, I add a few cups of pork fat to the braise. You could also use duck, bear, or beef fat. Just make sure you’re adding fat, a lot of it.
The preparation for these tacos is simple: braise everything, blend the liquid, fry the meat, then fry the tacos. Do note that frying the tacos in the spice-infused fat can make a mess. The fat will have a lot of red pigment from the peppers and tomatoes as well as some cooking liquid, and it will want to splatter everywhere. Using a splatter guard helps keep the clean-up to a minimum.
And use the freshest corn tortillas you can get; they’re easier to fold and fry.