Smoked Mojo Jackfruit Sandwiches
There was a hot dog heavy Meatwave once where a vegetarian friend of mine commented that it was her favorite because she basically was able to eat everything the meat eaters were having since I merely subbed in a veggie dog for a hot dog in each dish in an effort to accommodate all. I've taken that to heart and often think of ways I can deliver a very similar experience for everyone in attendance, no matter if they eat meat or not. Pulled pork was once one of those things I thought a good substitute wouldn't exist, but then I tried out barbecue jackfruit and was taken with how the flavor and texture stacked up. So when I decided to do a mojo-seasoned pulled pork at a cookout earlier this year, I once again turned to jackfruit to provide something on par so even the meatless could experience a version of the dish.
The only thing that really differed between the pork and jackfruit versions of this dish was the protein, just about all the other ingredient and components of the two recipes are the same. That included the coleslaw that adorned the sandwiches in the end, for which I chose extra crunchy red cabbage as the base mixed with red onions and carrot too. The dressing for the slaw was also a mojo sauce to further enhance that garlicky and citrusy flavor in the end product.
I made second batch of mojo for the jackfruit proper. For those not familiar with mojo, the version I used here is of Cuban origin, which mixes a large amount of sour orange juice with a large amount of garlic. There's a bit more depth to the sauce by way of oregano and cumin, while olive oil gets a good showing and gives the sauce a little thickness.
I made complimentary rub for the pork that introduced mostly sugar to balance the sourness of the orange, but also furthered the garlic, oregano, and cumin notes that are found in the sauce. I figured if that rub was going to work on the pork, why wouldn't it on the jackfruit too.
I didn't season the jackfruit as heavily as I did the the pork though because the fruit had a larger ratio of surface area to innards, so too much rub could have easily overwhelmed in the end. I opted to get canned young jackfruit packed in water, which makes prep super easy because I simply drain the fruit, give it rinse, then season. I've never prepped a whole jackfruit before, even though my local grocery has them, but from what I've heard, it's not the easiest and quickest fruit to break down, so the convenience of the can is welcomed by me.
The last time I cooked jackfruit, the process worked out quite well, so I saw no real need to change that up at all. It started with smoking the fruit in a smoker running at 225°F to both embed some smokiness and cook down the rub a bit.
Following that, I put the jackfruit in the foil tray with about two-thirds of the mojo sauce, covered the tray, and let the fruit continue to cook until it was tender. It doesn't take long at all for this happen—in both of my experiences it was ready to shred in about 30 minutes.
When I was doing barbecue jackfruit, the sauce needed some additional cooking time uncovered to thicken up, but this time around, the fruit actually soaked up most of the mojo and it looked like it could actually use some more liquid before serving. So I dumped the rest of the sauce in and began shredding the fruit until it resembled pulled pork pretty well.
In fact, It did so so well that multiple guests had to ask me which tray was pork and which was jackfruit. While the two end products looked similar, the jackfruit actually ended up with a much stronger mojo flavor that my friends seemed to dig. I had put out about five pounds each of jackfruit and pulled pork, and at the end of the day, almost all of the jackfruit was gone while there was more pork leftover. The pork sandwich really needed that slaw to get the full mojo flavor in, while on the jackfruit sandwiches, the slaw really just built upon those citrusy and garlicky notes and, more importantly, provided a contrasting crunch to the soft fruit. With this sandwich, jackfruit is now two-for-two in my experiences cooking with it, which just means it'll undoubtedly be making more appearances on this site as I strive to be the best host and cook for all my friends and family, no matter if they're a carnivore or not.
