I've been wanting tacos since I watched a video Mark Wiens posted about taquitos. I'll leave a link at the bottom. The soup is Birria and I had to try it. So I watched a few vids, checked some recipes and decided to do my own thing using a few methods from some recipes I liked.
I dug through the freezer and found some leftover mole I made and pork chunks I needed to cook so I went shopping for the other ingredients. I'm making regular tacos too for the fam in case they don't like the Birria.
Starting on the marinade
Beautiful mole not to be confused with Austin Powers mole.
I saved some mole to add later
Next was the salsa verde, I roasted the tomatillos, garlic, hatch peppers and onions
I cleaned out the pepper seeds and then it was all the kids in the pool with salt, black pepper, about 5 sprigs of cilantro stems and all, 1/2 cup of water and some chicken bouillon powder for a little flavor.
I simmered it for 15 minutes to thicken it up a little. The Hatch peppers go fantastic in this sauce!!!! Very flavorful!!
I finished off the toppings, this is a killer Pico with roasted Hatch peppers.
I made pickled onions too, I'm sure everyone knows the normal taco toppings from this pic.
Street sized tacos and tostados were the snack while I took a break before starting on the main meal I wanted to eat.
I skimmed the red oily fat off the soup to coat the corn tortillas to make taquitos stuffed with the soup meat. I cooked 4 then started on the quesadillas but before I was done they ate all my taquitos so I had to make more.
The meat marinaded for 3 hours, added to a pot with enough water to cover the meat. I added 3 Bay leaves and some more chicken powder. It cooked for about 5 hours total but it was done in 3, I just kept it simmering and adding more water as it cooked down. This turned out to be the secret, it's like a meat soup with a depth of flavor.
Finally I sat down to eat like it was a buffet.
The taquito dipped in the soup was like au jus!
The quesadillas are perfect to add toppings and drizzle that awesome soup broth over.
Good to the last bite and I drank that broth like it was the fountain of youth.
This is the video that started me wanting tacos and taquitos.
https://youtu.be/FT7mNxMMoi0?t=85
Salsa Verde recipe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHERKypDy-A
and this is what I followed for the Birria recipe. I didn't add the mole I saved at the end, after I tasted it I didn't think it could get any better. The flavor is absolutely awesome, nothing like you would think looking at the red/mole broth. I also didn't add the thyme and allspice. I made this with pork and didn't want those flavors involved and I was right, this is an awesome soup for a cold day. Soul Soothing!!!!
https://youtu.be/FT7mNxMMoi0?t=85