We mourned the loss of Taqueria Chingon (though it seems that they now have a West Loop location), one of our favorite Mexican street food spots in Chicago. However, Chicago is still home to so much great Mexican food, that we simply had to direct our attention elsewhere to some of our other favorites. So, we started with birria. The Jalisciense dish birria has become extremely popular in the US, and I have even seen it offered outside of Mexican restaurants recently. Birria is a slow-simmered stew of beef, or traditionally goat, simmered in a spiced broth called consomé. Aromatics include ancho chiles, cinnamon, cumin, and oregano, among others (home cooks can even buy birria spice blends online).
One of our go-to Chicago birrierias is Birrieria Zaragoza. With a newer Uptown location in addition to their original Midway-area location, they are more accessible to a wider number of Chicagoans than ever before. However, we wanted to sample some other birria offering in the city (and there are many). We had previously heard of Birrieria Ocotlan (4007 E 106th St., Chicago), but we are rarely near its far south side location (there is a second location at 8726 S Commercial Ave.). However driving from Cleveland to Chicago, it is actually just off of I-90! We ended up there on a cold snowy afternoon, as you can see from the photo below.
We were also really pleased to see that Birrieria Octolan was also mentioned on the New York Times list of best things they ate in 2024. Ocotlan, named after the city in Jalisco, basically has only one thing on the menu: birria. This certainly makes ordering easy. You could order a small or large bowl of birria (either beef or goat) with consomé, which then included some tortilla chips on the side. You could order tortillas or salsa as extra sides. Also on offer were tacos with a choice of birria, beef tongue, or beef heart.
On the inside of the restaurant, there are only a few simple booths. They close somewhat early at 6 PM, so you will definitely want to plan ahead, or go for lunch. We each ordered a large plate of birria, which at $15 was only $1 more than a small size. Overall, this was one of the best bowls of birria we have ever had in Chicago. The flavors were complex and deep, and you could tell that they had been perfecting the recipe for the over fifty years they have been open. Birrieria Ocotlan is the epitome of a simple place that does only one thing really, really well. I think this may become one of our go-to locations for birria in the future.
Eating The World 