Barbecue tacos move past the flour tortilla
There are only so many ways you can make a barbecue taco, or so you would think. Take a generous slab of smoked brisket and swaddle it in a warm flour tortilla with onions and cilantro and maybe a drizzle of red or green sauce. It’s a simple and delicious combination of Central Texas-style barbecue with the Tex-Mex traditions of South Texas. How do you improve on perfection?
Well, some of Houston’s best Tex-Mex-inspired pitmasters are trying to do just that. They are leading the charge to innovate in new and delicious ways, starting with the tortilla. Though many of these “innovations” have long been a part of Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisines, they are just now showing up on craft-barbecue menus.
Let’s start with the birria taco. Birria is Mexican stew made from chiles (guajillo, ancho, cascabel), aromatics (onions, garlic, bay leaves) and meat (traditionally lamb or goat) — a fragrant, steaming bowl of broth studded with chunks of tender meat.
In recent years, birria tacos have become all the rage, especially on the West Coast. They are notable for how the tortilla is prepared. When the stew is made, the fat from the meat rises to the top and is scraped off. This liquid fat (oil) is infused with the rich flavor of the chiles and takes on a bright red-orange color.
The birria taco is made by dredging the tortilla in this fragrant oil and then searing it on a flat-top grill, upon which cheese, meat and broth from the birria, onions and cilantro are added. The tortilla takes on a distinctive red-orange hue while developing a slightly crispy texture on the flat top.
In Houston, pitmaster Joseph Quellar of JQ’s Tex Mex BBQ pop-up restaurant has taken up the cause of the birria taco. Quellar produces a classic birria broth and uses smoked brisket and oxtails instead of lamb or goat (known as beef birria or birria de res). He mixes remaining chile paste with cooking oil for the tortilla coating. The resulting barbecue taco is one of the best of its kind in Houston.
Costra tacos also are appearing on barbecue menus. In this context, costra translates to
“crust,” referring to the crispy, griddled slab of cheese that substitutes for the traditional tortilla as the base for a taco. Yes, you read that right: a taco made with a foundation of griddled cheese (tortilla de queso).
According to Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat, costra tacos originated in Mexico City in the early 2000s at a taqueria called Las Costras, which is now a chain of restaurants in that city.
At his weekly pop-ups at D&T Drive Inn in the Heights, pitmaster Eddie Ortiz of Eddie O’s Texas Barbecue places a handful of Monterey Jack cheese on a screaming-hot griddle so that it bubbles and pops and slowly begins to solidify and caramelize. He places a thick slab of salty, peppery smoked brisket on top and then folds the crispy cheese over it to cradle the meat.
It is as wildly rich as it sounds. To cut the richness and provide a more balanced flavor, Ortiz serves it with a selection of acidic green and red salsas and homemade pickled vegetables. He calls the taco the “El Corazón” (loosely translated: “from the heart”) and it is well worth the wait — he makes every taco to order.
Costra and birria tacos are a welcome addition to the barbecue-taco canon of Houston, which recently saw the addition of a classic puffy (fried tortilla) taco at the Los Muertos barbecue trailer in Katy. Though I’ll always welcome the sight and fragrance of a classic flour tortilla as the base of my chosen smoked meats, it’s good to have delicious and diverse options.