The Fried Breadfruit Recipe is a delicious, nutritious snack or side dish idea.
You can serve these fries instead of Potato French Fries/ Chips with other meals.
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What is a breadfruit?
Breadfruit is a starchy round fruit, which is about 1–2 pounds (½ - 1 kg) heavy.
The breadfruit tastes rather plain and can be compared to the flavor of a potato, rather starchy.
The fruit acts like a sponge in a way and cake in flavors easily, and that's why I like to marinate it.
Breadfruit commonly grows in tropical climates and countries such as in South East Asia, India and on the Caribbean Islands including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and all the other smaller Islands.
How to prepare it?
To prepare, this fried breadfruit recipe is fairly easy.
Step 1 - cutting the fruit
Cut the tough peel off the breadfruit.
Most breadfruits are seedless. If you have breadfruit with seeds, take out the large brown chestnut sized seeds, which can be found at the ring around the center.
Cut the fruit into quarters and cut out the center part with the large pores as this is rather fibrous.
You can choose to cut your breadfruit into larger or smaller chip-sized pieces.
Don't cut too thin, nor too thick.
Step 2 - the marination
In a bowl mix the marination ingredients (details in the recipe card further below).
Mix the marination into the breadfruit pieces and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3 - frying the breadfruit
Heat up a pan with oil and fry your breadfruit on both sides golden brown and crisp.
Serve the cooked Fried Breadfruit with a dip such as Ketchup, Mayo or Sriracha Mayonnaise.
Where to get Breadfruits
Breadfruits can be bought in ethnic stores such as the Caribbean, Asian or African stores.
Breadfruit is closely related to Jackfruit, Soursop, and Custard apple.
If you get these fruits in your local store, you might be able to buy the breadfruit there as well.
If you have seen the breadfruit somewhere in the western world sold in a market or supermarket, please share the place and location with us in a comment further below.
Your help might assist others looking for the breadfruit.
Names around the world
The Breadfruit's botanical name is Artocarpus altilis.
In your corner of the world the breadfruit might be known under a different name, such as fruit a pain (French), Brotfrucht (German), Frutipan (Spanish), Fruta-pao (Portugues), Ulu (Hawai'i), Uru (Tahiti), Dhel (Sri Lanka), Buah Sukun (Malaysia) and Yaca (Mexico).
Our breadfruit tree when we planted it all new.
Breadfruit tree and varieties
A breadfruit tree grows a tremendous amount of fruits every season.
In South East Asia and India the trees are heavy with fruits and a breadfruit tree grows already fruits after 2–3 years.
That is why the humble breadfruit was added to the world food security program, since the trees require little space compared to wheat fields and one grown tree can give on average 100 fruits (!).
You get different breadfruit varieties, the seedless ones, and the breadfruits that come with large brown seeds in them.
The ones we grow and use in the pictures and video are seedless breadfruits. I have seen breadfruit with seeds in the Caribbeans.
The large seeds are not at the center of the fruit but around that center ring. Breadfruit seeds can be eaten as well.
You can boil them and eat them like jackfruit seeds. They taste like chestnuts and the seed water (from the boiling process) can be used as a tea.
Breadfruit vs. Jackfruit
Let's compare Breadfruit and Jackfruit.
By the way, the Breadfruit and Jackfruit are related, but the flesh and size are entirely different.
Jackfruit smell fruity sweet and they are more sticky.
That means you need to use oil on your knife and hands when you want to cut out the fruit flesh.
Breadfruits, on the other hand, are plain in flavor and the fruit flesh in one and appear more like a sponge.
Breadfruit is a bit sticky, so you can, but you don't have to, use some oil on your hands when handling the fruit.
I used to add oil to cut breadfruit int he past, but I stopped doing that and instead I just cut it quickly.
You can choose to use oil to help you cut the breadfruit if you feel your breadfruit variety is too sticky.
📖 Recipe
Pan-Fried Spiced Breadfruit Slices
Ingredients
- 1 Breadfruit about 2.2 pounds or 1 kg
For the marination
- 1 Teaspoon Turmeric Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper Ground
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Juice of ½ lime
For the frying
- ½ cup Oil fry batch wise, ¼ cup Oil first and then the rest
Instructions
- Peel the Breadfruit, then half and quarter it. Discard the fruit core. If you have a breadfruit variety with large chestnut sized seeds in the ring area, take out all the seeds too (most breadfruits are seedless and don't have that. The fruit will change color, that's alright.1 Breadfruit
- Cut the fruit into thicker slices. Not too thick and not too thin. Somewhere in between.1 Breadfruit
- Mix the marination ingredients together including the turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and lime juice.1 Teaspoon Turmeric Ground, 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper Ground, ½ Teaspoon Salt, ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground, Juice of ½ lime
- Pour the marination over the breadfruit in an extra large bowl and mix it all well together. No liquid residue will be left.
- Heat up some cooking oil in a pan and once hot add the marinated fruit slices. Fry on each side until golden brown. Use ¼ cup of oil to fry half of the batch. *see Notes½ cup Oil
- Serve with some salt sprinkled over it with a dipping sauce of your choice.
Notes
- You can choose to only fry ½ of the batch, which I do because it gets too much sometimes. I refrigerate the other half. That means half of the breadfruit slices are fried in ¼ cup of oil. If you fry all the breadfruit pieces, then use first ¼ cup of oil and add the other ¼ cup to the pan when you are halfway through frying everything.
In Toronto, I bought breadfruit at the NoFrills Supermarket, on Bathurst St. and Wilson Avenue.
Thanks for sharing Paul. 🙂
Beautiful color and I like the concept but it’s too spicy for my family even though I doubled the quantity of breadfruit with 1 Tbsp of Cayenne. I would suggest using less Cayenne.
Thanks for sharing Margaret! 🙂
Thanks for the interesting recipe! We live in Hawaii on 4 1/2 acres, very tropical here. We recently discovered 5 mature ulu trees along with large wild lillikoi vines (and lillikoi) growing in some. The breadfruit or “Ulu” is quite an amazing fruit! It is not nasty at all as your above poster says We are fairly new to living in Hawaii and have an abundance of ulu, so we are trying all sorts of recipes. My granddaughter ate my fried plain ulu strips last night, dipping in catsup , and although she is a picky eater, she thought they were tastier than french fries. Recently we steamed some ulu, mashed it up with spices & made ulu patties that were delicious! They eat ulu here in Hawaii in all sorts of ways! Even as a dessert. The tourists probably aren’t even aware of eating it in many cases. The BEST thing about ulu or breadfruit, is that it is a superfood! Ulu is loaded with antioxidants, carotenoids, fiber, iron, magnesium, niacin, omega 3 fatty acids, omega 6 fatty acids, calcium, copper, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C!!!!!!! And one tree can bear 100-200 fruits per year. That is why the World Health Organization declared that ulu or breadfruit may be the salvation to a world food shortage!
I agree, the breadfruit is an amazing fruit and food source! It can taste amazing too. Now, I'm intrigued by your breadfruit recipes. We were wondering if one can dry them if cut into thin chips. That way they could be preserved too. Just an idea.
Just made some. This stuff is so nasty tasting by itself I thought I can see why it has to be disguised with spices! Then it still had that underlying nasty taste. Won’t be making this again. Same category as cassava root for me.
In Haiti, we called it “Lam veritab” or just “lam.” We boil it, we fry it and make something called “tontonm” with it. Tontonm is similar to the African “Fufu”. Good stuff.
Ok that's cool info! What does lam veritab mean?
btw that's a fried breadfruit recipe too 🙂
Fish market at Artesia and Norwalk in Cerritos, California. USA has breadfruit and many other favorites from Caribbean and South Pacific.
thank you for sharing!
I was introduced to breadfruit by a coworker of mine from St Lucia who shared some with me that he had brought for lunch. I came across this page after deciding to take a crack at cooking some for myself.
I live in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, which is a predominantly West Indian neighborhood. They are readily available at West Indian grocery stores. If you have enough folks from the islands around you that they have their own grocery stores, they should have them there.
They really are a cool fruit that everybody should try. There isn’t anything to not like about them.
Thanks for posting this Helene
Hi, thanks for your comment. I totally agree there is nothing to not like about breadfruits, I hope the fruit will gain in popularity in time. So that it will be more available. 🙂
After reading about breadfruit for so many years, I just found some at a store called Fresh Farms, in the northern suburbs of Chicago, a store that carries many items from all over the world. I bought three, and tonight boiled one and buttered it. So now I know what it tastes like. I will try baking, roasting or frying the other two.
That is great news that you can buy breadfruit now in your nearest supermarket! I heard that it's mostly available in Ethnic grocery stores. I hadn't tried baking it yet, that sounds interesting too. Great idea!
Just got some fresh breadfruit at the Lake Worth market this weekend. There are a few trees growing locally out in the Loxahatchee area and one of the farmers is always bringing in fresh stuff from his neighbors. He also had jackfruit. South Florida is not quite tropical, but it has not frozen down here in nearly 30 years.
The guy selling it suggested letting it sit and get really ripe, then cooking it in a pan with raisins and a bit of brown sugar or honey to make a sweet bread pudding. Looking forward to experimenting this week.
I have friends in Florida who get breadfruit and jackfruits regularly. In that sense we have something in common. 🙂
Well, let us know here what you ended up making and how it tasted. We are always eager to learn something new!
Oops..in Connecticut ,I should have added..
Good to know! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, much appreciated. I am sure it will be helpful to somebody. 🙂
Bread Fruit can be purchased at C Town on Boston Ave on the Stratford/Bridgeport line
I am from Puerto Rico, and there it is known as Pana. It's my favorite food to eat when I visit. My Sister has a gigantic Pana tree in her "parcela." Every property there has one or more trees. I can't get enough of this healthy, delicious fruit. We eat it mostly boiled with Codfish or Pollock either in a salad with avocado or sautéed in sauce, but some people will only eat it fried. Thank You for giving me other ideas.
Hi Carmen,
Thank you for your lovely comment.
Breadfruit is one of those basic foods, which should be gaining popularity in the coming years all over the world. I think it's not getting enough credit yet. I never tried to boil bread fruit however how you describe it, it just sounds heavenly tempting. 🙂
In Goa breadfruit is known as pannas. I think Pana and Panna and all it's other similar name variations must come from the spanish/portugues, from the word bread. I suspect it, because bread in french in pain and in the french Caribbeans we called it fruit de pain aka bread fruit.
I am going to check out what a parcela is. 🙂 Thank you for your lovely comment!
I've had breadfruit in Jamaica but I've not seen it here in Australia. It might be available up in the tropical top end but it's sub-tropical here and no breadfruit.
This sounds yummy.
Awesome, I want to eat it.... 🙂
I have never tasted breadfruit, so thank you for all the explanations. If I ever see it here I'll know how to cook it. This dish sounds and looks fantastic!
Delicious...
Breadfruit is known as "Kulu" in my area in the Philippines. We cook it in various ways and every recipe is very good. And now your recipe, is also very good.
Hello there Helene. Thanks for you recipe. Im going to try it. I have eaten this fruit many times 50/60 years ago. My mother used to cook it. We had a giant tree in the back yard. I am amazed to read that this fruit is rare in Goa. Looks everyone has a tree in their garden abd the markets are full os stalls selling them. I came scross a branch of a tree that fell off nearly hitting a parked car and picked up one fruit. There are tens of them but nobody cares. As I do not know what to do with it I went to google and found your site. I may post ba k the result of my cooking (I plsn to modify the spices). Thanks.
Well, now that's a dish we prepare every now and then at our home. It especially serves as an evening snack. There are many interesting south Indian recipes that include cooking breadfruit with coconut.
Hello Anuradha. I am super curious now to learn the south Indian breadfruit recipes with the coconut addition. Our tree has already 3 fruits this year although he is still very young and small so I can't wait to cook our home grown fruits. =)
I am so sure Uru you would come across some great using ideas for the fruit. =)
no u r right u dont get it in europe, maybe only france, but I am not sure either. thank you dear!
I think so you will like it. If you are not that fond of spicy food, then just reduce the spice amounts to half for the start, then you can experiment with the amounts better.
You had us at breadfruit. As children of the tropical Caribbeanisland of Jamaica, we were delighted to see you write about it! So nice to meet you and we will definitely keep coming back for more of your treats!
Hi there! Yes its nice to meet new people through food likings and then too the breadfruit! =) see ya around! 😉
Breadfruit is one of my most beloved foods in Jamaica. I love it roasted then fried and its wonderful in a chicken or beef soup! It is perfect served with Ackee & Saltfish (Jamaica's National Dish). Thank you for sharing how its prepared in Goa. 🙂
lol thats a statue that broke some months back. The staff had thrown it out, some mysterious person brings them into our garden, and there they are. one doll here, one head there... ^.^ I love using them as props. 😉
Woo hoo! Totally new way for me to have breadfruit! They're kind of boring here. It's really only ever boiled or fried and seasoned with salt and pepper. I'm totally trying this!
I dont think so salt and pepper does it with the breadfruit. We dont just eat plain potatoes with salt and pepper either right? I think so we should treat it more like a universal food, that soaks in well other flavors. I mean, vegetarians should consider it especially! Once everyone realizes the use and value of breadfruit it will turn into an essential staple food for the future generations. Imagine how else you could prepare it! =D
Let me know how u liked it! 😉
This does look similar to the jackfruit. We were able to find some canned jackfruit at the market. I wonder if they carry breadfruit too. I'm sure it's not as good as the fresh variety, but I doubt I'll be getting to travel to the islands anytime soon. 😉
yeah for sure if there is no fresh fruit around, I d buy the canned version as well, just to savor it. =) They might just sell it somewhere around, I think so I have seen once canned breadfruit in europe.
I am still not sure on the breadfruit and like you have mentioned, looks similar to jackfruit. I live in an Asian country and I have not seen the fruit. However, I like what you did with the fruit because masala and chili are a must for our food. Simple recipe but so lovely.
masala and chilli is an Indian signature. ^.^ Thats the way the breadfruit is prepared in Goa. I am surely going to try more flavor ideas one of these days. The fruit is so versatile! You can make out the difference between jackfruit and breadfruit, if you take a look at the tree. a Jackfruit tree has round leaves and a breadfruit tree has those poky style ones, as you can see in the pictures above.
Thanks Minnie!
I d love to join, but I am all busy with work and I am already behind... maybe another time Minnie!