Here’s a recipe that uses a not so popular and uncommon fruit in its raw form, the breadfruit. A member of the jackfruit and mulberry family, breadfruits are commonly used in the South Pacific region. However, in India too, this unripe fruit is used to make a variety of dishes in many regional Indian cuisines like Goan and South Indian. This post is about the recipe of a simple, easy to make and tasty Fried Breadfruit (or Breadfruit Fry) that makes for a delicious accompaniment in any Indian meal.
About Fried Breadfruit
Although you might not find the use of the breadfruit that often in Indian households, but whatever dishes are there with this unique fruit, are also lovely and yummy.
This Fried Breadfruit is one of the easiest and simplest ways you can use this tropical fruit to make a scrumptious snack or side dish.
Before I share more details about this Fried Breadfruit recipe, here’s a little more about this fruit in general. The outer appearance of a breadfruit closely resembles a jackfruit, but the size, texture and taste are different than that of its counterpart.
In addition to the breadfruit, other ingredients that go in the making of this dish are turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chili powder (or sub with sweet paprika), asafoetida/ hing (can be skipped), salt, semolina flour or cream of wheat (rava or suji) and oil for frying the breadfruit slices.
I only make 2 recipes with breadfruit. One is this Breadfruit Fry and the other is a typical South Indian style breadfruit stir-fry. Breadfruit is not easily available where I live. So, the first time my mother had got this fruit from Kerala, that was the time I tried this recipe as well.
About My Recipe
These fries are made with an unripe breadfruit. An unripe breadfruit will have a green colored skin and will be firm from inside. A semi-ripe breadfruit will also do. But do not use a ripe breadfruit as it will have a soft flesh and a sweet taste.
This Fried Breadfruit recipe is just like any other veggie fry recipe with just 3 main steps involved. You begin by cleaning and chopping the unripe breadfruit into medium thick slices.
Then, marinate the slices in a mixture of the ground spices and salt. Finally, dredging the marinated slices in rava or suji and shallow-frying in minimal oil. This results in beautifully golden and crispy fries.
Like I mentioned above, the rava or suji is essentially used to coat the marinated breadfruit slices before frying. So, in place of rava, you can also use rice flour or gram flour (besan) or chickpea flour or all-purpose flour for the same purpose.
As I was growing up, I saw my mother make this recipe on occasions. This is a much-loved side dish at our place. When living in Goa, I would get breadfruit easily.
In fact, there would be breadfruit trees growing wildly in Goa, from which you could easily pluck the fruit and use it to make dishes.
I love to serve and relish this Fried Breadfruit with a flavorful dal-rice combination for a comforting meal. You can even snack on it, just as it is.
I usually pan fry the unripe breadfruit, but you can also shallow fry or deep fry, if you want. This recipe can be easily halved or doubled.
How to make Fried Breadfruit
Prep Breadfruit
1. Rinse 1 unripe breadfruit very well in water and dry with a kitchen towel. Spread a bit of oil on your hands as the hands become sticky when peeling and chopping breadfruit.
2. Carefully, remove the outer peel with a knife or a peeler. Rinse again, if you want.
3. Now, slice the breadfruit vertically in 2 halves.
4. Further slice each halve in 2 halves. So, you will get 4 breadfruit slices now.
5. With a knife, remove the top spongy part. This is the core portion of the breadfruit. So, you need to slice it off completely.
6. Then, chop each slice in 3 to 4 mm thick pieces. You will need 2 cups of breadfruit slices.
Do not make thick slices as then they take a long time to fry. For thick slices, it’s better to deep fry.
Marinate Breadfruit
7. Take the breadfruit slices in a mixing bowl. Add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder or sweet paprika, 1 pinch asafoetida (optional), 1 teaspoon salt or as per taste.
If using regular red chili powder or cayenne pepper, then you can add ½ teaspoon of it or if you want a spicy taste then add 1 teaspoon.
If you want, you can drizzle some lemon juice also.
8. Mix very well. Let the marinated breadfruit slices sit for about 5 minutes.
Dredge Breadfruit Slices
9. Take 3 to 4 tablespoons semolina flour or rava/suji on a small plate. Take each breadfruit slice and place it on the rava.
Rice flour or gram flour or all-purpose flour can be used, instead of rava. On occasions I even use rice flour.
10. Dredge the breadfruit slice with the semolina flour or rava. Shake of the excess rava on the plate.
11. Dredge each breadfruit slice with rava this way and keep all the slices ready before you begin to fry.
Make Fried Breadfruit
12. Fry in batches. First, add 2 tablespoons oil in a tawa/skillet or frying pan. Then, place the breadfruit slices in the oil. Fry on medium heat.
13. Let one side become crisp and golden. Then, turn over and fry the second side till it becomes crispy and golden. You can flip a couple of times more, for even frying.
14. Fry the breadfruit well turning over as needed.
15. Remove the fried breadfruit slices and place on kitchen paper towels. Continue with the second batch and add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil before frying.
16. Serve Fried Breadfruit hot or warm as a side dish with your everyday meals. You can garnish with few coriander leaves, if you want.
Expert Tips
- Make sure you grease your palms/hands with some oil, before peeling and chopping the breadfruit. It can be a sticky process otherwise.
- It is best to chop the breadfruit into medium thick slices as they fry easily. In case, you want to slice the breadfruit thickly, then deep-fry rather than pan or shallow-frying.
- You can skip adding the asafoetida (hing) in this recipe.
- If you want spicier fries, then use regular red chili powder instead of Kashmiri red chilli powder. Adjust the quantity of the chili powder as per your preferences.
- You can also add some lemon juice while marinating the breadfruit slices. Imparts a nice tang to the dish.
- For dredging, you can even use gram flour or rice flour or all-purpose flour instead of rava or suji.
- This Fried Breadfruit can be made by pan-frying, shallow-frying or even deep-frying.
- You can easily halve or scale this recipe of Fried Breadfruit to suit your requirements.
Breadfruit Names in some Indian Languages
Breadfruit has many other regional names in different Indian languages. For example, it is called as
- ‘bakri chajhar’ in Hindi
- ‘neer phanas’ in Marathi
- ‘jeev kadgi’ in Konkani‘
- ‘kadachakka or cheema chaaka’ in Malayalam
- ‘seema panasa’ in Telugu
- ‘jeegujje or deevi halasu’ in Kannada language.
Thus, this recipe of Fried Breadfruit can also be referred to as Kadachakka Fry in Malayalam Language.
More Vegetable Fries Recipes To Try!
Brinjal Recipes
South Indian Food Recipes
Bengali Recipes
Vegetable Recipes
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Fried Breadfruit Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups breadfruit – unripe and sliced (kadachakka or bakri chajhar or neer phanas)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder (ground turmeric)
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri Chilli Powder or sweet paprika or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or red chilli powder
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing), optional
- 1 teaspoon salt or add as required
- 3 to 4 tablespoons rava (semolina flour or cream of wheat) or rice flour or gram flour or all-purpose flour
- 3 to 4 tablespoons oil or add as required
Instructions
Chopping breadfruit
- Rinse the unripe breadfruit very well in water and then dry with a kitchen towel. Spread a bit of oil on your hands as the hands become sticky when peeling and chopping breadfruit.
- Then carefully remove the outer peel with a knife or a peeler. Rinse again if you want.
- Now slice the breadfruit vertically in two halves. Further slice each halve in two halves. So you will get four breadfruit slices now.
- With the knife remove the top spongy part. This is the core portion of the breadfruit. So you need to slice it off completely.
- Then chop each slice in 3 to 4 mm thickness pieces. You will need 2 cups breadfruit slices. Do not make thick slices as then they take a long time to fry. For thick slices it’s better to deep fry.
Making Fried Breadfruit
- Now take the breadfruit slices in a mixing bowl.
- Add turmeric powder, kashmiri chilli powder or sweet paprika and asafoetida (optional).
- Also add 1 teaspoon salt or add as per taste.
- Mix very well. Let the marinated breadfruit slices sit for about 5 minutes.
- Take 3 to 4 tablespoons rava or semolina flour in a small plate.
- Take each breadfruit slice and place it on the rava/suji/semolina flour.
- Dredge the breadfruit slice with rava. Shake of the excess rava on the plate.
- Dredge each slice with rava this way and keep all the slices ready before you begin to fry.
Frying breadfruit
- Fry in batches. First add 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet/tawa or frying pan. Then place the breadfruit slices in the oil. Fry on medium heat.
- Let one side become crisp and golden. Then turn over and fry the second side till it becomes crisp and golden. You can flip a couple of times more for even frying.
- Fry the breadfruit well.
- Remove the fried breadfruit slices and place them on kitchen paper towels. Then continue with the second batch and add 1 to 2 tablespoon oil before frying.
- Serve Fried Breadfruit hot or warm as a side dish with your meals. You can garnish with few coriander leaves (cilantro) if you prefer.
Notes
- If using regular red chili powder or cayenne pepper, then you can add ½ teaspoon of it or if you want a spicy taste then add 1 teaspoon. Red chili powder can be added less or more as per your requirements.
- Rice flour or chickpea flour or gram flour or all-purpose flour can be used instead of rava. On occasions I even use rice flour.
- You can also add a bit of lemon juice for a tangy taste.
- You can even shallow fry or deep fry if you want.
- This breadfruit fry recipe can be halved or doubled or tripled.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Fried Breadfruit recipe from the archives, originally published in May 2018 has been updated and republished on February 2023.
