Jackfruit carnitas tacos with red wine

Flavorful vegan jackfruit carnitas tacos are infused with red wine, cumin, ancho chili powder, and coriander. They are then topped with lettuce, tomatoes, and guacamole. They are destined to become a dinner favorite!

I’ve come around on my feelings about jackfruit.

The first time I had it, about 9 years ago in Los Angeles, it came with a lot of hype. Everyone was talking about how it was exactly like pulled pork, but totally vegan.

In actuality, while it looked exactly like pulled pork, it didn’t really have any flavor or texture on its own. It’s quite soft. And because it’s lower in calories than a lot of vegan meats, it wasn’t long before I was hungry again.

(That’s why when I made my own pulled pork-style sandwich, vegan BBQ sandwich with coleslaw, I used Soy Curls instead. They have great chew & bite, plus lots of protein.)

Of course, I have had my fair share of good jackfruit in restaurants over the years. Some highlights that come to mind are the now-defunct FÜD in Kansas City, Reverie in Minneapolis (then a restaurant, now a food truck), and No Bones Beach Club while seeing the vegan Seattle sites.

But the thing that really turned my feelings around was the shredded chicken-style jackfruit from Herbivorous Butcher. 

It has a smokiness to it, including some burnt black bits. Best of all, it has added body & bite, because they add tahini to the ingredients!

Genius!

With fully shredded jackfruit, that addition of tahini makes it stick together in a way that’s reminiscent of roast beef. The tahini also masks any lingering metallic taste from jackfruit sold in cans. Plus, it gives an extra little bump of protein.

So not only have I been buying the Herbivorous Butcher shredded chicken-style jackfruit (highly recommended!), I’ve also been preparing it on my own.

Cans of jackfruit are now sharing space in my lazy susan – along with black beans and chickpeas. 

Where to buy jackfruit

You can find it so many places nowadays. It used to take a lot more looking!

• I buy mine at Trader Joe’s. It’s sold in the center aisles with their other canned products.
• It’s available at most natural grocery stores, including Whole Foods. Look in the aisles with other Asian foods – like tamari or rice noodles.
• You can also find it in standalone Asian markets. (The Indian market in my town carries it.)

What kind of jackfruit should I buy?

Buy green jackfruit in a can like this for this carnitas recipe.

This is important – you want to buy canned jackfruit that is packed in water or brine, not the kind in syrup. It’s sometimes called “green jackfruit.”

As the name would suggest, it is a fruit. The kind that’s in cans in water or brine is not ripe yet. (That’s why it’s “young.”)

Don’t buy fresh, ripe jackfruit for jackfruit carnitas.

The massive kind that is sold fresh in the produce area won’t work for this recipe either. It’s lovely on its own, but the flavor profile is totally different than the kind sold in cans.

Ripe jackfruit is very sweet and kind of reminds me of canned peaches + mango in taste and texture.

(If you ever want to buy ripe jackfruit just for its own sake, some grocery stores sell it in slices – as shown above. That’s really convenient when you don’t want to commit to a whole, watermelon-sized fruit.)

Jackfruit carnitas tacos

The way that I’ve been preparing it most often these days is as a taco filling. These jackfruit carnitas are infused with wine, ancho chili powder, cumin, and other spices.

Then once it is totally infused with flavor and almost ready to serve, I add tahini to the skillet, so that it becomes clumpy, and gets some bite to it.

It’s wonderfully flavorful, and I’ve been making it at least once a week for the past couple of months. I hope you will love it as much as I do!

(If you do, you will also love my vegan French dip sandwich made with jackfruit!)

How to make jackfruit carnitas tacos

Start by draining the jackfruit. Then give it a good, generous rinse in a colander or berry bowl.

The jackfruit will be in large triangle shapes. You can use all parts of it, unless any of the pods seem very hard.

Blot the pieces on a towel to dry them, and then move them to a food processor with an S-blade.

Pulse the food processor 5 or 6 times. You want it to be shredded in pieces, but not to the point of becoming jackfruit hummus.

By shredding it first into smaller pieces, any spices and flavorings that are added get fully infused into them. If you have bigger pieces of jackfruit, all of the flavor doesn’t get fully saturated into it.

Now it’s time to brown it!

Heat a non-stick skillet with a light layer of oil. My skillet is medium-sized, but if you have a large skillet, use that instead.

Like all foods, jackfruit browns best when the pan isn’t overcrowded. So I brown the jackfruit in stages.

Lightly layer the skillet with jackfruit. Don’t move it until it’s fully brown on one side, then flip it and brown the other side.

Now scoot that cooked jackfruit to one side of the skillet, add a little more oil, and then fry the remaining jackfruit on the empty side. Do the same thing all over again – brown one side, flip it, and brown the other.

Then combine all of it.

Scoot all of the jackfruit to one side, add additional oil to the empty part of the skillet, and throw in onions & garlic. Sauté that for a couple of minutes, and then combine the onions & garlic with the jackfruit.

Now it’s time to infuse the jackfruit with flavor, and de-glaze the pan.

(That means any burnt bits on the bottom will all get incorporated.)

Add red wine to the skillet. I like to use a dry red wine like Carmenere, Garnacha, or Tempranillo. (Those all happen to be my favorite wines period. So if you wanted to buy a bottle of wine for me, now you know. 😉 )

Albero Tempranillo and La Granja Tempranillo/Garnacha at Trader Joe’s both have “vegan” right on the label. Otherwise, check out Barnivore to find out a wine’s vegan status.

By the way, this is a great way to use any remaining wine in a bottle that’s leftover. I often pull from wine in the refrigerator that I’m not planning on drinking, but is still perfectly good.

In addition to the wine, add water, the no beef flavor of Better Than Bouillon, cumin, coriander, ancho chili powder, paprika, tamari, and salt.

Remember that ancho chili powder is different from standard chili powder. Ancho chili powder is made from ground dried ancho chilies – one ingredient. While standard chili powders are made with a mixture of spices, often including cayenne.

So while you can use chili powder instead, it may be hotter, spicier, and slightly different in flavor profile than with ancho chili powder. I recommend seeking out ancho chili powder and adding it to your spice cabinet.

Let the jackfruit simmer in the liquid & spices. After about ten minutes, it should cook down, and be mostly dry.

Turn the heat off, and add tahini to the jackfruit. Use a spatula to fully combine it.

Taste for heat and salt. Add more salt, if you like, and/or a few dashes of hot sauce. For this dish, I like to use Trader Joe’s jalapeño hot sauce that I talked about in my post on my 3 top hot sauces.

What if I don’t have a food processor?

No problem! In that case, just brown the large pieces of jackfruit in a light layer of oil on the skillet. Get both sides nice and brown.

Then use your spatula to break it up into pieces, as small as you can. Brown it a little more.

Then jump to the step where you add more oil, onions, and garlic (step 5 in the recipe box below), and continue from there.

Once the jackfruit carnitas are ready, it’s time to taco!

Heat the taco shells according to the package directions, or use an air fryer.

How to air fry taco shells

I like to heat my hard corn shells in the air fryer. I keep them nested inside of each other, and put them straight into the basket. (If you have the little paper cone in the last one, that’s even better, because then the taco shell won’t close in on itself.)

Heat at 370 degrees for three to four minutes. Be careful taking the shells out of the air fryer. They will be hot. (I like to use my toast tongs when removing them.)

If you’d prefer to use soft corn tortillas or wheat tortillas, that will work too. It’s your call!

Load it up!

Add jackfruit carnitas to each shell, plus lettuce, tomatoes, a dollop of easy guacamole, and a pinch of non-dairy cheese.

My preferred cheese for taco-making is Daiya in a cheddar block. I don’t like the pre-shredded Daiya very much, but if you use the cheddar-style farmhouse block and shred it by hand, it’s remarkably good.

(You can find my other favorite vegan cheeses in this post, The Best Vegan Cheese For Your Every Need.)

I hope you love these tacos as much as we’ve been loving them at my house. They turned me around from a once or twice-a-year jackfruit person to someone who makes it weekly.

Jackfruit carnitas tacos with red wine

These flavor-packed tacos are loaded with the tastes of red wine and spices. Tahini is the secret ingredient that gives the jackfruit extra body and oomph. This is sure to become a favorite in your house! Makes 6 tacos.

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican, Vegan

Keyword: gluten free, meatless taco, weeknight meal

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 3 people

Calories: 341kcal

Author: Cadry Nelson

Ingredients

For the jackfruit carnitas

• 20 ounces young green jackfruit canned in water or brine, not syrup, drained and rinsed
• 2 teaspoons organic canola oil divided
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon no-beef base
• 1/4 dry red wine I especially like Carmenere, Garnacha, or Tempranillo
• 1 teaspoon low-sodium tamari
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon tahini
• A few dashes of hot sauce optional

For the tacos

• 6 hard corn shells or the tortillas of your choice
• 1 cup green leaf lettuce roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1 batch easy guacamole
• 1/2 cup shredded non-dairy cheese
• Optional toppings: chopped cilantro, jalapeño pepper slices, hot sauce

Instructions

To make the jackfruit carnitas

• Drain and rinse the jackfruit in a colander. Then move the pieces to a towel, so that they will be as dry as possible. (Lots of extra water on it will make it harder to brown.)
• Move the jackfruit pieces to a food processor. Pulse the food processor a few times, until it is broken up into shredded pieces. (Don't do it so many times that you end up with jackfruit hummus. Just 5 or 6 pulses should be good.)
• Bring a non-stick skillet to a medium high heat with a teaspoon of oil. Put an even layer of shredded jackfruit in the skillet. If you're using a medium sized skillet or smaller, be careful not to overfill it. It won't brown as well if there's too much in the skillet. Don't move it for a few minutes. Allow it to get fully brown on one side, then flip the jackfruit shreds and allow it to brown more.
• If you still have more jackfruit left in the food processor, push the jackfruit in the skillet off to the side of the pan. Put 1/2 teaspoon of oil on the empty side, and layer the jackfruit from the food processor on top of it. Allow it to brown on one side, then flip it. It's okay if the original jackfruit is getting extra brown. It's best when it's dried out and even a little burnt in some places.
• Once all of the jackfruit is nice and brown, move it to one side of the skillet. Put the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of oil in the skillet, and put the chopped onions and minced garlic on it. The skillet will be pretty hot at this point. If it looks like the garlic will burn, lower the heat. Saute the onions and garlic for a minute or two. Then incorporate them with the browned jackfruit.
• Pour the cup of water, Better Than Bouillon, red wine, tamari, cumin, coriander, ancho chili powder, paprika, and salt in the skillet. Fully combine it with the jackfruit. You want the liquid to be at a simmer, so adjust your heat accordingly. Allow it to simmer in the liquid for ten to twelve minutes, until all of the liquid has cooked off.
• Turn off the heat and put the tahini on top of the jackfruit. Use your spatula to fully incorporate everything with the tahini, making sure it's evenly combined.
• Taste for salt & heat. If necessary, add more salt and/or a few dashes of hot sauce. Then fully combine everything with a spatula.

To make the tacos

• Now it's time to make the tacos. Heat 6 hard corn shells according to package instructions. If you'd like to use the air fryer to heat the corn shells, put them tucked inside of each other into the air fryer basket. Heat at 370 degrees for 3 to 4 minutes. Be careful removing them from the air fryer basket. They will be hot.
• Fill each taco shell with several spoonfuls of jackfruit carnitas. Then top them with pinches of green leaf lettuce, and chopped tomatoes. Add a dollop of guacamole to each, and a sprinkling of non-dairy cheese. If you'd like, add any optional toppings to the tacos like cilantro, jalapeño pepper slices, and dashes of hot sauce.

Notes

If you don't have Better Than Bouillon, use your favorite vegetable broth in place of the water + bouillon.

Nutrition

Calories: 341kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 1004mg | Potassium: 306mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 1200IU | Vitamin C: 7.4mg | Calcium: 83mg | Iron: 1.9mg

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Have leftovers?

If you have jackfruit carnitas leftovers, make vegan taquitos! They can be cooked in the air fryer or oven.