Make Gyoza With Leftover Birria Beef For A Uniquely Delicious Culinary Mashup

Fusion food has become a benchmark of modern American cuisine, with everything from food trucks to fine dining restaurants serving dishes that creatively unify two or more international recipes. Whether you enjoy it as a way to pay homage to multiple cultures in your heritage or you simply enjoy mixing the flavors of cuisines from around the world, there are a lot of options to choose from — and if you haven't tried it yet, a mashup of birria and gyoza deserves to be on your list.

Birria is a spicy, rich Mexican beef or lamb stew that has a reputation for fusing well with other dishes; Northern Mexicans have turned birria tacos into birria quesadillas, and American cooks have been known to stuff leftover birria into a grilled cheese sandwich. But for a unique fusion with Japanese food, leftover birria would also make a delicious filling for gyoza.

Gyoza are pan-fried and steamed dumplings and popular Japanese bar fare, offering a comforting, savory, and juicy stuffed noodle to soak up a pint of beer or glass of sake. Birria, similarly, has garnered a reputation as a classic hangover cure, as its chili-infused broth and hearty chunks of meat will rectify even the worst aftermath of a night out. Fusing the two delivers a mouthwatering dish: Birria that's been soaking in its flavorful juices for days provides a juicy, melt-in-your-mouth filling sealed into starchy, pan-fried noodle wrappers. They'll be a welcome addition to a happy hour appetizer spread.

As a bonus, using leftover birria as a gyoza filling will save you a lot of prep and cooking time. Dumplings like gyoza and potstickers often feature a long list of aromatics, veggies, and meat that you must stir fry before adding them to raw noodle wrappers. But leftover birria is a pre-cooked filling, so all you need to do is drain it of its consomé and spoon it over store-bought potsticker or gyoza wrappers before frying the dumplings in a nutty sesame or peanut oil.

If you're willing to do a little extra prep, you can further fuse the two dishes together by blending a combination of aromatics, herbs, or vegetables used in both Japanese and Mexican cuisines. For example, you could add popular birria taco garnishes like diced onions, jalapeños, and cilantro to the birria filling while using tangy Japanese ingredients like soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar in the dipping sauce. As a nod to quesabirria, you could top each spoonful of birria with shredded mozzarella or jack cheese and serve the potstickers with heated-up leftover consomé. The spicy and savory flavors in birria would also pair well with umami-rich, filling ingredients like kimchi and a pan-Asian sweet and sour dipping sauce.