September 2, 2026

Birria Enchiladas

These birria enchiladas are made with fall-apart slow cooker beef, flour tortillas, lots of Monterey Jack cheese, and the easiest homemade birria-inspired sauce. And when I say easy, I mean you can find every single ingredient at a normal grocery store.

I have wanted to make birria forever. But every time I looked up a recipe, I immediately abandoned the idea.

I’ve wanted to make birria forever. But every time I looked at the ingredient list, I have abandoned the idea because of the extra long ingredient list + a required store at a speciality store. But I finally cracked the code on getting that same rich, smoky birria flavor with a handful of ingredients from a regular grocery store.

The easiest birria sauce

This is probably my favorite part of the entire recipe.

Most birria recipes are made with dried guajillo, ancho, and other chile peppers. There is usually some toasting, soaking, blending, and a fairly long ingredient list involved.

And unfortunately I don’t have that kind of time to commit to dinner. I just want something that tastes amazing and my family will love but doesn’t require me to jeopordize a ton of quality time with them!

Enter: chipotles in adobo.

One little can gives the sauce so much smoky chile flavor that you really don’t need much else. I blend it with two tomatoes, a yellow onion, water, garlic powder, and salt.

That’s the entire sauce.

The chuck roast cooks directly in it, which is important because all of the flavor and fat from the meat ends up flavoring the sauce too. By the time the roast is tender, you have both your shredded birria beef AND your enchilada sauce sitting in the slow cooker.

One sauce doing two jobs. A real genius win in the kitchen if I do say so myself!!!

Sirloin vs. Chuck Roast

I recommend using chuck roast instead of sirloin roast here. Chuck has more fat, and that extra fat makes the finished sauce richer and silkier. I tested it with a leaner roast and the sauce ended up noticeably more watery. Chuck roast wins.

Then it’s just assembly: shredded meat, tortillas, Monterey Jack cheese, birria sauce, more cheese.

I like Trader Joe’s Homestyle Flour Tortillas or the Tortilla Land tortillas because they’re soft and roll really well without tearing. And yes, there is a lot of cheese involved here. I stand by it.

Why enchiladas?

I love birria tacos, but I do not have time to stand at the stove making individual taco quesadillas for everyone.

Birria enchiladas are basically my bulk version. You still get the tender birria beef, tortillas, lots of melty cheese, and that amazing sauce, but you can assemble the whole pan at once, throw it in the oven, and dinner is done.

It’s all the things I love about birria tacos, without making tacos one by one.

A few shortcuts + swaps

If you don’t want to use beef…. you can substitute it with another type of meat. Pork tenderloin, chicken thighs, or chicken breast can all work, although you’ll want to adjust the cooking time since they don’t need nearly as long as a chuck roast.

You can also skip cooking the meat altogether and use shredded rotisserie chicken… In that case, I’d still make the birria sauce because it’s what makes these special. Add about 1/2 cup olive oil to the sauce to replace some of the richness you’d normally get from the chuck roast, then toss it with the chicken before assembling the enchiladas.

And if rolling 12 individual enchiladas sounds annoying… make birria enchilada lasagna. Layer the sauce, tortillas, meat, and cheese in a baking dish, repeat, and bake. Same flavors, approximately 87% less fiddling.

What else to do with the birria meat!!

It’s obviously great in tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, but I also love the idea of turning it into nachos with melted cheese, pico de gallo, cilantro, and green onions. Or make a big taco salad with the shredded beef, the creamy corn from this taco salad, guacamole, cheese, pickled onions, cilantro or whatever other toppings are hanging around your fridge.