Jackfruit carnitas recipe

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Carnitas are made with slow-cooked pork (or sometimes turkey or beef) and warm spices such as cinnamon and cloves. The meat is slow cooked until it has the traditional pulled consistency, and the meat is turned to ensure lots of crispy bits too. It is often served in soft flour tacos or on top of nachos with lime, coriander/cilantro and onion.

  • Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 12-oz (1 x 340-g) can green jackfruit
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
  • 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 large onion, cut into 5-mm/¼-inch dice
  • 1–2 teaspoons dried chilli/hot red pepper flakes
  • 1 stick cinnamon or cassia bark
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • pinch of ground cloves
  • ½–1 teaspoon salt
  • vegetable oil, for frying
To Serve
  • 20 small flour tortillas, approx. 15 cm/6 inches
  • 4 tablespoons ancho chilli and mango dressing, or use a hot pepper sauce, such as Encona
  • ½ red onion, finely diced
  • ½ red onion, finely diced
  • 1 lime, cut into wedges
How to Make It
  1. Pour about 2.5 cm/1 inch of vegetable oil into a small pan and put over a high heat. When sizzling hot (but not burning), add the sliced onion and fry for 20–30 minutes until dark golden and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and lay on paper towels to drain.
  2. Drain and rinse the jackfruit and place in a medium-sized pan with all the remaining ingredients and 355 ml/1½ cups water. Bring to a simmer over a medium-high heat and cook for 40 minutes until most of the water has evaporated. Remove the cinnamon or cassia bark and bay leaves.
  3. Add a little splash of olive oil to the pan to stop it sticking and continue cooking the jackfruit so it starts to fry gently on a medium heat. This can take 5–10 minutes. Using a fork, break up the jackfruit so it has more of a ‘pulled’, slightly shredded appearance. Keep frying and allow some of the edges to brown a little before moving the crispy bits to the side and introducing new soft bits to the bottom.
  4. Continue this process for about 20–30 minutes until you have a mixture of crispy and soft bits. Remove from the heat and stir in 2 large tablespoons of the fried crispy onions. Taste and add more salt as you like.
  5. Warm the tortillas and top each with generous spoonfuls of the jackfruit mixture. Scatter a few crispy onions on top, then drizzle with the ancho chilli and mango dressing and scatter the top with red onion and coriander/cilantro. Finish with a squeeze of lime and serve.
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