Beef Birria Garnachas

What is a garnacha?

On the hunt for what makes a garnacha a garnacha, we discovered a loose translation for pretty much all portable hand-held inexpensive street food in Central and South America. Specifically, tho, garnachas have a corn base and aren’t sandwiches (tortas) or rolled up (tacos).

Regional differences were as nuanced as the list of toppings you can put on them, but it came down to quick, cheap street food that tasted delicious and anyone could enjoy. And in one of my favorite explanations, ‘must be oily…’.

For our homemade garnachas recipe, we wanted to embrace everything that makes street food so good and got to work using up leftovers from our brirria recipe and making these delicious hand-held snacks. Think of these like open-faced birria quesadillas.

Ingredients

For the filling and fried corn tortillas

• Pee-wee yellow Idaho® potatoes, diced 
• Neutral cooking Oil, we use canola
• Cumin 
• Salt, we always use kosher salt when cooking
• Corn tortillas, street taco size. We skipped the homemade corn tortillas for premade ones to fry faster.
• Leftover beef birria, or shredded chicken, ground beef, pork carnitas, taco meat, or whatever leftover meat you want to use 
• Cheddar or monetary jack cheese, or your favorite melty cheese.
• Raw onion
• Fresh cilantro 
• Jalapeno pepper
• Coleslaw mix or thinly sliced shredded cabbage

Additional Toppings:

• Red salsa, crema, hot sauce, lime wedges, and anything else you’d like (like our fire-roasted poblano crema)

Roast the potatoes

Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss the diced potatoes in a little oil, cumin, and a pinch of salt to coat. Then lay them onto a baking sheet lined with foil in a single layer.

Roast the potatoes until they are nice and crispy, about 20 to 25 minutes, flipping once to get even browning on all sides. When they are done roasting, set them aside to cool. Alternatively, you could fry the potatoes, but we find oven-roasting them easier.

Fry the Tortillas

Then preheat just enough oil to coat the bottom of a high-walled cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. The trick to a crispy corn tortilla is getting the oil hot enough to fry it without making it soggy.

Once it has heated, add the tortillas to the hot oil in batches, frying to crisp up until they are golden brown. Set them onto a plate line with paper towels and season with a pinch of salt.

Once they are cool enough to handle, put them on the foil-lined baking sheet and start to assemble the garnachas.

Build the garnachas

Then, toss the reheated leftover beef birria with the roasted potatoes. Spoon the mixture onto each fried tortilla and top with cheese.

Pop the baking sheet back in the oven to melt the cheese.

Quickly mix the finely chopped minced onion, cilantro, and minced jalapeno in a small bowl.

Then toss the cabbage slaw with a little flavored oil (we love lime oil for this recipe) and a pinch of salt.

Serve

When the cheese has melted, carefully remove the garnachas from the oven and top them with the minced onions, slaw, and any other desired toppings you want.

It’s fun to line up all the toppings on the countertop and let everyone build their own, putting on whatever they want.

Storing Leftovers & Reheating

This recipe is best enjoyed hot and fresh, like all street food. It will get soggy if assembled and then left to sit. If you have leftovers though, be sure to store the meat in an air-tight container and all of the toppings in their own containers wrapped with plastic wrap or sealed. Other than the tortillas, which can be kept at room temperature wrapped in foil, keep the remaining components in the fridge for up to 3 days.

If you’re reheating these snacks for later, take the time to fry fresh corn tortillas for a new batch quickly. The meat can be reheated in the microwave, and the toppings bar set out again, but it’s important to fry the tortillas as needed.