These amazing fried jackfruit wings are a vegan take on the classic American fried chicken wings. Plus, it’s served with a simply made spicy vegan buffalo sauce. Perfect for parties, game days and get-togethers. And it only takes 25 minutes to make in the air fryer or even less if deep or shallow frying. Great served alongside a vegan Caesar salad and plant based mac and cheese too.
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🌟 Why this recipe works
- Simple breading (coating) – no need for a gloopy batter for these fried jackfruit wings! Just a simple spiced flour breading to coat the jackfruit. When deep fried or air fried, it crisps up beautifully! Buffalo wings don’t traditionally have a batter or breading on, they’re just deep fried wings, but jackfruit really benefits from having a little something added.
- Simple vegan sauce – Some buffalo sauces contain stuff like garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce, but this is a no nonsense vegan buffalo hot sauce recipe. It’s made with melted vegan butter and Frank’s hot sauce. Keeping it nice and simple!
- Air fried or deep fried – we offer two cooking options for these fried jackfruit wings. If you’ve got an air fryer and would like to keep oil usage to a minimum, or if you want to deep fry them, we’ve got you covered.
📋 Ingredient Notes
- Jackfruit – Make sure to use young jackfruit (opposed to ripe, which is sweet). Ideally, you should use large pieces of jackfruit, and you can remove the seeds if you like (some people don’t like the texture of the seeds). For this recipe, we like the jackfruit that we can buy from our local Oriental supermarket. It’s better for this recipe as the jackfruit pieces are firmer and larger in the tins that they sell. That’s just what we’ve found in our local area. You may find otherwise! In addition, if you love cooking with jackfruit, check out more of our favourite jackfruit recipes.
- Frank’s hot sauce – Any cayenne pepper based hot sauce with a vinegary edge will do. Traditionally, it should be cayenne pepper hot sauce. We know that Frank’s is the go-to brand for Buffalo sauce, so that’s what we used and recommend!
- Vegan butter – traditionally, butter adds a silky, rich and smooth edge to the sauce. And this vegan buffalo sauce is no different, it just uses vegan butter instead of dairy! It pairs perfectly with the vinegary, spicy hot sauce. Plus, it’s ideal for coating the crispy fried jackfruit wings! Especially when it’s then dipped in a vegan blue cheese dip. FYI, we use either Flora or Vitalite spread.
Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this article for exact measurements to make this fried jackfruit wings recipe.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
This is a step-by-step overview with photos for making fried buffalo jackfruit wings. The full recipe, along with measurements and detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
1. Mix together the flour and the spices for the breading (coating).
2. Next, drain and rinse the tinned jackfruit. In a large mixing bowl, toss the jackfruit in the flour and spice mixture. Make sure they’re all well coated (like in the picture).
3. Lightly oil or oil spray the air fryer basket. Place all the coated jackfruit wings in the air fryer basket, but don’t layer or stand the jackfruit pieces on top of each other. It should be just one layer. So, do two batches if needed. Then air fry at 200°c for 20 minutes. Flip halfway through to ensure even cooking.
4. While the jackfruit wings fry, melt the vegan butter in a small pan.
5. Take it off the heat and whisk in the Frank’s hot sauce until combined.
6. Take the fried jackfruit and toss in the sauce. There you have it – buffalo fried jackfruit wings! How easy was that? Keep it classic and serve with celery sticks, and/or carrot sticks, vegan ranch dressing or vegan blue cheese sauce.
If deep frying:
1. Prepare the jackfruit as above (steps 1 and 2). Then heat up enough oil in a pan to fully cover the pieces of jackfruit over medium-high heat. Test whether it's hot enough by dropping a small piece of jackfruit or coating in to see if it bubbles.
2. Once hot enough, add the breaded jackfruit into the pan and fry until golden and crispy, roughly 2-3 minutes on each side.
3. Remove the fried jackfruit wings with a strainer and put onto a few layers of kitchen roll to soak up the excess oil. Then continue with instructions above for the vegan buffalo sauce, to finish off the fried jackfuit wings!
👩🍳 Expert Tips
- Jackfruit – don’t forget, you should use large jackfruit pieces if possible, and you can remove the jackfruit seeds if you like.
- Air frying tips – it’s important not to overcrowd the air fryer. Instead of overfilling, air fry the jackfruit wings in two batches if necessary. It won’t cook evenly if they’re cramped or touching other pieces of jackfruit.
- Oil spray – there’s no way to brown items in an air fryer without oil – it just doesn’t work. The breading on the jackfruit will look pale without any oil, but it will still cook and be crispy. This won't be visible once tossed in the sauce, but it will look less appetising initially. This is the price to be paid for frying without oil though!
- Deep frying tips – you don't need an at-home deep fat fryer to deep fry the jackfruit wings. Just a frying pan with enough oil to cover the jackfruit pieces. You could also shallow fry the jackfruit – allow enough oil to cover around half the depth of a piece of jackfruit, then turn after 2-3 minutes on each side. Also, it's a good idea to pat the deep fried jackfruit onto some kitchen roll before coating in the vegan Buffalo sauce. That's to remove any excess oil.
- Buffalo sauce – to make a vegan buffalo sauce, you just need to make sure you use a vegan hot sauce (like Frank’s) and a vegan butter, like Flora or Naturli. However, here’s a word of warning when making this vegan buffalo sauce for the fried jackfruit. Be ever so careful when whisking! Frank’s hot sauce is ever so vibrant and if it is splattered onto clothes (like onto Dan’s white t-shirt when we were testing this recipe) it will stain. Dan’s t-shirt is ruined. That’s one high-risk element of running a food blog!
- Storage – fried jackfruit is best eaten straight out of the fryer. The crispiness will degrade the longer it sits out or in the fridge. For that reason, it is best eaten freshly cooked. However, if you have leftovers, they will keep in the fridge for two days, but will not remain crispy. If you have leftovers or need to reheat them later, an air fryer will crisp them back up – try giving them a blast at 180°c for 5 minutes.
💭 FAQs
Just make sure the jackfruit is drained out of the can (and rinsed if needed) and then either fry directly in hot oil, or if you’re making fried jackfruit wings, coat them and then fry them! They can be deep fried in hot oil, or for a healthier alternative, air fry with a tablespoon of oil or by lightly spraying with an oil spray.
No, buffalo sauce is not usually vegan as it contains dairy butter. Our recipe is for a vegan buffalo sauce so that is indeed vegan!
Yes, Frank’s original hot sauce is vegan. Even the ‘natural butter type flavour’ is actually dairy free and vegan!
Same as above – yes it is vegan. It also includes ‘natural butter type flavour’ but this is also vegan and dairy free.
🍟 Serving suggestions
- Celery sticks
- Carrot sticks
- Vegan blue cheese dip
- Vegan ranch dressing
🍛 More recipes to try
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📖 Recipe
Fried Jackfruit Wings
Ingredients
- 400 g young jackfruit – drained
- 0.5 cup all purpose flour (plain flour)
- 0.5 tsp paprika powder
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp Frank's hot sauce
- 1.5 tbsp vegan butter
Instructions
- Mix together the flour and the spices for the breading (coating).0.5 cup all purpose flour, 0.5 tsp paprika powder, 0.5 tsp black pepper, 0.5 tsp salt
- Next, drain and rinse the tinned jackfruit. In a large mixing bowl, toss the jackfruit in the flour and spice mixture. Make sure they’re all well coated (like in the picture).400 g young jackfruit
- Lightly oil or oil spray the air fryer basket. Place all the coated jackfruit wings in the air fryer basket, but don’t layer or stand the jackfruit pieces on top of each other. It should be just one layer. Do two batches if needed. Then air fry at 200c for 20 minutes. Flip halfway through to ensure even cooking.
- While the jackfruit fries, melt the vegan butter in a small pan.1.5 tbsp vegan butter
- Take it off the heat and whisk in the Frank’s hot sauce until combined.2 tbsp Frank's hot sauce
- Take the fried jackfruit and toss in the buffalo sauce. Keep it classic and serve with celery sticks, and/or carrot sticks, vegan ranch dressing or vegan blue cheese sauce.
If deep frying:
- Prepare jackfruit and coating as above (steps 1 and 2). Heat up enough oil in a pan to fully cover the pieces of jackfruit over medium-high heat. Test whether it's hot enough by dropping a small piece of jackfruit or breading in to see if it bubbles.
- Once hot enough, add the breaded jackfruit into the pan and fry until golden and crispy, roughly 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Remove the fried jackfruit wings with a strainer and put onto a few layers of kitchen roll to soak up the excess oil. Then continue with instructions above for the vegan buffalo sauce, from step 4.
Notes
- Don’t overcrowd the air fryer, this will prevent the jackfruit from cooking evenly. That means the jackfruit won’t be an even golden colour all over.
- We recommend Frank’s hot sauce, however any cayenne pepper hot sauce will also work.
- Storage – best eaten fresh. If you have leftovers they will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for two days. However, the longer the jackfruit wings are left out, or in the fridge, the more they will lose crispness. They can be reheated and crisped back up in an air fryer at 180°c.
- Gluten free – make a gluten free version by using GF all-purpose flour.
- Nutritional information is worked out for the air frying method, using an oil spray.
kevin
Just lovely.