- 5 hours ago
This Mexican-inspired dish brings everyone’s favorite taco into pizza form! In this video, Chef John shows you how to make beef quesabirria pizza with a side of spicy consommé. Tender beef chuck, a mozzarella-Monterey Jack cheese mixture, and pepperoncini and pickled red Fresno chilies bake with a seasoned crust until golden brown. Garnish with fresh cilantro and diced onions and enjoy!
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Beef Quesa Birria Pizza.
00:08That's right, I'm going to show you how to enjoy everybody's favorite taco in pizza form.
00:14And if you make this, and you really should, it's going to be very, very hard to go back to
00:19eating pizza that's not dipped in a spicy consomme.
00:22And now that I've given you that little bit of a friendly warning, let's go ahead and get started by
00:27putting together our Beef Birria,
00:28which starts by sautéing some onion and ginger, and a little bit of olive oil over medium-high heat.
00:35And we'll go ahead and add our salt at this point, which helps these onions soften up a little bit
00:40quicker.
00:41And after we cook that for a couple minutes, or until they start to turn translucent,
00:45we'll go ahead and add our garlic, and then spice this up, which is going to include some chili powder.
00:51And I use guajillo, but any chili powder will do.
00:54We'll also toss in some freshly ground black pepper, some oregano, some ground cumin, a little bit of cinnamon,
01:02and we'll finish up with a little touch of ground clove.
01:05And then what we'll do is give that a stir, and we'll sauté this for about one minute,
01:10just to sort of wake everything up.
01:12And once that's been accomplished, we'll go ahead and add our tomatoes.
01:15And I'm using one can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes.
01:19But any tomato product will work, including fresh tomatoes if you have them.
01:24And then we'll also add a big splash of water that we'll use to rinse out the can the tomatoes
01:28came in,
01:29at which point we'll toss in a couple bay leaves, and we'll give everything a stir.
01:34And that pot is now ready for our beef.
01:37And for this, we're going to want to use a couple pounds of beef chuck,
01:40which we always, every time, want to cut up ourselves.
01:43And as usual, we will start our cuts, wherever there's some natural separation in the mussel.
01:48And once we've cut through those, we'll go ahead and cut this up into about two-inch pieces,
01:54or give or take.
01:55Beef birria is not an exact science, but we do want to try to get them as uniform as we
02:00can,
02:01so everything cooks at about the same rate.
02:03And once we do have that cut up as shown, we can add it directly to the pot.
02:08I know, you thought we were going to brown it first, but traditionally, that is not done.
02:14And then I'm going to add some carrot and celery to this, which is optional,
02:17but I do think it helps improve the flavor of the consomme.
02:21And then as far as the rest of the ingredients go, we will add some white vinegar and some honey
02:26before we pour in the best quality beef broth we can find.
02:30Okay, if you can use a beef bone broth, that's even better.
02:34And what we'll do is stir everything together, and then we'll wait for this to come to a simmer.
02:39And once it does, we will cover it, reduce our heat to low, and we'll let this simmer for one
02:44and a half hours,
02:46which is not going to be long enough to get it tender.
02:48But that's okay, because after one and a half hours, what we'll do is uncover it,
02:53and we'll give it a stir, and then we'll let it continue to simmer gently on low
02:58for another hour and a half or so.
03:00And by doing the second half of the cooking with the cover off,
03:03our sauce is going to reduce down and thicken up nicely.
03:06Oh, and by the way, while this is simmering, we can skim some of that fat off the top, which
03:11I did.
03:12And if you do, do not discard it, since I'm going to show you how we can use that
03:17when we move into pizza production.
03:19But anyway, like I said, we'll let that simmer for about an hour and a half or longer
03:24until our meat is tender, as tested with a fork.
03:28And once we're sure it's tender, and right here I was,
03:31we will grab a slotted spoon and remove the meat from the pot.
03:36And then we'll set that aside and let it cool and reserve it until we need it.
03:40And that's it for the beef berriot component of our pizza.
03:43And we'll move on to the second component, which is going to be our pizza sauce,
03:48which is simply this reduced thickened sauce in the pot.
03:51So we will ladle out about a cup and a half of that,
03:54and we'll reserve that until needed.
03:57And we'll move on to the third component coming out of this pot,
04:00which is our consomme,
04:02which is going to be the remaining sauce,
04:04thinned out with some extra beef broth.
04:06And once we add that in and give everything a stir,
04:09we will let this simmer for about 10 or 15 minutes,
04:13adjusting with more broth if we want.
04:15Right, some people like this thick and saucy,
04:17and then other people like me prefer it kind of thin,
04:21closer to an actual consomme.
04:23So that is going to be up to you.
04:25I mean, you are after all the bossity of your viscosity.
04:29And once those three components are done,
04:31we can start making pizza,
04:33which for each one starts with 8 ounces of prepared pizza dough,
04:37which we will press and stretch out to a circle about 12 inches across.
04:41And I'll include the pizza dough in the written recipe.
04:44But you've seen me make that dozens of times,
04:46and it's super easy.
04:48And I know most of you are going to buy your pizza dough ready anyway.
04:51But regardless, once that's shaped,
04:53we will transfer it onto a cornmeal lined baking sheet,
04:57which will prevent it from sticking
04:58and give the bottom a nice texture.
05:01And also, it's a little bit of an homage
05:03to the corn and the tortillas used for the tacos.
05:06And once that's panned, we'll spread over some sauce,
05:09as usual, being careful not to put on too much.
05:13And because we need a nice crust handle for dipping,
05:15we want to leave at least a half inch unsauced around the outside,
05:19around the outside, around the outside.
05:22And then next up, we will scatter over our grated cheese.
05:24And I'm using a combo of half mozzarella, half Monterey Jack,
05:29which, not to brag, was actually a hatched Chili Jack.
05:32And then next up, to help balance the richness,
05:36I'm going to do two kinds of pickled peppers,
05:38some pepperoncini,
05:40as well as some pickled red Fresno.
05:42But of course, use any kind of peppers you want.
05:45Or don't put any on at all.
05:47And then once our pizza's been peppered,
05:49we'll go ahead and tear apart and place on some beef.
05:52And I'm going to be pretty generous here.
05:54But I know beef is not cheap.
05:56So the good news is,
05:58even if you put half the amount I'm using,
06:00you are still going to have an amazingly delicious pizza.
06:03And then for a final touch,
06:05do you remember that fat we skimmed off the top
06:07that I told you not to throw away?
06:09We will heat that up until it's brushable.
06:11And we will brush the crust,
06:13which is going to give this more flavor
06:15and a more beautiful color.
06:17And then I'm also going to brush some onto the beef
06:19for, again, some additional flavor.
06:21But also so the edges of the beef
06:23kind of crisp up a little bit.
06:25And that's it.
06:26Our pizza's now ready to pop into the upper center
06:28of a 500 degree oven for about 12 minutes.
06:32Or until it looks like this.
06:35And we could, if we want,
06:36slice this up and start eating,
06:38since the crust is cooked through.
06:40But it's going to be kind of pale
06:42and not super crispy.
06:44So let me show you a great home hack
06:46for getting a more professionally finished crust,
06:48which is to put this pan right over a flame.
06:51And we will toast the bottom of this crust
06:53for a minute or two
06:54while we move it around
06:56and give it the occasional spin.
06:58And what this achieves
06:59is getting the same kind of texture
07:01on the bottom of your crust
07:02that you'd get if you used a pizza stone
07:04and let it preheat in an oven for like an hour.
07:07Except this is way easier and faster.
07:09So while optional,
07:11I pretty much do this every time.
07:13And that's it.
07:14To finish this off,
07:15I'm going to brush on a little more
07:17birria fat onto my beef
07:18and then garnish with some finely diced
07:20fresh white onion
07:22as well as a generous scattering
07:24of torn cilantro leaves.
07:26And we'll go ahead and transfer that
07:27onto a cutting board.
07:29And for a pizza this size,
07:31I'm going to cut it into six slices.
07:33And by the way,
07:34all the recipe amounts are going to make
07:35at least four of these.
07:37Right?
07:37Maybe more.
07:38And then as promised,
07:40we'll serve this next to some hot consomme,
07:42which I strained,
07:43but you really don't have to.
07:45And we'll finish with some fresh lime
07:47in case folks want to squeeze that over.
07:49And that's it.
07:50Our beef quesabiria pizza
07:52is ready to enjoy.
07:54And I was so excited.
07:55I blocked the camera
07:57grabbing that first slice.
07:58But anyway, that, my friends,
08:00was every bit as amazing
08:01as I thought it would be.
08:03Okay, I would have been more than happy
08:04just eating the pizza.
08:06But that we also get to dip it
08:07in that rich, spicy consomme
08:09just takes us to a place
08:11where pizza never goes.
08:13And if you want to make your fancy,
08:15high-hydration,
08:16extra-bubbly pizza crust,
08:17go ahead.
08:18But honestly,
08:19for this kind of pizza,
08:20a good old-fashioned,
08:21sturdy,
08:22bolognese crust
08:23works even better.
08:24Oh, and if you have any
08:26leftover beef birria,
08:27may I suggest you boil some spaghetti
08:29and treat yourself
08:30to some beef birria bolognese.
08:33Oh yeah, that would be good.
08:35But whether you end up
08:36with leftovers or not,
08:37I thought this really was fantastic.
08:40And I really do hope
08:41you give it a try soon.
08:43So please follow the links below
08:45for the ingredient amounts,
08:47a printable written recipe,
08:48and much more info as usual.
08:50And as always,
08:53enjoy.
Comments