A delicious and healthy recipe for vegetarian BBQ jackfruit tacos. These tacos are perfect for summer and taste great with a cold margarita!
We are entering one of my very favorite seasons. I like to call it: lay by the pool and drink margaritas and eat tacos season! It’s a pretty self-explanatory season and it is really the best.
My go-to tacos are chicken. Grilled or fried you can layer them with so many things and they always taste good. When I was in Kentucky I had a fried chicken taco that was topped with mac and cheese and pickles and it was seriously the bomb dot com.
Finding tacos that Josh loves can be more of a challenge. For those who don’t know, my husband is a vegetarian. He loves Mexican food but often wants more than a basic bean taco. Marinated meats add so much flavor to a dish. Thankfully we have found a veggie-friendly option and now love cooking up jackfruit tacos for Josh.
You may be asking, what the heck is a jackfruit? Essentially jackfruit is a fruit that tastes like pulled pork. We buy it in cans from Trader Joes. When you open the can it looks like artichokes, but once you start shredding it up it looks like chicken. Jackfruit is packed with nutrients, particularly fiber, magnesium, B6, and antioxidants. It takes on flavors just like meat does, and goes fantastic with BBQ flavors.
You know what else goes good with BBQ flavors? Dorothy Lynch. Nebraska’s favorite sweet, tangy (gluten-free!) dressing pairs perfectly with BBQ sauce and makes one mean marinade. It is such a versatile ingredient when cooking. (Last time I cooked with it, I made tempeh Reubens!)
We cannot stop eating these BBQ jackfruit tacos, so I wanted to share the recipe with you. (Full disclosure: I have tried this recipe with shredded chicken too and it is also phenomenal.) Dorothy Lynch really is the secret sauce that makes this recipe so good. It gives the tacos an extra oomph and adds a really nice depth to the flavor. Make sure you pick some up before you make this recipe! (And then let me know what you think once you do!)
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BBQ Jackfruit Tacos
Makes 8 tacos
Ingredients
- 8 small flour tortillas
- 2 20-oz cans green jackfruit in brine
- ¼ C Dorothy Lynch
- ½ C BBQ sauce
- 2 Tsp hot sauce
- Juice of 3 limes, divided, plus more lime wedges for garnish
- 1 ½ C water
- ½ Tsp cumin
- 2 Tsp chili powder
- 1 Tsp granulated garlic
- 1 Tsp diced chipotle in adobo
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 oz grated Cotija cheese
- 2 avocados, thinly sliced
- 8 Tsp salsa
- 1 red onion
- 3 medium carrots
- 4 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves and stems, plus more leaves for garnish
Directions
- Dice the onion and add to a small bowl with the juice of one lime, 2 tsp chopped cilantro, salt and pepper
- Stir to combine then set aside
- Grate the carrots and add them to a separate small bowl with the juice of one lime, 2 tsp chopped cilantro, salt and pepper
- Stir to combine then set aside
- While the onion and carrots marinate, rinse the jackfruit chunks under cool water and transfer to a medium bowl
- Using a fork (or clean fingers), shred the jackfruit chunks into small shreds
- Add the Dorothy Lynch, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, cumin, chili powder, juice of one lime, and season with salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly
- Add 1 ½ cups water and stir again until everything is evenly mixed
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat
- Add the jackfruit and marinade and cook, stirring occasionally, until jackfruit has softened and the marinade has reduced (about 15 minutes)
- Set aside to cool slightly
- Take each tortilla and add some of the cooked jackfruit, the carrots, and the onions. Add 2 slices of avocado, 1 teaspoon salsa, and top with a sprinkle cotija cheese
- Serve with a lime wedge and enjoy!
A big thanks to Ashley for the fabulous photos and video in this post!
Questions of the Day: Have you tried jackfruit? Do you prefer corn or flour tortillas? What’s your favorite taco topping? Have you ever paired Dorothy Lynch and BBQ?
Thanks to Dorothy Lynch for sponsoring this post! For more delicious recipe ideas, check out their online recipe catalog.
Love it!! Looks so great and tasty!!
This looks and sounds delicious! And healthy! Thanks for the recipe, my son discovered jackfruit in one of our grocery stores, he would love if I made this!
That’s a really interesting take on tacos. I’ve heard of jackfruit, but I’ve never heard of making it into a taco before. I’d love to try it.
Taco is life! Let anybody disputing that argue with his/her keyboard. It’s one of the very few foods I come to love and enjoy over these years with any apologies or guilt whatsoever.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
I love jackfruit! It looks just like shredded chicken or pulled pork and I had it as a burrito. So, so, so delicious with all the toppings and sauce.
I’m not usually a taco fan but these look good!
This looks like a wonderful meal. It is perfect for those backyard bbq party and a couple of beers. This is going to be my new favorite.
Yyyaaaayyyyyyyy….avocado and jackfruit….these 2 easily hit home! This is a must-try for me now as it stands.
These tacos omg!!! I would love to make it, looks so delicious! Thanks a lot for the recipe.
BBQ Jackfruit Tacos sounds so good! I would like to try your recipe and make it for my family. Yum!
I need to make these stat! They look so delicious. And I adore jackfruit! Thank you for sharing the recipe with us ♡
Staying by the pool, drinking margaritas and eating tacos – that´s my kind of summer for sure! Such a great recipe – looks easy and delicious! Can´t wait to try!
The colors are exquisite. It is so easy to make even small children can help.
They look absolutely amazing and I bet they are very delicious! Thanks for this healthy version of delicious tacos.
Yum these look delicious and super easy to make! I’m going to give the recipe a go very soon – hopefully the kids love it too!
Interesting recipe. I never had green jackfruit. I enjoy the fully ripe ones because of their natural sweetness. I will have to look for this green jackfruit at the store and follow your recipe. Looks like a delicious taco to me!
Wow, this looks so good. Can’t wait to give this recipe a try!
It really looks delicious! I have always loved eating jackfruits, they smell so nice and very yummy too. Unfortunately, I have never seen jackfruits in Europe.
This sounds so delicious. I wouldn’t have thought about using Jackfruit in my tacos. But my mouth is watering looking at it and thinking about it. So yummy.
What a good idea, to put the jackfruit on the tacos. These look great for summer. A fun way to break up the same old same old routine.
These look like some delicious tacos! I would love to make some of these sometime.
I have never heard of jackfruit! What an awesome find! Dorothy Lynch sounds delicious as well!
This BBQ Jackfruit Tacos looks appetizing recipe and easy to prepare also , I think having to try one of these would be a nice idea,thanks for sharing the ingrident.
These tacos look and sound delicious. Would love to try them!
THis recipe looks super yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Who can say no to tacos? These look amazingly delicious! I look forward to making them.
The start of your article painted a fun picture! Now I am so tempted to try this recipe even though it seems a little out of my league. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Jackfruit is an interesting ingredient for the tacos, and I have no idea it tastes like shredded chicken. It would be an great alternative for vegan and vegerarians.
Tacos once a week is a must in my family! I’m sure they’d love this!
Last Sunday cooked this for my wife and grandmother and although I tuned down the spice a little (for grandmother) this was absolutely delicious! This was my first time cooking jackfruit. Thank you, Erin, for this wonderful recipe!
I’m so so glad you enjoyed!! Thanks for letting me know Will!
Hi,
Tacos are like our family snack.
The innovation of tacos using jackfruit is just amazing. I never thought of using jackfruit in tacos
Thank you for such a drooling recipe.
Keep sharing more innovative idea that I can use for making tacos…:)