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These Chicken Birria Sliders are a delicious and fun twist on birria tacos and regular sliders, and great for holiday hosting. They are loaded with juicy shredded chicken and cheese, and served with a spicy, aromatic and flavorful birria sauce. They are also quite easy to make, with the recipe simplified from a traditional birria recipe for both time and complexity.
Before getting into the details, I want to acknowledge that I am not Mexican, and have created this fusion recipe simply because I love birria! While I can tell you these sliders are delicious, they are certainly not authentic or traditional.
Read the full blog post below for detailed notes, tips, tricks, photos and videos.
What is birria?
Birria is a traditional Mexican dish that slow-cooks meat, usually goat or beef, seasoning it with a blend of aromatic spices and chiles and summering in adobo sauce until the meat becomes very tender. The meat is very flavorful and aromatic, served as a stew by many people at celebrations. Recently, the dish has gained immense popularity.
To make Birria tacos, you dip corn tortillas in birria sauce, fill them with shredded birria meat and cheese and then pan-fry them until they are crispy. They are served alongside its stew/dipping sauce known as the consomé.
What are chicken birria sliders?
Chicken birria is a less common, and simpler, version of birria made using chicken instead of goat or beef. These chicken birria sliders follow a similar concept as chicken birria tacos, but replace the tacos with sliders. You fill the sliders with shredded chicken birria, cheese, onion and cilantro, then bake them until lightly golden and serve with more birria sauce on the side.
Components of these chicken birria sliders
These chicken birria sliders are quite easy to make, with 4 main main components:
- Chicken birria stew, which contains shredded chicken and birria sauce. This is the bulk of the work you have to do for this recipe. You start by browning the boneless chicken, then sauté the ingredients for the sauce until they start to soften. You blend these ingredients to form the sauce. Next, you cook that sauce down with some water and add the chicken back in so it cooks and absorbs the flavors. Finally, you shred the chicken and add it back into the sauce.
- Sliders. You can use any kind of slider bread you like, and this will form the base of the chicken birria sliders
- Cheese. A shredded mexican cheese blend is added to the sliders to make them similar to birria tacos
- Garnishes. Chopped onion and cilantro are added inside the sliders and used as garnish at the end, along with lemon or lime wedges
Tips to perfect this recipe
Here are three important tips to get this recipe just right:
- Use boneless chicken thighs. They will be the juiciest and tastiest. I have also tested this recipe with chicken tenders and they work fine, but I don’t recommend breasts
- Taste, taste, taste! Make sure to taste the sauce several times through the cooking process and adjust the spices and salt to your preferences
- Do not add too much sauce inside the sliders. The flavor of chicken birria is in the sauce, but the sauce can make the sliders soggy! In order to get the best of both worlds, make sure you squeeze out excess sauce from the shredded chicken when adding it inside the sliders. Instead, reserve a lot of the sauce to serve with the sliders on the side, and dip the sliders in it for every bite.
Process with photos
The detailed recipe is provided in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but let’s go over the steps with photos to help you visualize everything.
Start by browning the boneless chicken with salt and pepper, then remove it and set it aside:
In the same pot, add all the ingredients for the sauce and cook them down:
Blend the sauce ingredients and add water. Cook down until the sauce becomes very aromatic:
Add back the chicken and let it cook with the sauce. End by removing and shredding the chicken, then adding it back (I like to remove 2/3 of the sauce and keep it for serving before adding the chicken back):
To assemble the sliders, first lightly toast the bread, then cover the bottom half with shredded chicken, chopped onion and cilantro:
Cover with shredded Mexican cheese, then top off with the other half of the bread. Brush lightly with butter and bake until the cheese is melted:
Serve with the birria sauce and enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
I have tested and developed this recipe specifically for chicken. While you could replace it with goat or beef, the cooking times will vary greatly and the flavor might need adjustment. Therefore, I would recommend finding a recipe that is tailored to those meats instead.
Yes, you can use chicken on bone instead of boneless chicken. Just add 5-10 minutes to the cooking time when cooking the chicken inside the sauce (low heat, covered). Remove the bones when you shred the chicken.
The chicken birria filling has a lot of sauce in it, which can cause the slider bread to become soggy. To avoid this, make sure you add very little sauce when adding the chicken filling inside the sliders, and keep the sauce to serve on the side as a dip for the sliders. Also, do not over stuff the sliders with chicken!
Yes, you can make easy chicken birria tacos instead of sliders with this recipe. Dip corn tortillas in the birria sauce and place them on a pan over medium-high heat. Add shredded chicken, garnish and cheese on one half and fold into a taco. Cook on medium-high heat on both sides until crispy, and serve with extra birria sauce on the side!
I do not recommend making these sliders in advance. The chicken filling has a lot of moisture in it and can cause the bread to become soggy. You can prepare the chicken birria stew / filling ahead of time and keep it in the fridge, then assemble and bake the sliders right before serving.
Here are some more yummy slider recipes you will love:
The Best Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders
Easy Cheesy BBQ Chicken Sliders
Spicy Chicken Tikka Sliders
Aloo Bun Kabab
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Ingredients
Chicken:
- 500–600g boneless chicken, thighs preferred
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Chicken birria:
- 4 tbsp oil
- 1 1/2 yellow onions, quartered
- 3 tomatoes, quartered
- 8 garlic cloves, peeled
- 8 dried red chilies *see notes
- 2 bay leaves
- 2–3 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2–4 chicken bouillon cubes **see notes
- 4 cups of water
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
- Chicken from above
Assembly:
- 24 sliders; I used King’s Hawaiian rolls
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 1–2 cups Mexican shredded cheese
- 1–2 tbsp butter to brush on sliders, melted
Instructions
Chicken:
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat
- Coat the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Add to the pot and cook for ~2-3 minutes per side just until the chicken starts to brown. Remove from the pot and set aside
Chicken birria:
- Add the oil to the same pot that the chicken was browned in. Add all the ingredients for the chicken birria, except the salt and chicken
- Cook and stir on medium heat for ~10 minutes until the veggies start to soften. Then remove the 2 bay leaves
- Transfer all the ingredients into a blender, and add 1 cup water. Blend until very smooth
- Transfer back into the pot, and add ~3 more cups of water and stir. Cook on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, allowing the sauce to bubble and reduce. The sauce should become redder in color. Taste and adjust seasonings and salt as needed
- Add the chicken that you browned earlier to the sauce. Cover and cook on the lowest heat setting for ~20 minutes, then turn off the heat
- Carefully remove the chicken from the sauce and shred it with a fork or shredder. Then add it back to the sauce. I recommend removing about two-thirds of the sauce to keep for serving before adding back the shredded chicken
Assembly:
- Lightly toast the sliders by cutting them into half and baking at 350F for ~6-8 minutes. When you remove the sliders from the oven, increase the temperature to 375F
- Place the bottom half of the sliders onto a baking sheet. First add the shredded chicken birria. Squeeze out any excess sauce before adding the chicken to the sliders, because the sauce can cause the bread to become soggy
- Sprinkle over the onion and cilantro, then add the shredded cheese. Top off with the other half of the sliders and gently press down
- Brush the sliders with melted butter, and then bake in the preheated oven for ~7-8 minutes until the cheese has melted
- Serve the sliders hot, with the birria sauce on the side to dip them in.
Video Tutorial
Notes
- *You can use any dried red chilis you have easy access to, but I like to use a mixture of guajillo and arbol. If you are sensitive to spice, you can reduce the number of chilis or deseed them
- **Chicken bouillon cubes are used in this recipe to add a deeper chicken flavor without using boneless chicken, and to make the recipe easier. However, note that different chicken cubes have varying levels of salt. Start with no added salt so you can taste and add more as needed
Comments
Sarah
This recipe is it!! My family LOVED them! I will try the chicken mixture in tacos next time.
Hira
Mistake on the recipe: it says 24 rolls lol I bought the big pack
shaz
*chefs kiss*