This Vegan Birria Taco recipe with juicy jackfruit is cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. A delicious healthy plant-based dinner ready in 30 minutes!
We love making this simple Mexican street food dish. It’s absolutely delicious and a great alternative to a Sofritas recipe.
Birria is a Mexican dish usually made with pull-apart slow-cooked goat meat that originates from the state of Jalisco. It’s a slow-cooking recipe where the meat is cooked for about 3.5 hours with a spicy tomato chili sauce until the meat is easy to shred. Birria is delicious when served in tacos or as a stew.
Vegan Birria Tacos are the meat-free version of the popular Birria recipe, using Jackfruit as a meat replacement. As a result, it’s a much easier and faster recipe since jackfruit shreds and cooks very quickly, and you don’t need to wait for 3 hours for the jackfruit to be ready!
Jackfruit is a tropical fruit with a light flavor but an interesting texture. In fact, canned jackfruit looks like shredded meat when pressed or mashed with a fork. It’s often used in vegan recipes as a meat replacement where the dish calls for pulled pork or slow-cooked beef.
It has a very similar texture as Oyster mushroom, but it is more readily available in any season and perfect if you are not a fan of mushroom meat. In fact, jackfruit is pretty tasteless. All you feel is the shredded texture that very much mimics shredded meat.
Ingredients and Substitutions
The ingredients you need for a vegan Birria recipe look a little bit overwhelming, but don’t worry! The recipe is pretty easy and straightforward. The Birria sauce is mainly made of dried chili peppers. Usually, 3 varieties of dried chiles are used: Ancho pepper, Arbol, and Guajillo.
Some recipes skip the de Arbol peppers in favor of more Ancho pepper. Feel free to adjust the recipe based on what you can find in your local store.
- Dried Ancho Peppers, Dried Guajillo Peppers, Dried de Arbol Chili Peppers – It’s the combination of peppers that is the trademark of birria tacos/
- Large Roma Tomatoes – You can use any kind of tomatoes for this. Even cherry tomatoes if it’s all you have.
- Garlic Cloves, peeled, whole or powdered garlic.
- Whole Cloves, Ground Cumin, Mexican Cinnamon – This is the perfect spice mix. You can also use your usual taco spice mix, but it’s not as balanced for Birria.
- Oregano, Marjoram – The blend of dried or fresh herbs is essential. You can also use cilantro (if you like it).
- White Onion sliced. You can also use red onions.
- White Vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- Vegetable Stock – Bottled or homemade.
- Canned Jackfruit – I used 3 cans of 14 0z each. Open the can, drain, and discard the hard pointy part of the Jackfruit chunks for the best taste in this recipe.
- Olive Oil – Or any vegetable oil you like.
- Maple Syrup – optional. Only add at the end if too spicy for you. Note that original Birria recipes never add sweeteners.
How To Make Vegan Birria Tacos
Jackfruit is the meat replacement in these Vegan Birria Tacos.
- First, drain canned jackfruit and rinse under cold tap water. Each chunk of jackfruit has a triangle shape with a hard pointy part.
- Cut off the hard pointy part of each jackfruit chunk – you can use them, but you have to chop them thinly and add them to the recipe. I personally don’t use them in a Birria, and set them aside in the fridge for later recipes.
- Set aside the top part in a bowl – keeping the jackfruit seeds, they are edible.
- To make the Birria sauce flavorsome, first core the chili peppers and slice the dried chili stems off, and remove the seeds inside.
- In a cast iron or non-stick pan, cook the chili for 1 or 2 minutes over medium heat on each side with no oil until fragrant, then transfer to the blender jug.
- In the same pan, warm the olive oil under medium-high heat and add chopped onion. Cook until fragrant and golden brown, stirring occasionally with a spatula – it takes about 2-3 minutes.
- Add crushed garlic and chopped tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Transfer the cooked mixture to the blender.
- In the blender, add the vegetable stock, white vinegar, and spices (allspice, or cumin seeds, oregano, marjoram, cinnamon, cloves, and salt). You can also add bay leaves if you like.
- Blend until the mixture is smooth. Set aside the Birria Sauce in a bowl. I don’t keep it in the blender jug simply because the chili color tends to stain the blender jug.
- In a large non-stick pot or cast iron pan, warm olive oil and stir fry the jackfruit for about 4-5 minutes—season with salt and pepper.
- Then, pour the Birria sauce, cover, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Use a fork or potato mash to smash the jack fruit pieces to release their individual fibers and look like shredded pulled pork.
- To make a delicious authentic Birria taco, first, dip a corn tortilla into the Birria broth.
- Then, add it to a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Flip over and then add shredded jackfruits, vegan cheese, fresh red onion, cilantro, lime juice, and corn and fold like a taco, half-moon shape.
- Flip it over so it crisps on both sides of the tortilla and the cheese is melted.
- Serve immediately, with the Birria leftover sauce on the side. It’s traditional to dip your tacos into the sauce as you go.
- You can also serve this recipe as a jackfruit Birria stew in shallow bowls with toppings of choice like warm tortillas chips and cilantro.
Serving Ideas
Vegan Birria Tacos are delicious when served with many classic Mexican toppings or sides like:
- Corn kernel
- Salsa
- Chopped red onion
- Red cabbage
- Jalapeno slices
- A splash of lime Juice
- Vegan shredded cheese
- Vegan Sour cream or coconut yogurt
- Rice
- Black Beans
- Vegan Cornbread Recipe
Storage Instructions
This Birria jackfruit filling can be stored very well in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
You can also freeze it for later and simply thaw it in the fridge the day before serving.
Bread Recipes To Pair With Birria
Below I listed some of my favorite bread recipes to pair with this Jackfruit Birria for you to try:
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Vegan Birria Tacos
Ingredients
- 3 cans Jackfruit - 14oz each
- 3 Dried Ancho Peppers
- 3 Dried Guajillo Peppers
- 1 Dried de Arbol Peppers - optional, can add 1 more Ancho pepper instead
- 3 large Roma Tomatoes - chopped
- 4 Garlic Cloves - peeled, crushed
- 1 whole Clove
- 1 teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Mexican Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Oregano
- ¼ teaspoon Marjoram
- ½ small White Onion - peeled, sliced
- ⅓ cup White Vinegar
- 1 ½ cups Vegetable Stock
- 4 tablespoons Olive Oil - divided
- 1 ½ teaspoon Salt
- 3 tablespoons Maple Syrup - optional, only if to if too spicy for you
- 10 Corn Tortillas
Instructions
Prepare Jackfruit
- Drain the canned jackfruit in a sieve and rinse under cold tap water.
- Cut the hard pointy part of each jackfruit chunk – you can use them chopped thinly and add them to the recipe. I personally don't use them in the Birria and set them aside in the fridge for later recipes. See my picture above for visual help.
- Set aside the top part in a bowl – keeping the seeds, they are edible.
Birria Sauce
- Slice the chili peppers' stems off and remove the seeds inside.
- In a Dutch iron or large non-stick pan, cook the chili peppers for 1 or 2 minutes on each side with no oil until fragrant, then transfer to the blender jug.
- In the same pan, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil under medium-high heat and add chopped onion. Cook until fragrant and soft, stirring occasionally – it takes about 2-3 minutes.
- Add crushed garlic and chopped tomatoes and keep cooking for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the cooked mixture to the blender.
- In the blender, add vegetable stock, white vinegar, cumin, oregano, marjoram, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Blend at high speed until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
Cook Jackfruit and sauce
- In a large non-stick pot or cast iron pan, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and stir-fry the jackfruit for about 4-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Use a fork or potato mashed to smash the jack fruit pieces to release their individual fibers and look like shredded pulled pork.
- Then, pour the Birria sauce over, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or more until the sauce has thickened, but you still have some liquid on top to dip the tacos in.
- Taste the sauce. If too spicy, you can stir in the maple syrup and cook for 3 extra minutes to blend flavors.
Assemble the Vegan Birria Tacos
- Dip a corn tortilla into the sauce on both sides – see my picture above for visual help – and add it in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Flip over and then add shredded jackfruits, vegan cheese, fresh red onion, cilantro, corn and fold like a taco, half-moon shape.
- Flip it over so it crisps on both sides and the cheese is melted. Serve immediately.
Do I have to boil the jackfruit to get the bitter taste out
Canned jackfruit has no bitter flavor, I am using it straight out from the can in the recipe
hi mine came out really bitter and not good tasting at all? any thoughts? i followed the recipe exactly and just subbed white vinegar with apple cower vinegar
I don’t see how it could be bitter maybe your jackfruit juice is bitter because the recipe don’t have much bitterness from the remaining ingredients. You can try to add a pinch of sugar to offset bitterness in dishes