Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

“Slow cooked beef in a savory tomato and chile sauce“

Here’s what Trader Joe’s has to say about BEEF BIRRIA…

“This Mexican dish originally hails from Jalisco, and, like ours, is traditionally cooked for several hours in kettles until the Beef is incredibly tender and infused with a savory tomato and chile sauce. You can serve it as a simple stew, topped with fresh cilantro, diced onions, and a squeeze of lime. Alternatively, if you want to evoke the taco truck vibe—and we’re thinking you will—make your own Birria tacos! Dip Corn Tortillas in the broth and fry them in a hot pan or on a plancha. Add the Birria, top with chopped onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime, then fold and fry on each side until crispy. But don’t stop there—that lusciously spiced broth serves as a delectable dip for your tacos, too. Believe us, you’ll want to spoon, dip, and sip every last drop.”

I’ve wanted to review this product since I first heard about it months ago but I found it almost impossible to find in stock for some time. Is this Trader Joe’s most popular item now due to social media internet buzz about Birria and the popular (and trendy) birria taco trucks that sell this in some cities like here in NYC? Does it sell out at Trader Joe’s as soon as they put it out, or has it just been a supply problem, or a combination of the two? Anyway I looked for it almost every time I would go to TJ’s for the months and never saw it available, but finally last week I got lucky, and saw literally one last package sitting alone in Frozen section. I looked behind me ready to fight off any interlopers but grabbed that last one! Success.

COOKING: I defrosted it overnight in the fridge, one method they suggest. I cooked it on the stove instead of nuking it. At $8 for 16 ounces, this is a wee bit pricey but of course it’s beef, and you get a fair amount of large chunks with sauce. With tortillas and a little rice on the side the package was just enough for two of us for a dinner. I found the beef and sauce tasty, with the beef appealingly tender, stringy and moist. The sauce the beef is cooked in is tasty, it’s savory with tomatoes, chiles and spices. The ingredients read like real food. Generally the beef is of a decent quality but there were a few inedible fatty pieces but not many and fyi some fat is important in this dish. So don’t just skim it off. This is what you should dip the tortillas in the fat on top of the broth to fry up the tortillas as the package suggests. Now BIRRIA is especially known for the stock or broth it’s in, which they call the “consommé” and typically is served alongside the meat in a cup so you can dip tortillas in it. Trader Joe’s version didn’t have enough broth for me anyway. Frankly I wished they gave more broth with this. I would like about double what they give you. So what I actually ended up doing was this. I added maybe a 1/2 cup of water to the pot and simmered it for 30-40 minutes to get more broth going in this dish. On top of that I also added a veggie (one large zucchini, quartered) to the pot, and let that simmer in the broth, and that came out delicious and gave it some more juice too. Though I did not find this overly salty the Sodium content listed on the package is pretty high. One portion (1/2 a package) contains over 1000mg sodium which is almost half (47%) of one’s daily recommended sodium so just be informed. I would certainly not recommend that one person eats whole package as that would be over 2000 mg of sodium with just this one thing alone. By my adding water to make more broth I did dilute things a bit and it was still tasty not watery at all, if you want to go in that direction. A Vegetable cooked in the broth will be delicious. We served this with corn tortillas and a little rice, and it made for a pretty tasty dinner. Birria is always served with chopped cilantro and chopped onion so consider that a must to add on top like the Serving Suggestion. Buy cilantro and onions along with your preferred tortilla to go with the Birria. I vote for corn tortillas. All in all I liked this, and would say this is one of Trader Joe’s better items, it almost tastes like it was home made. If you can find this (!) I think this is worth trying and I would buy it again.

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/beef-birria-072620

$7.99 for 16 oz.

“Trader Joe’s Beef Birria is tender, slow-cooked beef in a flavorful broth made with crushed tomatoes, dried chiles, and aromatic spices and often served as a simple stew….make your own Birria tacos….if your mantra is “everything is better with cheese,” then make Quesabirria tacos! We dip corn tortillas in the savory broth and fry them in a hot pan, top them with Birria and shredded mozzarella cheese, then sprinkle chopped onions and cilantro and fold into a taco. We suggest frying each side until the tortillas are crispy and the cheese is gloriously gooey and begins to brown at the edges. But don’t stop there—that lusciously spiced broth serves as a delectable dip for your tacos, too.”

Finally if you want to really learn about this dish there’s a really good documentary series on Netflix called the TACO CHRONICLES and it has a whole episode about making Birria in Jalisco, Mexico, it’s point of origin. And you will see, it is traditionally made with goat, the most authentic meat for Birria.