Chicken fried chicken of the woods mushrooms are one of the best things I've ever made with a wild mushroom. This is my original chicken fried chicken of the woods recipe, back from before I even ran my own restaurant.
One week we got a big delivery of chicken of the woods or sulfphur shelf mushrooms at the restaurant I was cooking at. I grabbed them all to make a vegetarian mushroom entree: golden brown and chicken fried.
You can chicken fry just about anything
It's probably nothing new to most people, but your classic chicken fried steak is typically not made with chicken, but beef. The recipe is a Southern thing, and some serious stick-to-your-ribs kind of food when served with the requisite red eye gravy, a sort of pan sauce that can include everything from smoked pork to coffee.
For the tasting menu dish these were originally destined for, I served them with a little pan sauce garnished with some chive flowers, and wilted greens on the side.
For the purposes of this post, I think it's easier to just illustrate a simple method you can use to bread the mushrooms, and let you take the dish from there.
A perfect mushroom substitute for chicken
Since chicken of the woods definitely have a texture when cooked similar to chicken, they're a shoe-in substitute for meat. You can saute them naked in a pan, especially if they're young, but make sure to keep a bit of wine or stock nearby in case the pan dries out.
The genius of chicken frying is that encasing the mushrooms in a little breading lets the mushrooms steam, keeping them moist and juicy while the outside gets crisp and delicious.
At its heart, this is just a simple recipe for breading chicken of the woods--switch the accompaniments up however you like depending on what's in season.
Blanching Chicken of the woods to pre cook them
The mushrooms illustrated in this post were from the tender young growth of a white-pored chicken of the woods.
Those needed no pre-cooking to be succulent and juicy, but depending on the age (and species) of your chicken mushroom, you may want to blanch them and dry before breading and cooking.
Breading vs Batter vs Flour-egg-crumb
The chicken of the woods here are breaded by dipping into flour-egg-flour here. It might not seem that important, but part of what makes this so addictive is the crust, as well as your mushroom being in a good stage for eating in a thick slice.
Using flour, egg and breadcrumbs can make things overly heavy, soggy, and oily. Sometimes it's nice, and I want that rock hard breadcrumb crust, sometimes I don't, and here, I don't.
By the same token using batter requires more oil, and can get messy with drips. The big takeaway here, is that the flour-egg-flour breading is a good trick to know, and it will work with more mushrooms than just good old sulphur shelves. Here's a few examples
- Whole mushroom caps, as with meadow mushrooms or shaggy parasols
- Chunks of hen of the woods
- Ischnoderma resinosum chunks
- Thick slices of puffballs pressed down with your hand to compress them
- Slices of Hericium errinaceous and Americanum
Variations
This recipe is fantastic as it is, but once you try it, you might be wondering if you can use it to make other things. You can, and it's great. Here's a few that would be good:
Picatta
Make a quick pan sauce with white wine and chicken stock, finish with parsley and capers.
Parmigiana
After breading, put a slice of fresh mozzarella on top, then tomato sauce, then parmesan. Bake at 450-475F or broil just until the cheese is golden and the mushrooms are hot throughout.
Buffalo Style
Gently toss the breaded mushrooms in Franks Red Hot that you've warmed and whisked with a knob of butter in a small saucepan. Eat it on a bed of fresh greens with blue cheese sauce on the side.
Chicken Fried Chicken of the Woods
Equipment
- Heavy saute of frying pan, like cast iron
Ingredients
- 4 2 oz pieces of young chicken of the woods, the size of a small fist. Just imagine it's chicken
- All purpose flour, as needed for breading, roughly 1 cup
- kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 1 generous pinch sweet paprika
- 1 tiny pinch cayenne pepper
- 3 eggs for breading
- 6 Tbsp Clarified butter or ghee, for cooking or substitute a combination of cooking oil and unsalted butter
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme optional
- Small clove of garlic crushed lightly with the back of a knife optional
- Lemon wedges for serving
Instructions
- Take your pieces of chicken mushrooms and trim off the tough part where the stem starts to attach to the tree. Wash and dry the mushrooms well, which will help seasonings adhere.
- Season the flour with a good pinch of salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne to taste (go easy on the cayenne). Toss the mushrooms first in flour, then in egg, then in flour again.*
- Heat a pan with ¼ cup cooking oil, as well as 2 tablespoon unsalted butter. Add your breaded chicken mushrooms, the crushed clove of garlic, and the thyme.
- Cook the chicken of the woods until they are golden brown on each side, about 4-5 minutes, adding extra oil if the pan gets dry, then blot the mushrooms on a paper towel quickly to weep excess oil, sprinkle with a little salt to finish and serve immediately.
Scott Shapiro
I just cooked my first ever find of Chicken of the Woods, and they were very easy and tasted even more amazing than I thought they would!! After the first turn of the "chickens, I added some olive oil rather than more butter, and they sizzled right up. Super crispy, light mushroom taste, but definitely a mouthful of taste. I then decided to use the rest of my flour and egg batter on some hen of the woods strips I had in the fridge. They came out like fried clams! What!? Love this, and will be back here many times after I find more wild mushrooms!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Scott. Glad it worked for you.
Keith
Do you have any special concoctions for how you make red-eye gravy?
Alan Bergo
I usually use a pinch of finely diced shallots browned in butter, add a pinch of flour, then add pork or chicken stock and about 20% strong coffee or a few ounces, roughly the size of a small tea cup. Cracked black pepper and fresh chopped thyme, chives or similar are nice to finish.
Sarah Bishop
So glad we found this recipe! We found some young tender White Chicken of the Woods today and made the most delicious fried mushrooms for dinner tonight. We only had one egg on hand, but substituted with milk and it was divine. The side salad with a squeeze of lemon suggestion was also perfection!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Sarah, glad you could find a workaround there.
Caroline Hemenway
Just tried this with what I thought were young and tender chicken ‘rooms but they came out SO dry! They were in the fridge three days before I could get to them and they seemed to still have their oomph. You note that blanching will allow breading to stick, but I had no problem with that. The breading was crisp and yummy so that was a win. Would blanching “rehydrate” them back their old youthful selves? Or should I use them another way instead? BTW I live just north of Atlanta GA.
Also: Do you have a recipe for “older” chicken versions that, to me, smelled delicious and felt tender but may not be - so a recipe for “just in case they aren’t babies any more?”
Also, what is the name of your book? I am foraging much more these days and good guides and recipes are treasures.
Alan Bergo
If your chicken of the woods was dry, you picked it too late. This is pretty common with this mushroom. You can try steaming them next time and that could help, but the best thing to do will be to harvest a mushroom that's at a good stage for eating. Old chicken of the woods are tough and unpleasant.
Christopher O
How can you tell how old or young they are?
Alan Bergo
Older mushrooms will feel dry and tough, may have visible spores, and will have well developed, thinner "leaves". On older mushrooms only the tender edges can be used. Younger mushrooms are more tender and are what you'll want to use here.
Dhyana W
I've used this recipe twice, and it is fantastic! I made it for my family when I was visiting them in New Hampshire last month and happened upon some COW while out hiking (okay, mushroom hunting), and they all loved it too. The only problem I have is that the coating gets overdone, kinda burnt tasting, but I think that's just cause I have only cooked it on stoves that I am not used to. I know it's not an recipe-related problem, it's operator error.
Alan Bergo
Another one of my favorites. You've been working over the greatest hits here 🙂
Dejan jovanovic
Last few years I hunt at least 5 kg every spring on wild cherry in front of my mountain cottage. I tried tons of recipes and find that flour(00+rice flour mix)-egg- crumbs is the best ! Not heavy at all!! I cut the chicken in small-finger size and drop with a few soya sauce ovenight before. Serve it warm with tzatziki sauce. Even 1,5 years child enjoys in the meal!
Ruth Perelstein
I got so excited. I should have read your recipe more thoroughly I would’ve done better. I did bread them and cook them but didn’t slice them in the right direction. They were very dry. Blanching them would have done the trick.
Hope I encounter them again some day.
Alan Bergo
Yes so the tricky thing with mushrooms is that due to age their water content can be highly variable. You can only use very tender chickens for this. They’re often deceiving in the wild and appear younger than they are, or our brains want them to be.
Fayston Forager
So delicious! Thanks for sharing these recipes. I fried in bacon fat and used a mixture of rice milk and chia meal instead of egg. I had a homemade Cajun spice blend I mixed with the flour. And, of course, perfectly delectable, fresh-harvested chicken-of-the-wood mushroom from my neighbor’s cherry tree. I’d post pics if possible.
Thank you, thank you!!
Alan Bergo
I support the use of bacon fat.
Melanie
MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RECIPE !!
THANK YOU SO MUCH !!
I JUST FOUND A HUGE CLUSTER ON MY WAY HOME !
COOKING THEM NOW !! 😋
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Melanie.
Nancy Oviatt
I see you’ve had LOTS of raves about this dish but had to add one more. This is my first sulfur shelf, it was young, tender and no bugs! We tried a bit yesterday to make sure we were good with it and today we had the chicken fried with a side of beets and their greens. We gobbled it all and I can’t thank you enough for providing such accessible dishes and ideas for the midwestern forager ( I’m in the Keweenaw area of upper Michigan.) Also have your book and cook from it a lot.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Nancy.
Melanie Goforth
This has become my favorite way to prepare my chickens !
I recently found what I thought was a nice specimen , but it turned out to be waterlogged and a bit sour .
I found a young one today , 3 actually !, That looks good but taste will tell !
Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe ! I share it with everyone ! 😊
Alan Bergo
Glad it works for you!
Katie
Amazing! Did this with panko breadcrumbs.
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you. I'd make sure to try the flour-egg-flour sometime too when you have a chance!