Without any faux meat! Only with delicious, delicious jack fruit.

I never had jack fruit until I went to an Indonesian restaurant in Holland (after all, the Dutch had colonies & trading routes there). I’d never been to Amsterdam and I’d never really had Indonesian food. Kartika had good reviews on Yelp and a vegetarian rijstafel (like a tasting menu to share). Sign me up for all these new things!

OmniMonkey and I fell completely in love with its firm bite, yet creamy texture and buttery taste. You can even cook & eat the big seeds.

And silly me. I thought jack fruit and durian tasted the same because they look similar. Do not make our mistake!

While you can buy tinned jack fruit in a sweet syrup, for this recipe, choose the type in brine. They come in larger-than-average tins/cans. I have found it in both Indian and general Asian food stores and online (UK;US). I’ve also made a Sri-Lankan Jack Fruit curry using the brined type. But we want barbeque style, don’t we?

Young jack fruit is said to be preferable, but I’ve found it really doesn’t matter. As long as it’s jack fruit! Why jack fruit? Well as you will see, it is praised for having the look and texture of pulled “pork”. So if you need an ingredient to look shredded, this is for you!

Now, there are lots of ways to do this. Feel free treat it as you would a traditional pulled-pork. You can go all out with making a spice rub (then wait), then your sauce marinade (then wait), and finally your hours-long wait as you slow cook it. I went the easier cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater route with my fav BBQ sauce. Make this as fast or as slow as you like (see notes).

Easy BBQ Pulled Jackfruit

Makes 2 large sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1 tin of jack fruit in brine
• 1 cup favorite BBQ sauce
• 1 cup water
• bread of your choice for buns
• cooking pot with lid (or slow cooker)

1. Drain and rinse jack fruit.

2. Place in pan you are going to cook it in. Add 1/2 cup BBQ sauce. (Optional: marinade at least an hour before cooking.)

3.  Add water (Optional: if doing the fast version, only use 1/2 cup of water and skip to step 6) and bring to a simmer.

4. Turn down to the lowest heat and put lid on.

5. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

6. Stir and press with a wooden spoon so the jack fruit crumbles apart into it’s “pulled-pork” texture. (I would be heating up your buns at this stage. Hehehe).

7. Continue cooking until the water has evaporated and you have the texture you want.

8. Add the rest of your BBQ sauce and stir until warmed through.

9. Add salt and pepper to taste.

10. Get that saucy jack fruit on it’s carb vessel and into your mouth port!