Recipe from Lyana Blount
Adapted by Christina Morales
Published Dec. 7, 2023
- Total Time
- 7¾ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1½ hours, plus at least 6 hours’ marinating
- Rating
- 4(104)
- Notes
- Read community notes
On holidays and special occasions, the center of a Puerto Rican table usually features pernil, a juicy shredded roast pork seasoned with garlic, citrus and oregano. In 2020, Lyana Blount suddenly had more time to experiment with her vegan recipes and formed her Black Rican Vegan pop-up. She created a vegan version of the pernil she grew up eating using jackfruit. She boiled canned, brined jackfruit and seasoned it with spices and sauces like adobo, sazón and sofrito, then roasted the marinated jackfruit pieces in the oven, crisping the edges to mimic pernil. Even the most critical abuelas might not be able to tell the difference. Serve the dish with a vegan arroz con gandules or other rice. —Christina Morales
Featured in: A Vegan Pernil That Abuela Would Love
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Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and freshly ground pepper
- 3(20-ounce) cans jackfruit in brine (see Tip), drained
- ½cup/120 grams store-bought fresh or homemade sofrito
- ¼cup grapeseed oil
- 8garlic cloves, minced
- 1tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1tablespoon fresh or dried oregano
- 1½teaspoons adobo seasoning
- 1(4-gram) packet/1½ teaspoons store-bought or homemade sazón (any flavor)
- 1teaspoon ground cumin
- 1teaspoon onion powder
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over medium heat and lightly salt the water. Rinse the brine off your jackfruit before placing the jackfruit in the pot of boiling water. Boil the jackfruit until it softens and no longer smells like brine, about 30 minutes, then drain and let it cool.
Step
2
Use your hands or a potato masher to squeeze all the liquid out of the jackfruit. The pieces will inevitably begin to shred. Remove the seeds: You’ll spot and feel firm, visible seeds that are slightly more yellow than the rest of the jackfruit pieces. Pop the seeds out using your fingertips and discard them, gently breaking the jackfruit into smaller pieces as you go.
Step
3
Transfer your jackfruit to a large bowl and add your sofrito, grapeseed oil, garlic, lime juice, oregano, adobo, sazón, cumin and onion powder, plus 1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon pepper. Mix thoroughly, then cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to 24 hours.
Step
4
When you’re ready to cook, heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the jackfruit in a single layer, spreading it out so it crisps properly.
Step
5
Roast the jackfruit for 30 minutes, stirring it every 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t overcook; you want it bronzed, and a little crispy but not burnt. Serve immediately. (The mixture keeps, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 days, though its texture is best when consumed straight out of the oven.)
Tip
- Canned jackfruit in brine can commonly be found in Asian grocery stores and online.
Ratings
4
out of 5
104
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Cooking Notes
M
Any tips for adapting if you have access to fresh jackfruit? Would it still need brining or would you want to boil it with some added salt to compensate?
BL
Look no further than Trader Joe’s for brined jackfruit in 20-ounce cans.
OC
Jackfruit seeds are edible. Why discard them?
vanessa
Okay, let’s be honest: this is not going to fool your abuela and why would you want to fool her anyway??? Tell her you have a delicious vegetarian dish that reminds you of her pernil (but of course not as good as hers!) and let her enjoy it in its own right! Because it’s delicious. And every member of my family inhaled it. And no, it isn’t pork. But it’s great.Notes: i used the red goya sofrito because that’s what my grocery store had. It’s fine, homemade would be better. Made my own adobo.
aidan
Used a 14oz can of Jackfruit instead of 20 and it was still a okay. Took an extra few minutes in the oven and came out a little saltier.
Mary
We have a jackfruit tree, used pieces cooked in pressure cooker and drained.
EL
I followed this recipe exactly except I doubled it and it was SO delicious!! I couldn’t find sofrito in the store so I made it homemade which was super easy to do. The flavor in this dish is amazing and the texture is so juicy. You could use this jackfruit so many ways. I plan to use the leftovers to make nachos. Seriously an amazing recipe.
SaraM
I just made this, with homemade sofrito and sazon, and used it as filling for tamales, and it is insanely delicious. Good enough to give as holiday gifts for my favorite humans. Thank you! The first time I trued a jackfruit recipe, it was awful, so you’ve redeemed this unusual plant for me.
Cory
Delicious, using the sofrito recipe from NYT and store bought Sazon and Adobo. If you have a convection oven, you probably only need 20 minutes versus 30 minutes without convection.
OC
Jackfruit seeds are edible. Why discard them?
vanessa
Okay, let’s be honest: this is not going to fool your abuela and why would you want to fool her anyway??? Tell her you have a delicious vegetarian dish that reminds you of her pernil (but of course not as good as hers!) and let her enjoy it in its own right! Because it’s delicious. And every member of my family inhaled it. And no, it isn’t pork. But it’s great.Notes: i used the red goya sofrito because that’s what my grocery store had. It’s fine, homemade would be better. Made my own adobo.
BL
Look no further than Trader Joe’s for brined jackfruit in 20-ounce cans.
NY
Fresh jackfruit is not the same. The canned version is made with unripe jackfruit, use the canned one.
Theresa
Can fresh Jackfruit be used instead? Easy to find nowadays
M
Any tips for adapting if you have access to fresh jackfruit? Would it still need brining or would you want to boil it with some added salt to compensate?
Match W.
It's likely not the answer you're looking for, but it's difficult to get recipes right when trying to substitute fresh jackfruit in a recipe that was only tested with canned. If you make this and want a similar result as tested my advice is to use the canned even though you have fresh jackfruit available.
Mary
I used fresh jackfruit that was cooked in a pressure cooker. No salt. Excellent results.
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