Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

-Today on "Cook's Country"... Bryan visits Tucson, Arizona, and shares his version of quesabirria tacos.

I trace the origins of the birria craze in the U.S. And Ashley makes Julia sopa seca.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

-The influence of Sonoran-Mexican culture is embedded in everything you find in Tucson, especially the food.

I arrived with two goals -- eat some really good Mexican food... Really good.

...and learn how to make birria, a chili-and-spice-braised beef dish.

To meet that first goal, I headed straight to South 12th Avenue, which is known as "the best 23 miles of Mexican food in the U.S." Here you'll find restaurants that have been in business since the 1920s situated alongside more modern places.

-It's like you said, Tucson cuisine, you know.

Like, we got the flat enchiladas.

We got the nana's tacos.

We got the flautas.

But everybody puts their own little spin to them.

-It's that ingenuity that's at the heart of Tucson's food culture.

And I'm here to meet one of its finest practitioners, Chef Mateo Otero.

-So, now we're doing our birria rojos, aka quesabirrias.

[ Sizzling ] -Mateo is a fifth-generation Tucsonan and owner of Rollies Mexican Patio.

-I started cooking since I was five years old.

My tata was a chef here in Tucson.

He used to take me to work with him, and I remember just seeing him melt butter.

I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

And right then I already knew I wanted to be a chef.

-Chef Mateo cut his culinary teeth in the catering business before opening Rollies in 2017.

-People were saying, "Hey, you need to open up a restaurant."

So, I found something small, and this was it right here.

And from there just opened up shop, and it's been a success.

-Rollies Mexican Patio is known for their rolled fried tacos.

But recently their birria has been getting a lot of attention.

Birria originated in Jalisco, Mexico, where it is traditionally made with goat.

But in Tucson, birria is made with beef.

The dish starts with an aromatic spice rub.

-It's just a little cinnamon, just a pinch, just a pinch.

-Then it's cooked with tomatoes, garlic, chilies, and a blend of spices.

So, what are the types of chilies that you added there?

-So right here we have pasilla chilies and guajillo chilies, New Mexico.

-Definitely withholding information the last time I was here.

-Oh, and chili de rbols.

-[ Laughs ] After simmering on the stovetop, the broth and the aromatics are blended, then added back in with the meat to cook in the oven overnight for 16 hours.

-I'm going to skim the fat from the top, and I'm going to put it back into the meat.

And it's why it makes my birria extra special.

I have the right ratio of fat and broth inside back into the birria.

Famous Rollies sauce here.

-Tell me about that sauce.

What's up with that?

-It's just our house sauce.

It's a spicy mayo with different chilies in here, as well.

-Finally, it's time to try it for myself.

All right.

Where do you want to start?

-So, these are birria rojo.

-Mm.

That's so good, man.

You can really taste the warm spice in here.

It's in there, but it's not overpowering.

-Yeah.

-The move where you put the mayonnaise in the taco, it really helps it feel more creamy, more cheesy.

-Oh, yeah.

The fat -- that's what I'm saying.

-Yeah.

-I mean, fat makes everything good.

-Chef Mateo's food combines heritage with culinary creativity.

-My aunt made rolled tacos like this, and she would call them "drowning" tacos.

She'll put chicken broth on top of the rolled tacos... -Really?

-...and garnish it with lettuce, pickled onions, and queso fresco.

And I always thought that was super cool because we're just used to eating the rolled taco by itself.

-Yeah.

-She put that spin into it, and that's what made me think outside the box.

-Really?

-Like, just seeing her think outside the box made me want to think outside the box.

-Many of his dishes begin with a childhood memory and evolve as he adds his own spin.

This is what the food of Tucson means to him.

There's room for both tradition and fresh interpretations.

-It's definitely about family and tradition and celebration.

I just feel like keeping traditional, how you grew up eating it, but pass on to the next generation.

Allow them to put in their little twist to it.

-Well, it looks like you have a really hard job.

-It's tough.

Like, I ruined two T-shirts on that trip.

-That's something.

But did you put your own twist is what I want to know.

-You know, I learned a lot from Mateo.

And so, I came back with my version of birria that was based on what he showed me.

-Okay.

-We'll get more into that later.

-Perfect.

-But where we could all agree is that birria starts with the chilies.

So, what we're going to use here is about 1 1/2 ounces of guajillo chilies.

And we want to start off by removing the stems and a good bit of the seeds.

You don't have to be super critical about removing the seeds because yes, they'll give a little bit more heat.

But guajillo chilies are generally pretty mild, you know.

And we're going to strain all this later on.

So, they'll all come out.

-Yeah, they have a really nice, fruity flavor to them.

-Yeah, they're a fantastic chili.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, birria is one of those things that everybody has their own spin on.

And I met Mateo a couple of times, and the first time he shared with me his recipe, or "recipe," it was only guajillo chilies.

The second time I met him, he added two more chilies to it.

So, he added pasilla and New Mexico chilies.

And so this is, like I said, this is your baseline birria.

So, a very good birria, but, you know, you can have fun.

You can riff on this.

Everybody has their own blend of chilies they put into this.

-You think he was hiding them from you the first time?

-Oh, totally, totally he was hiding.

He even joked he wasn't going to share his own recipe with me, you know?

All right, so we're just going to stem and seed these, drop those into our pot, and then we are going to talk about beef.

-Mm!

-So, this is a 3 1/2-pound chuck roast here.

And you could also use short ribs or boneless short ribs if you have those.

We like chuck because it braises up really well, and it's got a good bit of fat on it.

And we want to keep all that fat on here because the fat is going to be used later on in the recipe.

So, we want to cut this into 2 1/2-, 3-inch chunks that will braise nicely.

Okay, and we'll just drop them into the pot.

All right.

So, now we're ready to add the rest of our ingredients to the beef and our chilies.

So, we have one onion that's been quartered, eight garlic cloves that have been peeled, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Again, we want to use the fat that comes out of this, this braise right here.

-Mm-hmm.

-And there's not quite enough fat for our purposes.

We want to produce a little extra.

So, we're adding a little extra oil there.

-I'm loving this recipe more and more.

-And then 2 tablespoons of paprika.

Now, Mateo used a local chili powder that he gets there in Tucson.

We didn't have access to that.

But what we're looking for is that kind of astringency that, you know, paprika gives you on the sides of the mouth.

It's similar to this mild chili he was using.

-The...[ clicks tongue ] -Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Four teaspoons of onion powder, 4 teaspoons of granulated garlic, 4 teaspoons table salt, a tablespoon of Mexican oregano.

Now, Mexican oregano has a slightly different flavor than Greek or Mediterranean oregano.

It's got more of a lemony, citrusy, licorice flavor, whereas Greek tends to have a bittersweet, peppery note to it.

We have a tablespoon of ground coriander, 2 teaspoons of black pepper, and a 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and then finally 4 bay leaves.

And we're going to add 2 quarts of water to that.

So, we're going to bring this to a boil over high heat.

Once it comes to a boil, we'll put a lid on it, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let simmer until the beef is tender.

And it takes anywhere between 2 1/2 and 3 hours.

-Move over, Kylie Jenner.

There's a new Instagram star in town, and this time it's a taco.

#birria was first used on TikTok in 2018, and from there, the dish spread like wildfire on social media, and it's easy to see why.

The bright-red tacos dunked in a luscious consomm broth are incredibly photogenic.

Most people trace the beginning of the birria craze in the U.S. to two taco trucks in Los Angeles.

Birrieria Gonzalez was opened by brothers Oscar and Omar Gonzalez in 2015.

The following year, their friend Teddy Vazquez opened Teddy's Red Tacos.

Both operations began informally.

Oscar started selling his birria from a stand in the driveway, and Teddy sold his out of the trunk of his car.

Before long, they had a following, and although they set off a trend, they didn't invent birria.

The dish has origins in the Mexican state of Jalisco, where it was traditionally made with goat or beef.

A man named Don Guadalupe Zrate created the style of birria that's popular in Tijuana today.

That Tijuana version is what inspired L.A.'s birria makers.

At "Cook's Country," we found an outstanding birria in another community near the Mexican border, Tucson.

-Our beef has been cooking for 2 1/2 hours.

It's nice and tender, and after it was done cooking, we let it sit for 30 minutes without stirring it.

And you smell that chili and that little hint of cinnamon coming through?

-Wave of aromas there.

-Yeah, we let it sit because we wanted the fat to separate from the rest of the cooking liquid.

And we're just going to ladle some of that fat off as much as possible.

And the way you do this is you kind of just press the bottom of the ladle into the liquid until nothing but the fat spills over the edge.

And I like to put it into a nice, shallow dish.

You can put it into a bowl if you like.

We're going to dredge our tortillas in this fat before we fry them later.

-Mm!

-And now we're going to remove the beef from the broth here.

And the spider skimmer is really a nice tool for that.

We want to just make sure we're getting the beef and not all the onion and the chilies, because we want to puree the onions and the chilies together in the broth.

And now we're going to shred our beef.

And for that, you know, I'm famous for using the potato masher to shred meat.

So, just kind of mash it up.

You could do this with your hands or with a pair of tongs, but I find the potato masher works really well.

And so, since we didn't trim the beef ahead of time, if you see any big, gnarly pieces of fat like this that didn't melt away, you could just pull them out at this point.

We're going to use an immersion blender to puree the rest of our broth here.

If you don't have an immersion blender, there's instructions for using a regular jar blender on our website.

Okay, that looks pretty smooth.

So, now we're going to strain this liquid through a fine-mesh strainer set over a large saucepan here.

We just want to remove any of the big particles.

-Especially things like bay leaves.

-[ Laughing ] Yeah.

-It takes forever to break those things down.

-All right, we're close to the end.

Bridget, do you want to just tip that into the strainer?

-Be happy to help.

-Perfect.

Thank you.

-You bet.

-We're going to take 2 cups of this broth and add it to our meat.

Just drop that right into the meat.

So, a lot of that meat flavor washes off into this cooking liquid.

So, we want to add all that chili flavor back to the meat.

And it's okay this is a little bit extra moist because it's going to make a nice, gooey, flavorful taco.

I'm gonna just taste it.

Add some extra salt and pepper.

Okay, so we have that seasoned, and that's good.

We can just cover this with a little bit of aluminum foil.

I'm going to put a lid on it and put it over low heat to keep warm.

And we'll clean up.

Come back and make some tacos.

-Nice.

-It's time to make some tacos.

We have our griddle that's been heating up over medium heat with a teaspoon of oil on it.

We're just going to wipe the oil away.

We never like to preheat nonstick surfaces without a little bit of fat on them.

We have some yellow-corn tortillas here.

We're going to run them through our beef fat nice and light.

I'm going to drop them onto our griddle.

-Nice.

-So, these are yellow-corn tortillas.

You could use white-corn tortillas.

I suppose you could use flour if you wanted to.

But in Tucson I mostly saw corn tortillas.

So, we're going to put about a 1/4 of a cup of shredded mozzarella on top of each tortilla.

-Mozzarella, huh?

-Yeah.

You know, I found mozzarella and Monterey Jack being used more often than any other type of Mexican cheese in Tucson, throughout Southern California.

And this is block mozzarella.

So, it doesn't come coated with that starch that preshredded mozzarella comes with.

And then we're going to follow that with a 1/4 cup of our beef.

I like to put the beef on the far side of the taco.

So, that way we could fold over it.

All right.

So, we're looking for the cheese to just really start melting like it is all along the edges.

I'd say, like, one of the best parts of this is when some errant cheese gets off the edge here and starts to get all frico and crusty.

-Ooh, yeah.

-So delicious.

So, before we fold these in half, we're going to add a little bit of red onion.

Again, this is just to taste.

-A little cilantro.

-All right.

So, now we're ready to fold these in half.

Using two spatulas is the best way.

So, hold it and fold it.

Hold it still and then kind of fold it in half.

You see it's easier to fold over the meat than to try and flip the meat up the other way.

So, obviously, because we have two burners going underneath this griddle, the temperature is going to vary from front to back.

So, if you see one getting a little bit more dark than the other, just flip-flop them, rotate them, move them around a little bit.

We want to cook these after they've been folded for one or two minutes until they get nice and crispy.

-Oh, lovely.

-All right.

So, these in the back I think are getting done.

-Mm!

-So, this will be yours, Bridget.

-All right.

-To accompany the birria tacos, we have a little bit of the broth that we cooked the meat in.

This makes a good bit of broth, and at Rollies, they have the birria ramen, which is out of this world.

We have that recipe on our website, and it's a great way to use up some of this extra broth and some of the extra meat you might have.

Okay, one final flourish, cilantro on top of your birria broth there.

-Lovely.

-All right, so the way we eat these is we take our taco, and you dunk it into the birria broth.

-All right.

-All right, go for it.

-Mm!

-Mm.

-Oh, my goodness.

-I...I have a hard time stopping once I start eating these.

-Loving that fried crunch on the outside.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's amazing.

Breaking through there, that meat, of course, silky, silky as anything, super tender.

Lovely blend of flavors in there.

And it's not just the cinnamon, and it's not just the coriander.

It's everything.

It's that garlic in there.

-Yeah, and those guajillo chilies... -The guajillos.

-...have such a distinct flavor, you know?

-This, this is incredible.

Bryan, these are wonderful.

Thank you so much for sharing them with us.

-You're so welcome.

-Why don't you try making these tacos at home?

It's super easy.

And all you have to do is simmer beef chuck with aromatic spices until very tender, stir some of the cooking broth back into the shredded meat, and drag corn tortillas through the flavorful fat before cooking.

So, from "Cook's Country," the excellent quesabirria tacos.

-All right.

-I still might have to go to Tucson, though.

-Sopa seca is a classic skillet pasta dish made by toasting noodles, then cooking it in a rich, tomatoey broth -- sometimes it's a little spicy -- and topped with a bunch of garnishes, like cilantro, avocado, and crema.

And today, Ashley is going to show us how to make a version inspired by one of our colleagues, Janette Zepeda, who grew up in California to Mexican parents.

-Yes.

And her mom, Maria, is such a good cook.

And so, she grew up making this during the week.

And Janette, when she was walking home from school, could even smell this being made.

-Oh!

-Yeah.

-I love dishes like that, that you look forward to eating after school.

-I know, it's pure comfort.

Fideos are the main ingredient for this recipe.

Now, what you will find in the grocery store are these small, little strands.

They're about one inch each.

They're broken into those little pieces.

Now, another type of fideos that are made are in the shape of coils, sort of like a little nest.

-Mm-hmm!

-You don't want to use this one for this specific recipe.

-Okay, so these are out.

-Those are out.

Now, if you couldn't find this type of fideos, you could substitute thin spaghetti or angel hair and just go ahead and break that into small, 1-inch pieces.

So, first step we're going to be doing is we're going to toast 8 ounces of fideos.

I'm going to start by heating up 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat until shimmering.

And I'm going to toast them over medium-high heat for four to five minutes or so until deep golden brown, but not burnt.

-Okay.

-And it's important just to go in here and stir every once in a while.

And this is an important step because it's going to give us that really nice, nutty flavor for the pasta.

-Okay.

-All right.

Now take a look at how deep golden these are.

-They're gorgeous.

-Yeah.

They got really, really nice and toasty.

And I mentioned that they're going to get nutty in flavor, but it's also going to help to keep the strands individual so they're not going to get too stuck to each other.

-Makes sense.

-All right, so, I'm going to put these in this bowl.

Now I'm going to add a few other ingredients.

First, I'm going to add one more tablespoon of vegetable oil to the empty skillet.

Put that back over medium-high heat.

I've got 2 cloves of garlic that I peeled and smashed.

I've got a whole onion that I chopped.

And finally I have 1 pound of Roma tomatoes that I cored and then quartered.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

And it's usually around 4 to 5 tomatoes.

-Okay.

-And I'm going to let this cook just like so for about 8 to 10 minutes until the vegetables get nice and soft and start to release some of their liquid.

A lot of recipes we found didn't take the step of precooking the garlic and the onions and the tomatoes.

-Mm-hmm.

-And we found that some of those recipes had a raw bite to it.

So, just cooking them 8 to 10 minutes does a really nice job of taking all that away.

All right, Julia, 8 to 10 minutes has passed, and you can see that the tomatoes are starting to release their liquid, and everything is softened.

So, I've cooked it until that point, and I'm going to pull it off now and transfer everything into a blender.

-Now it makes sense why you left everything in such big pieces.

-Yes!

-You're gonna let the blender do the chopping for you.

-Exactly.

I've got 2 cups of water that I'm just going to add directly into here.

And now I've got a few other ingredients.

This is chicken bouillon powder.

-Interesting.

-Yeah.

It's a secret ingredient here.

It's full of umami, a ton of savoriness.

It really packs a lot of punch to the sauce.

And it's 2 tablespoons total.

If you can't find bouillon powder, simply substitute 2 to 3 bouillon cubes... -Mm-hmm.

-...smash them, and then just measure out 2 tablespoons.

So, I'm going to add that directly into the blender.

-That's going to add a punch of flavor.

-Mm-hmm.

Now I've got 1 tablespoon.

But you can go down to a 1/2 if you want, if you don't love spicy.

It's canned chipotle in adobo sauce.

-Nice.

-Going to add a lot of heat but also some really nice smokiness.

And 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

And I'm going to process this for about one minute until smooth.

-Okay.

[ Whirring ] -All right.

So, we need 5 cups of liquid total because this liquid is going to be cooking the fideos.

-Gotcha.

-So, I'm just going to pour that into this 8-cup liquid measure here.

I'm going to take a look.

How much do we have here?

We have just shy of 5 cups.

So, I'm going to add just a little bit more water.

And that is perfect.

So, now I'm going to transfer this to the skillet.

-What a color.

-I know.

-That is gorgeous.

-It really is.

So, now I'm going to bring that up to a simmer over medium-high.

And I'm going to add the fideos in here in a single layer.

[ Sizzling ] All right, so, this is at a simmer, Julia.

I'm just going to cover the skillet, reduce the heat to low, and let this cook for about 20 to 25 minutes.

I'm going to go in there every five minutes or so just to stir everything.

That's going to ensure that the fideos does not burn on the bottom or scorch.

But you do want a few charred bits if you can get them.

-Okay.

-Take a look at this.

-Ooh!

-Yep.

And the fideos are really nice and tender.

-That sauce gets really thick.

-Mm-hmm.

It coats it really, really nicely.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, I'm going to take this off the heat.

-Man, that was fast.

-Yep.

Can you smell?

It's a little bit smoky.

-You can.

You can smell that little bit of chili in there.

-Yep.

-Oh!

-This is what I want on any cool day.

-Mm-hmm.

-Avocado -- just going to do a couple slices over the top.

-Thank you.

-You're very welcome.

And we've got queso fresco, the fresh farmer's cheese, some cilantro.

-Mm!

-And I've got a little Mexican crema.

Yum.

And finally I've got some chicharrn.

-Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!

All right, I'm going all in.

-Mm.

-Mm!

-So delicious.

-There's a lot of flavor in that pasta.

-Yeah, mm-hmm.

Got it really nutty in flavor, too, from toasting it.

-The sauce has a lot of flavor.

But you did put the chipotle in there.

There was some oregano.

All that really builds a hearty sauce.

It's almost on the line between a tomato sauce and a chili.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's like they merged.

-Yeah, and that bouillon powder.

-Mm!

-It added a ton of savoriness here.

-And the toppings, with the cilantro and the crema?

-So good.

-This is delicious.

-Mm.

-Ashley, this is fabulous.

Thank you for showing me how to make it.

-You are welcome.

-If you want to make this incredibly easy weeknight dinner, start by toasting the fideos until nicely golden.

Make a fresh tomato sauce with chicken bouillon powder and simmer the fideos right in the sauce until tender.

From "Cook's Country," with special thanks to our colleague Janette, a great recipe for sopa seca.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and our product reviews at our website, CooksCountry.com/tv.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

-Visit our website, where you can sign up for the free "Cook's Country" e-mail newsletter for even more of the recipes and stories you love from the magazine and the TV show.

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