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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Chicken of the Woods Wild Rice Casserole

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Wild rice casserole with wild mushrooms recipe It’s getting colder outside, and I’m starting to crave that cold weather food. Stews and braises have happened already happened, but one thing that’s been gnawing at me was a good, solid casserole.

Coming from the Midwest, I have casserole in my blood, and there’s nothing like the classic chicken wild rice casserole laced with chicken of the woods (or another meaty mushroom). I made sure to freeze some extra tender chickens just to make it this year.

Growing up I didn’t eat tons of hot dishes and casseroles. There were a few, and but none that really stick out besides green bean thing with Campbell’s mushroom soup topped with a can of French’s onion strings, and even that I only saw at a reunion here and there. I never cared for that stuff, or the sweet potato marshmallow thing, or the Mayo-fruit salad thing either, for the record. 
Poaching chicken thighs for chicken wild rice casserole
Poaching chicken thighs to make the stock for cooking the rice is an extra step that adds great depth.
green garlic
Green garlic makes a nice addition if you have some, but leeks, shallots, or a combination are just fine too.
It took making casseroles by myself for me to truly appreciate what they can be. There’s as many variations of casserole as there are stars in the sky, but few of them can hold a candle to a solid chicken and wild rice casserole, especially with chicken of the woods or your favorite wild mushroom tossed in.
Wild rice casserole with chicken of the woods mushrooms recipe

The home version includes a crust of breadcrumbs and sunflower seeds.

 
There’s just something about how the bechamel mixes with the wild rice, whatever meat I can find and a scattering of bread crumbs, transforming it into something so binge worthy I’ve been known to eat it for multiple meals out of the day.
Casseroles work hard too, and are good to keep in rotation for when you’re craving some couch-lock, need portable food for a crowd, feel like stress eating or want to not worry about making a new dinner for a day or two.

Wild Wild Rice / Lake Rice 

Parched wild rice

Wild wild rice. The real deal from the White Earth band of Ojibwe. Note the light color and how it isn’t shiny and black like paddy rice.

There’s a lot of chicken wild rice and mushroom casseroles. Like all good food, the best will only be as good as their ingredients, but there’s one ingredient in particular that often gets overlooked, and it’s a big one. 
 
Specifically wild rice, but not just any rice—the good stuff. I’m talking about real wild rice, wild rice that’s been toasted over a wood fire–not the commodity black paddy rice that’s no longer wild. For purchasing purposes, wild wild rice is usually sold as “lake rice”, where black paddy rice is jet black, and labeled as farmed or cultivated. 
Chicken of the woods mushrooms or Laetiporus sulphureus

This is a great chicken of the woods recipe. In a perfect world you want tender nubbins like these.

 
I’m unashamedly a real wild rice snob. If you’re not familiar with the two, there’s a huge difference between commodity paddy rice, and wild, wild rice, not the least of which is the flavor. The flavor of the lake rice is mild and nutty—I used to catch line cooks drinking the cooking water left in the pot.
 
Black paddy rice, although technically the same plant, has a strong flavor that I think can border on musty due to a difference in how the rice is processed. That being said, if you put a bowl of chicken wild rice soup in front of me with made with the commodity wild rice, im still going to crush it, but I’d be doing everyone a disservice if I didn’t call out the differences here.
 
I could go on and on about other differences between parched and commodity rice, since they’re many, but that’s a long piece, for a different post. If you like wild rice, buy parched wild rice. Sam Thayers is some of the best, but I often buy from White Earth and KCs best too.
 
Wild rice casserole with chicken of the woods mushrooms recipe

This is a meal I can eat regularly. Just add a side of greens.

The chicken of the woods-wild rice casserole itself is a common template, just with cooked chicken of the woods or your favorite wild mushroom in it.
 
You make a white sauce with chicken stock, toss it with cooked parched wild rice, cooked chicken of the woods, leftover chicken (presumably from making the stock) fresh thyme, a little sour cream and sautéed onions, then you pack it into a baking dish, dust with breadcrumbs and bake until it’s bubbly, browned, and people start hanging around the kitchen like a pack of hungry Minnesota coyotes.
 
Wild Rice Chicken of the Woods Casserole with Fried Shallots (10)

Restaurant version: fried shallots instead of breadcrumbs

I love a good breadcrumb crust, but I couldn’t resist sharing a great variation I used to use for serving things like this at restaurant prices. Labeling a dish casserole on the menu was never my thing, so I’d hide behind words like gratin and tian—French dishes that basically mean the same thing.
Wild rice casserole with chicken of the woods mushrooms recipe
 
Topping the finished dish with crispy-fried shallots is an indulgent break from breadcrumbs, and if you want to make a statement, I definitely suggest trying it sometime. 

Can you make this vegetarian? 

Yes, just double the amount of mushrooms, omit the chicken, and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. 

Substituting other mushrooms for chicken of the woods 

Of course you can use other mushrooms, but I really like the big meaty polypores here. Hen of the woods, or Ischnoderma resinosum would be my other top choices for wild mushroom substitutes, if I had to choose. 

Wild rice casserole with wild mushrooms recipe
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Wild Rice, Chicken of the Woods, and Chicken Casserole (Easy Home Version)

A simple casserole made with chicken of the woods mushrooms, real wild rice, and chicken.
Prep Time45 mins
Cook Time25 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Casserole, Chicken of the woods
Servings: 6

Ingredients

Crust

  • ½ cup breadcrumbs or panko lightly toasted
  • 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds lightly toasted
  • Small handful of chopped parsley or similar optional

Wild Rice Casserole

  • 2 cups of leftover chicken
  • 8 ounces young, tender chicken of the woods mushrooms cut into 1 inch pieces, as you would chicken meat
  • 2 cups chicken stock or equivalent like mushroom stock
  • ¾ cup Chopped onion (1 medium-small onion) (green garlic makes a good substitute, and is what I actually used here)
  • 2 large cloves Fresh garlic, finely chopped or pressed, etc
  • 4 ounces lard or unsalted butter + more for drizzling over the top and sweating the mushrooms
  • 1/3 cup all purpose flour or equivalent for the roux
  • 1 cup heavy cream sour cream, or half and half
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or similar
  • 4 cups cooked wild rice
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Crust

  • Mix the panko and sunflower seeds with the parsley if using and reserve.

Casserole

  • Mix the stock and cream. Cook pieces of chicken of the woods in some fat, adding the onions or other alliums after the mushrooms have wilted and the edges of the pan are starting to color.
  • Season with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes until the onions are translucent, then add the 4 oz of butter, melt, sprinkle over the flour and stir to make a roux. stir in the stock and cream in batches, stirring well after each one to prevent lumps and cook until thickened.

Assembly

  • In a large mixing bowl (or the cooking pan) mix the wild rice, cooked chicken, thyme, stock and mushroom-allium mixture, taste and double check the seasoning, adjusting and tasting a few times to make sure the seasoning is dead-on, then put into a baking dish, like a 9x11 casserole size, or a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

Baking

  • Top with the crumb-seed mixture, criss cross with melted lard or dot with butter and bake for 20-25 minutes at 450F, or until the crust is well browned and the mixture is hot.

More Chicken of the Woods 

 

Related

Previous Post: « Dry-Aging Meat and Game at Home
Next Post: Wild Mushroom Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jean Accola

    August 28, 2021 at 5:15 pm

    5 stars
    I made the homemade version and substituted the chicken with walleye chunks (pre-cooked). Wonderful!!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      August 29, 2021 at 12:49 pm

      I support walleye and mushroom casserole.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A Guide to Purchasing and Cooking Wild Rice says:
    December 26, 2020 at 8:36 am

    5 stars
    […] Chicken of the Woods Wild Rice Casserole […]

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Alan Bergo
Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I co Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I cover in my book you might not know are squash and pumpkin shoots. 

Tender and delicious, these are eaten around the world. The US is still coming around, but I see them occasionally at farmers markets. 

I like to give them a dip in boiling water to wilt them quick, then toss them with some fat or stir-fry them quick. The little curly-cues make them look like fairy tale veggies to me. 

#squashshoots #cucurbitaceae #eatmoreplants #kehoecarboncookware
Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickwe Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickweed, lemon, hickory nut oil and tarragon from the @wild.fed shoot. 

I spent a couple days trying to cook the rhizomes, and it works, but raw is my favorite prep. 

I add some smoked trout both for the salty pop and because it’s fun to mix aquatic edibles. Runner bean flowers for a splash of color. 

#cattails #foraging #chickweed #runnerbeans #saladsofinstagram
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine caps on hardwood sawdust from my lumberjack buddy.

Next up blewits. Spawn from @northsporemushrooms

#winecaps #strophariaaeruginosa #allthemushroomtags
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