Jackfruit makes an easy, meat-free meal any night of the week. Here, we’re making tacos! Warm it up with your favorite BBQ sauce and pile it into tortillas with all your favorite toppings.
Tacos are my “single girl” food. You know, the food that you make whenever your partner, kids, or roommates are out of town and you get to sit down and be really honest about what you and only you feel like eating? I never tire of them and am always looking for ways to amp up my taco game.
But if for some reason you’re sharing, these jackfruit tacos are a saucy, lick-your-fingers addition to the weeknight roster for the vegans and non-vegans in your life. They’re ready in less than thirty minutes, and couldn’t be simpler to pull together—it’s more assembling than cooking, really.
WHAT IS JACKFRUIT?
If you’re not familiar with jackfruit, it’s a large fruit that’s thought to be indigenous to India, and today grows in tropical regions such as Southeast Asia and Brazil. It can be purchased frozen in its ripe, sweet form and used in dessert recipes or smoothies, or you can find it in its young green, unripe form packaged in cans.
Both are edible, but they’re not interchangeable per se. For today’s recipe, we’re focusing on unripe canned jackfruit.
Young green unripe jackfruit has the texture of a stringy, pulled meat but doesn’t actually taste anything like meat on its own; in fact, it tastes more like artichokes! But much like tofu, jackfruit takes on the flavor of whatever sauce, marinade or spices you’re cooking it with, making it an incredibly versatile meat substitute and an obvious choice for tacos, sandwiches, salads and wraps.
Canned jackfruit is available at most Asian grocery stores, well-stocked grocery stores with a natural foods focus (such as Whole Foods), Trader Joe’s, or Amazon.
- Curious about jackfruit? Read more here: What is Jackfruit and How Can You Use It?
How to Prepare Your Jackfruit
Be sure to buy canned unripe, green or young jackfruit for this recipe. (Ripe jackfruit is sweeter and has a different texture; it won’t work in this recipe.)
After removing it from the can, give the pieces of jackfruit a good rinse to remove that briny, salty flavor.
Next, shred your jackfruit before starting to cook. Take the larger canned chunks and simply use your fingers or a fork to shred them, much like you would pulled pork or pulled chicken—or canned tuna, which it loosely resembles.
If you’ve got little bits of the core on some of the chunks, don’t worry about those; you can leave them as they are or give them a quick chop with a kitchen knife. They’re edible as well, and you won’t even notice them once you cook the fruit down.
WAYS TO USE LEFTOVER PULLED JACKFRUIT
If you end up having leftover jackfruit filling, it’s great folded into a breakfast burrito, salad or wrap. But if your crew is anything like mine, leftovers won’t be likely with these quick, new family favorites!
MORE MEAT-FREE MAINS TO TRY!
BBQ Pulled Jackfruit Tacos Recipe
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
- 2 (14-ounce) cans jackfruit in brine, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
- 3/4 cup barbecue sauce, store-bought or homemade
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
To serve:
- 10 to 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
- 1 ripe avocado, thinly sliced
- 4 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
- 1/3 cup shredded red cabbage
- 1/3 cup corn kernels, canned or fresh from the cob
- 1/4 cup sour cream (optional)
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Method
1 Shred the jackfruit: Using your fingers or forks, break apart the chunks of jackfruit into shredded pieces.
2 Cook the onions: In a large saucepan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and jalapeño and cook for an additional 1 minute, until the garlic is fragrant.
3 Cook the jackfruit: Add the shredded jackfruit to the pan with the onions and stir well. Add the barbecue sauce, cumin, oregano, coriander, smoked paprika and salt to the pan.
Stir to evenly distribute the spices and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, or until the jackfruit is browned and slightly crisped around the edges. Fold in the orange zest.
4 Assemble the tacos: Warm the tortillas and add a large spoonful of cooked jackfruit to the center of each. Top with avocado, radishes, cilantro, cabbage, corn, sour cream and a squeeze of lime.
