The easiest and most delicious Pulled BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches, made in the Instant Pot! A perfect meal for the middle of summer when it’s too hot to turn on the oven.
My usual method of making BBQ Jackfruit Pulled “Pork” is cooking it on the stovetop, but it can also be cooked in an Instant Pot! An easy weeknight meal that everyone will love. Serve on buns with extra barbecue sauce and vegan coleslaw.
How to make jackfruit in the Instant Pot
First, drain and rinse the canned jackfruit.
Chop off the center core portion and discard. (You don’t have to do this, but I don’t like the texture of the harder parts, so I cut most of it off.) Place it in the Instant Pot with a cup of water and cook on high for 5 minutes. Then mash it with a potato masher until it looks like this.
Add the barbecue sauce and sauté for a few minutes until warmed through. Serve on buns with shredded cabbage or vegan coleslaw.
Instant Pot Pulled BBQ Jackfruit
Ingredients
- (2) 20 ounce cans young green jackfruit in brine (or water)
- 18 ounces barbecue sauce
- 6 hamburger buns (gluten free if needed)
- vegan coleslaw or shredded cabbage
Instructions
- Prepare your jackfruit: Drain and rinse the canned jackfruit, then chop off the core portions and discard.
- Add the jackfruit to the Instant Pot along with 1 cup of water. Put on the lid, seal, and set to high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally, or if you are in a hurry you can manually release the pressure (carefully.)
- Drain the jackfruit, and then add it back to the Instant Pot. Mash with a potato masher until it resembles pulled meat.
- If using homemade, make the vegan barbecue sauce now.
- Add the barbecue sauce to the pulled jackfruit, and turn on the sauté feature. Cook for 2-5 minutes until warmed through. Serve on buns with shredded cabbage or coleslaw.
OMG Nora. Your stovetop pulled jackfruit was my go-to recipe. I just made your Instant Pot version. It was so quick, no tending the pan; I could multi-task while in the Instant Pot. It came out so tender and so easily shredded & visually exactly like pulled pork meat. We eat it on top of your Mac & Cheese. You have THE BEST RECIPES. This will now be my go-to recipe for pulled jackfruit.
What brand do you use. I can find only canned in brine, so I rinse & soak to try to get rid of excess salt.
That sounds delicious, Diane! Thank you so much for your wonderful review and feedback! My favorite jackfruit is by Edward & Sons.
I use Native Forest Organic Young Jackfruit (Original). Easily purchased at Amazon and it’s inexpensive when purchasing the large can (net wt 6.1 lbs, 2.8 kg). I make up a huge pot of “pulled pork” and freeze most of it for future use. Economical and makes a quick and easy weeknight dinner.
I was wondering if you use a 6 qt size Instant Pot? If so, then all I’d need to do is to halve the recipe since I have a 3 qt pot?
Yes, that is correct. I think it will work to halve the recipe and use a 3 quart.
Could you use onion in this recipe? Like sauté it in the Instant Pot first, then add the jackfruit and water and pressure cook?
Yes, that would work well and add flavor!
It took me a year of this lifestyle to finally try jackfruit – and so glad this was the recipe I chose. Easy, tasty and totally satisfying. Paired with air-fried potatoes? Perfection. Thank you so much!
Hi Kathy. I’m so glad your first jackfruit recipe was something you loved! Thank you for using my recipe, and for sharing!
Hi Nora,
Thanks  for your great recipes my family is  comprised of meat eaters and vegans, they all love your lasagna. I was wondering if you can recommend a way to bolster the protein  content of the BBQ jack fruit, the one thing my meat eater asks for in recipes lol. I was thinking of adding  chickpeas inti the insta pot along with Jack fruit, but unsure of  Quantity or maybe something else would be better.
Thanks again for your fantastic recipes.
That’s great to hear! I think chickpeas would be a good addition of protein here, that is the one thing about jackfruit I dislike, it doesn’t have a lot of filling power.
I live alone but would like to make this. Can I simply halve all the ingredients?
Yes you can, it shouldn’t be a problem. Thanks!
Have you ever tried to freeze this recipe? In freezer bags. As a single, I end up freezing a lot of my cooking and baking so I don’t pit out all at once? Either that or I better be committed to eating that same meal for lunch and dinner for the next 2 or 3 days!
I haven’t personally tried freezing bbq jackfruit, but I do think it would work just fine if frozen in freezer bags or containers. Simply warm up when you are ready to eat it. I hear you, eating the same thing for days gets a bit boring! Thank you.
Just following up. I had one can of jackfruit in the house so I halved the recipe. Ate one bunwich the same night and divided the rest. I had already divided it into 3 portions before eating the one, but it was a lot. I ended up dividing the remainder into 3 portions. I ate another one the following night seeing as how I’d bought 2 buns! The other two portions I put in separate freezer bags, pushed the jackfruit BBQ to make it flat, and froze them. It’s been nearly a month. I pulled one freezer bag out, defrosted in the microwave and reheated. All is good. Freezing it doesn’t affect the recipe.
Thank you for following up! I’m so glad freezing worked well for the jackfruit.
I have a jackfruit tree (FL) that has lots of extra fruits once a year. I slice and cook enough of the immature fruit to use later and freeze them in recipe sized bags. BBQ or curry are great.
Could I substitute fresh jackfruit for the canned? Would it be the same cooking process? Thanks!
You probably could, but I haven’t worked with fresh jackfruit before so I’m not totally sure!
I don’t recommend doing this. In my early vegan years, I tried doing so and it tasted like bubblegum meat. I swore it off for years just to discover I should have done it with the unripe fruit!
just a shout out, thank you for your recipes and karma.
Thinking of making this for a backyard graduation party! I would probably make a day ahead and warm back up in the instant pot…have you done this or any advice for making ahead?
They would be perfect for a graduation party! I haven’t tried it myself, but I think it would be totally fine to warm it back up in the Instant Pot, on the saute method. Saute for a few minutes, until warm, then you could pop the lid on and keep warm until you serve. Thank you!
I only have one 20 oz can on hand at the moment and a trip to Trader Joe’s is not on the horizon anytime soon. If I wanted to halve this recipe do I just cut the liquid in half but keep the pressure cooking time the same?
Yes that should work just fine! Thank you.
I had to try this Jackfruit pulled pork gag on my kids. I tried hard to hide the cans so they wouldn’t know the difference. I had the table spread with tater tots, ketchup, and the pulled pork looking sandwiches infused with their favorite BBQ sauce. My 18 year old boy took one look and said, “Are there beans in this?” I honestly answered no. “Is this even MEAT?” I asked him to try it and tell me. He squinted his eyes and took a large bite. “It’s not meat, but it’s pretty good!” He ate the whole thing and so did the whole carnivorous family! Ha Ha! Thanks for such a fun meal! I just discovered your blog and I am so excited. Every recipe I’ve tried of yours has been wonderful.
I love it!! That is so hilarious. 🙂 I’m so glad everyone enjoyed, I hope you find many more fun family recipes to try! Thanks so much.
Have you ever done this with frozen jackfruit? I got some from Whole Foods frozen. Have been using it in smoothies.
I’ve never tried frozen jackfruit, but I imagine it would work. I’ll have to look out for it at Whole Foods. 🙂
Made this for dinner tonight with your BBQ sauce recipe it tasted very good. Even my non vegan husband went back for seconds. The only thing I wish I hadn’t ‘used quite as much of the sauce in it. But very good, it was the first time I used jackfruit, got it from Trader Joe’s
Glad you enjoyed it, and your husband did, too!
So after a couple of tries I finally ended up doubling the pressure cooker time to 8-10 minutes. I also put less water and doubled the sauté time.
Thanks for the recipe. I noticed that the recipe calls from jack fruit in water, however the image on the website is of Trader Joe’s jack fruit, which is in brine. Which should we use? Will it make a difference? Most of the recipes that I have seen either use fresh jack fruit or say to use water, not brine or syrup based varieties.
Sorry about the confusion! Actually, I will update the recipe to say “brine” or “water”. Brine is really just salt and water, I believe, so when I read the ingredients on the can it says “jackfruit, water, salt….”. But technically it is brine, so I will update the recipe. I always use the Trader Joe’s brand of jackfruit you are talking about. Thanks!
So good! Love jackfruit.
Hi Nora- Anxious to try this, but I don’t have an Instapot yet. Do you know alternative cooking instructions- maybe on the stove or even in a crockpot?
Thanks!
Hi Lynda! Yes, you could definitely make this on the stove, and I’m sure in the crockpot as well. On the stove, I would simply steam/boil the jackfruit until it’s tender, maybe 15 minutes or so. Then drain the water if necessary, and add in the barbecue sauce. I hope that helps!
Very Good.
Hi Nora, thanks for the great recipe! Have you tried putting sauce in the instant pot while it’s pressure cooking? Would that potentially enhance the flavor?
I haven’t tried that yet, but I think it’s a great idea! I would probably still cook it with the 1 cup of water, mash and then add the sauce and turn it on for maybe just a minute or two. When I try it I will report back! 🙂
Hi! I’m also in Portland and I agree, it has been too dang hot!
I want to make a giant batch of this for my 2 year old’s birthday party this weekend and I’m wondering if you can tell me how many hamburger bun sized sandwiches can be made from this recipe.
Thanks!
It has been hot, I’m SO ready for Fall! 🙂
So for this recipe, I would say you could probably get 8-10 medium sized hamburger sandwiches, depending on how much of the BBQ jackfruit you put in each one. If you are serving it to adults and want to really fill the burgers, maybe only 6. I hope everyone enjoys, and happy birthday little one! My little guy will be 2 in October. 🙂
Where do you find canned jackfruit? is labeled as Jackfruit?? new to this
Oh yeah, it took me awhile to figure out jackfruit! I get mine at Trader Joes, it comes in 20 oz cans. I’ve also heard you can find the cans at asian stores. It is labeled as Jackfruit.