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By shredding king oyster mushrooms, seasoning with spices, and baking, you can create a vegan mushroom pulled pork that rivals the real stuff! This foolproof vegan pork has been devoured in kitchens all over the world (and our step-by-step photos will walk you through how to make it perfectly every time).
save this recipe!This is one of the most popular recipes on Live Eat Learn. And for good reason! This pulled mushrooms recipe is:
- Stupid easy, just shred, bake and saute.
- Meat-eater approved, just check the comments!
- A fun new technique to add to your vegetarian dinner recipe arsenal.
And the thing is, I didn’t even like mushrooms when I first created this recipe back in 2018. But this recipe changed it all for me. Now, mushrooms are one of my favorite ingredients to cook with, and we have hundreds of mushroom recipes on the site.
Ready to try out your new favorite vegetarian meat substitute? Let’s cook!
Reader rating
“Invited my meat eater friends over for pulled pork sliders…after a couple of servings someone asked “I thought you didn’t eat meat?” I responded…I don’t but I eat mushrooms!!!” —Diane
You just need a few ingredients
This is just an overview! Jump to the recipe card for full measurements and instructions.
- King Oyster Mushrooms: The thick stem shreds into perfectly “pulled pork” pieces. Find king oyster mushrooms in almost any or Asian supermarket and some health food stores. You can substitute the smaller version of these mushrooms–oyster mushrooms–if needed (about 3 heaping cups worth).
- Spices: The spices can be adapted to what you like, but we tend to use smoked paprika (for that roasted flavor), salt, and a bit of cayenne.
- BBQ Sauce: It’s not a pulled pork alternative without the best barbecue sauce! We love Sweet Baby Ray’s around here (it’s a vegan BBQ sauce we always keep stocked), but any sauce will do.
Reader rating
“Absolutely incredible and genius!!! You would never know you were eating mushrooms or anything other than pulled pork or chicken!!” —Erin
Serving
What’s BBQ without the condiments you serve it with? We paired this BBQ pulled mushroom with coleslaw on burger buns, but it’s also delicious on vegan nachos, in mushroom carnitas tacos, or even as a filling for vegan bao buns.
Next-Level BBQ Pulled Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 4 king oyster mushrooms*
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 30 mL, divided
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup BBQ sauce, 60 g
Instructions
- Shred Mushrooms: Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Clean 4 king oyster mushrooms* with a damp paper towel. Using two forks, shred the stems and caps roughly into pieces. Set on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake: Drizzle with half of the oil, 1 tsp smoked paprika, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, and 2 cloves garlic (minced). Toss around to evenly coat the mushrooms, then bake for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are a bit crispy and brown on the edges.
- Sauté: Heat remaining oil in a large saute pan over medium/high. Transfer cooked mushrooms to pan and add ¼ cup BBQ sauce. Stir and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until mixture is thick and fragrant. Serve warm on sandwiches, nachos, salads, tacos…or whenever you eat pulled pork! (Our favorite way? On a soft bun with sliced red onion and shredded cabbage!)
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!More ways to use oyster mushrooms
Now that you’ve fallen in love with oyster mushrooms, here are a few of our favorite oyster mushroom recipes to inspire your vegetarian cooking!
- Vegetarian Philly Cheesesteak made with flavorful oyster mushrooms? Yes please (this went viral on Tastemade!)
- Buttermilk Fried “Chicken” isn’t chicken…and it’s not even fried. Battered oyster mushrooms cooked in the air fryer!
- Pulled Mushroom Tacos seasoned with TexMax flavors and loaded with toppings.
I just finished making these! They were DELISH! I reduced the sodium and found a lower sodium BBQ sauce.
Also, my grocer did not have the king mushrooms so I had little ones. They shredded up perfectly! I wish I had MORE. They were $4.50 for about 1 1/2C pre-baking.
When you bake they sizzle and shrink down a lot. Oh, I also used a total of 1T of EVOO. The paprika and cayenne were awesome.
Thanks for this deeeelish dish. I will be making these again and refining to reduce oils and salts to help get/keep blood pressure in check.
I made vegan mashed potatoes 1:2 ratio of red and russet with skins on.
Chopped carrots and celery.
Overall this dinner ROCKED!! I will be posting and linking at my blog.
Yay, so happy to hear Sarita!! The king oysters will shrink down less than the smaller guys (you might have better luck finding them at an Asian supermarket), though it seems like yours turned out great anyways!
Also, you could try spraying on oil to evenly coat the mushrooms, which could reduce the total oil you need. Happy cooking!!
Wow, what a great recipe. I’ll tag you on Pinterest. I made it today and OMG. I added shitake shrooms to the oyster shrooms to give it that gristle crunch that pork has. Really, really good. Thanks a bunch for the inspo.
Thanks so much, Maxine!! Love the shitake mushroom idea, I’ll have to give it a try next time I make this! 😀
Love this. I kept the barbecue sauce off as I am not a big fan of it. But it was beyond delicious without it and I use it on my tostadas. Tomorrow, I am going to mix in chopped onions and make enchiladas with it.
It is also similar to shredded chicken. I love this recipe. It is a definite keeper.
I am sure it will taste awesome with chili verde sauce.
Yum, so great ideas Jennifer! I’ll have to try it in some Mexican food, that sounds amazing 😀
OMG wow! This is absolutely perfect. I’m very omnivore, love food in general. Made this but turned into mushroom pork carnitas for tacos. My wife is veggie and my son thinks he’s going vegan so as the cook for most of our dinners, I’m searching for new tastes and things to replace a lot of the premade veggie meats on the market.
This is very very near pulled pork. I’m in love! Thank you!
Yay, so happy you all liked it, Paul!! The carnitas sounds amazing 😀
I’m not even vegetarian – aspiring, perhaps. I got a king oyster mushroom kit off of Amazon, and was looking for recipes for them. So far the kit is awesome, like this recipe. The husband is away for the night and I was trying this out to see if it was tasty enough to cook for dinner for his decidedly non-vegetarian self. Yep! I really like it, although I was a little heavy handed with the cayenne, my fault, not the recipe’s. When I got it in the pan, I didn’t use any additional oil, just the bbq sauce, which will give some additional caramelization if you cook on a high heat. I really liked it, thank you a lot. I might raised that oven temp a little bit when I try it again.
Yay! So happy to hear Paula!! 😀 I’ve been dying to try out one of those mushroom kits (and probably should soon given how often we eat this recipe, lol).
Can these be cooked in a pan without an oven? As in, can I fry them instead?
Ooh good question! I somehow haven’t tried this yet, but I’ll give it a go next time. The oven dries them out a bit, which is important for the texture and might not be quite the same if using a pan on the stove. I would probably use very high heat if doing this on the stove to char them a bit. Would love to hear how it goes if you try it!
Had this tonight and it was fantastic. Will definitely make it again.
Yay, so happy to hear Connie!! 😀
Thank you for this recipe and especially the note about using regular oyster mushrooms. I made “pulled pork” for 2 friends today, and they both enjoyed the food!
So happy to hear, Dawn! 😀
Shredded, seasoned with a coffee rub i used to make back in the day, put on the grill. O. M. Gosh. The smokey flavor!!! I’d reconstituted some tvp and didn’t want to mix it and mess up the flavor. Still turned out great. I guess the smoke flavor overpowered the tvp mini flavor. LOL
YUM! I’ll have to try this with a coffee rub, sounds amazing! 😀
Thank you for sharing this! What sauce did you pair with the ‘pulled pork’ on the sandwich bun in your video?
I mixed a bit of mayonnaise in with the BBQ sauce (about 1:1 ratio) 😀 Enjoy!