[Vegan] BBQ Jackfruit Rags Pulled 'Pork'

Have your jackfruit and eat it too. If you've ever peeled a jackfruit, you'll know it's a 10K in the labor of love marathon. Not the worst, but not a walk in the park. Nevertheless, a bowl full of fresh jackfruit makes it worth. When ripe, jackfruit tastes like a cross between a banana and pineapple both in terms of flavor and texture. 

If you've ever seen cut jackfruit in Asian grocery stores, there's a couple moving parts. There's the star of the show--the fruit itself, a vibrant yellow-orange the size of a mini sweet pepper. The fruit encloses a seed the size of fava bean. Then all around are stringy fibers known as rags. Previously I'd only ever cared about extracting the fruit and threw away everything else. However, I've since learned both the seeds and rags are edible. Jackfruit has always been a favorite in the vegan community for making BBQ 'pulled pork'. Most of the recipes start with green canned or fresh jackfruit. Given I'd started with a ripe jackfruit, I was curious if the rags could still yield something similar. This would be a win-win scenario; going back to eating jackfruit-- I wanted to be able to enjoy the fruit as is rather than cooking it. BBQ rags would be a nice by-product. Not to mention I had rags from a 5.5lb segment of jackfruit to work with. 

Photo from Taste of Home

The recipe below honestly did not disappoint and was pretty simple with little active time. It does require the use of an Instant Pot first to pressure cook and soft the rags, followed by an air fryer to crisp up the overall texture. Enjoy them in tacos, sliders, or on pita bread like we did because I did no planning and did not have any of the former options. I did however have Daiya cheddar cheese slices which tasted pretty good with the jackfruit but that my husband refused to try because he thought it weird. But again, that's not the focus of this post. The jackfruit rags are. 

|| BBQ Jackfruit Rags Pulled 'Pork' ||

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 5lb segment ripe jackfruit*
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Kinder's mild sauce)

Garnishes/serving ideas

• cornbread
• tacos
• sliders
• red/white onion, radishes, cilantro, cole slaw, vegan cheddar ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*Jackfruit is ripe when the fruit has a golden yellow appearance. It will also have some fragrance. It is possible to be too ripe! Avoid the segments with fruit that looks or feels soft and is dark orange-yellow.

Note: you can start this the night before and let the jackfruit sit in the Instant Pot after they're done cooking

Directions

1. I started this recipe from peeling the jackfruit to share some time-saving tips. Start by coating your chef's knife or vegetable cleaver with a thin layer neutral oil i.e. canola/refined coconut oil. This helps prevent the sap from sticking. In the process coat a little on your hands as well.

2. Use this knife to cut out the white core from the middle. This should expose the tops of all the fruit sections. Discard the core--I don't think we've found a use for it just yet.

3. Keeping your hands coated as needed, detach each piece of fruit from the base of the jackfruit, pushing aside the strings/rags as needed. Tear a side opening in each fruit to remove the seeds. Set them aside for another use.

4. Once all the fruit is extracted, pat yourself on the back, eat some pieces, then get back to work

5. To remove the rags, you can try gathering some in your hand and pulling or using a finger to detach the base of each bunch from the peel. If they're more stubborn, coat a smaller paring knife with oil and cut close to the base of the rags to detach them.

6. Rinse off the rags and transfer to Instant Pot. Add the onion slices, BBQ sauce and ~1-2 cups of water, enough to just barely cover the rags. stir a couple times to combine.

7. Set to 30min of high pressure cook with the keep warm setting turned off. Allow for natural pressure release afterwards. This is a good stopping point if you're starting this the night before

8. Once de-pressurized, scoop out the rags and onion into a colander set over a bowl to save the liquid. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to push liquid out of the rags. They don't need to be bone-dry, just not dripping wet.

9. Spread out the jackfruit mixture evenly in the air fryer basket and cook at 375F for 15-25 min, using a fork midway to re-toss the strands to encourage even crisping

10. In the meantime, transfer the Instant Pot BBQ liquid to a medium sauce pan and start reducing the liquid over medium high heat. When the liquid has reduced to about 1/3 of original volume and is thickening, turn the heat down to medium-low heat to prevent burning and continue reducing until it is the consistency of BBQ sauce.

11. Serve the jackfruit with the sauce and any garnishes mentioned above!