How birria took over restaurant menus across the country

Once known as a regional Mexican food, birria has taken on a life of its own in the U.S., becoming a social media star and fast food favorite.

Traditionally, birria is a slow-cooked beef or goat stew with spices and chiles to give the meat plenty of flavor. Birria tacos use the slow-cooked meat as a filling and usually include a consommé on the side to dip the taco in.

Over the past four years, birria has seen its presence on restaurant menus grow by 412%, largely thanks to mid-range and casual restaurant chains, according to market research firm Datassential. It has made the jump from Mexican-focused restaurants to restaurants with broader menus, such as American restaurants Sugar Factory and BowlerThe bowling alleys of

Mexican-inspired fast food brands like Qdoba, The Crazy ChickenFrom Taco and up Taco Bell They've launched their own versions of birria, making it a new menu staple. And the dish continues to grow. Datassential predicts that birria's menu penetration will double in the next four years.

While birria may be newer to American diners, it has been around for centuries in Jalisco, a Mexican state bordering the Pacific Ocean.

According to Steven Alvarez, a professor at St. John's University who teaches a class on tacos, goats, which were originally brought by the Spanish, had become an invasive species and eating them was an easy way to solve the problem. But to make goat meat tasty, spices and chiles were needed. Slow-cooking the meat made it more tender.

“The goat comes from Europe, the chiles — the guajillo chiles, the ancho chiles — are native to the Americas and they come together to create this thing that is distinctly new,” Alvarez said.

The dish made its way to Tijuana, Mexico. There, in the 1950s, a taco vendor named Don Guadalupe Zárate switched from goat meat to beef because it was cheaper, according to Álvarez. Adding water to make a stew kept the meat from burning.

Over the past decade, birria has moved north to Los Angeles, where Mexican immigrants served tacos and consommé from food trucks like Birrieria González.

“The beauty of [southern California] “Mexican food is constantly regenerating itself based on what happens in Mexico, based on immigration patterns,” Alvarez said.

More recently, birria has become popular in New York City, with restaurants and food trucks serving tacos and consommé in all five boroughs.

But the real turning point for birria came thanks to Instagram. Food influencers’ photos of birria tacos, with the meat cascading into a cup of consommé, made mouths water and introduced the food to a new audience, according to Alvarez. Once TikTok took off, so did birria videos, whether for reviews of the restaurants and food trucks that serve it or for recipes to make it at home.

Social media is partly the reason birria became a staple on Qdoba's menu.

Katy Velazquez, director of culinary innovation at Qdoba, was first introduced to birria when she was in Mexico for a previous job. Later, when she returned to the U.S., she began seeing the food gain popularity online, thanks to “sexy photos of pulled cheese” on social media, she said.

Fast forward to the Covid-19 pandemic, when beef brisket prices skyrocketed and Qdoba had to remove its Tex Mex-inspired version of beef brisket from its menu.

“We were losing money on every entree we sold,” Velazquez said.

But that loss gave his team the opportunity to create its own version of birria, using brisket as a base. The fast-food chain's final product isn't made the same way as traditional birria, but Velazquez and his team wanted to emulate the same flavor and tenderness.

“We get the benefit of seasonings that have hours of tomatoes being reduced and simmered and then dehydrated and incorporated, so we get the same effect and flavor without hours and hours of labor,” he said.

Qdoba introduced its birria two years ago, permanently replacing its beef brisket entree and charging customers extra for the new protein option. Since the chain is privately owned by Butterfly Equity, it does not disclose its financial results, including further details about the success of the launch.

This fall, the chain is again promoting its birria offering, betting that its flavor will appeal to customers looking for a cozy lunch or dinner, Velazquez said.

“We're very proud of that and we're proud to be able to bring something that was regional Mexican cuisine to a very large audience with a brand like ours,” he added.

Birria's fan base isn't just growing because Qdoba and other big restaurant chains have added it to their menus, but also because of its versatility, Christine Couvelier, a culinary trends watcher and founder of Culinary Concierge, told CNBC.

“This is a dish that's not about heat, it's about flavor,” Couvelier said. “So when consumers try it on a menu, they're not scared or surprised. It's a flavor that's been simmering.”

Couvelier imagines many different versions of birria: on poutine, in soups and even stuffed into ravioli. He's also started to see some packaged food companies experiment with sauces that include birria flavors.

“It's gone from being a specific dish to a protein and can be found all over the menu,” said Claire Conaghan, associate director and trends expert at Datassential.

Now that birria is typically made with beef, it can be paired with almost anything, Conaghan added.

According to Datassential, tacos are the most popular birria dish found on menus, but the firm’s Menu Trends platform has also found birria quesadillas, grilled cheese, breakfast bowls and even ramen.

According to Alvarez, birria ramen first appeared in Tijuana, Mexico, but made its way to the United States and even appeared on the menu at Del Taco.

Jeremías Aguayo, Del Taco's senior director of culinary research and development, rejoined the chain's culinary team in 2022, shortly after Jack in the Box He bought Del Taco. He personally took on the goal of creating Del Taco's version of birria.

Aguayo said the consommé recipe took him four months and 17 tries to get it perfect. At the same time, Del Taco came up with its beef birria recipe. The chain launched its quesabirria taco, birria quesadilla and birria ramen at the same time last November.

The result was Del Taco's biggest promotion in years, leading to “huge jumps” in sales, traffic and average bills, according to Aguayo. Del Taco sold more than 1 million birria ramen at more than 600 restaurants during two promotional periods.