Fried Chicken Mushrooms

One of the most confusing wild mushrooms I know, fried chicken mushrooms are edible, delicious, and have nothing to do with fried chicken. I've been gathering images and stories from other mushroom hunters on them for a few years, today I'll break down the most important things I think you should know about them.

I won't lie, of the many edible mushroom species I've eaten and described on this site, fried chicken mushrooms were one of the most difficult to learn and I'd been foraging for years before I was confident enough to pick them alone.

As any mushroom hunter will tell you, cracking the code is part of the appeal. When you find a patch of your own to visit every year, identification becomes a non-issue and picking up a cluster of thick, meaty mushrooms will be no different than finding an apple or a banana.

Heck, I know one person who learned them after getting a correct ID from a mushroom app, of all the things. For the record I don't recommend mushroom apps yet as the technology still has a ways to go.

Special thanks to my friends Jaime Rockney and Pete Hauteman for sharing their personal experiences, and bringing me to their patches to document them when mine were bare.

Background

Like honey mushrooms, fried chicken mushrooms are often described as a species complex or a constellation of species with lots of variation in size, shape and cap color. Basically, that means there's a bunch of individual species currently lumped into Lyophyllum decastes. When mycologists sequence the genetics, more species will likely be named.

Possibly the best attribute, and one of the big reasons to search them out is that not once have I seen fungal gnat larvae in them, even in early summer. Other insects might cause damage to the caps or gills, but the flesh of every mushroom I've picked so far has been pristine, which is a remarkable quality, especially in the Midwest.

As mycology is an ever-evolving field, I'm going to do my best to describe things I've found helpful from my personal experience. But, even though I have images from a few different collections, including cultivated ones, know that there may be others that don't exactly fit here.

Habitat

Fried chicken mushrooms are saprobic, meaning they decompose dead matter. They'll appear as dense clusters of mushrooms growing from leaves, pine needles and other debris. Hunting and identifying them is similar in many ways to blewits (Clitocybe nuda) and I'll be referencing them multiple times here.

Many references and accounts mention fried chicken mushrooms preferring disturbed areas, and there's many examples on social media from around North America. Interestingly, none of my patches or those I've visited are notably disturbed.

I visited one patch that was a clearing in young deciduous woods, with big clusters concentrated in the semi-open clearing.

My best patch is on the edges of the woods at a state park, specifically the parking lot. Another patch was scattered under spruce trees around a small baseball field in the middle of town, shown below.

If you pick blewits and oyster mushrooms you'll know the hunting pattern here: just look for piles of duff, leaves or needles, specifically on the peripheries and edges of woods where the wind or forest debris tends to collect.

Around the Twin Cities they seem to have heavy years and lighter years, flushing first around early June, and again in the fall along with other cold weather species, rain permitting.

As they're saprobic fried chicken's can be cultivated, and for a couple years I was able to have them shipped from Europe. Like so many species, the cultivated versions I had were bland, but the texture was excellent and reminded me of honey mushrooms without the mucilage. They're delicious chew shines in soups and stews.

Just like other saprobic fungi, you can encourage them to grow in a backyard by harvesting spore-covered needles and leaves along with the mushrooms. Keep in mind it's low-tech cultivation method and can take a few years.

Identification

I spoke to the few friends I know that harvest these mushrooms to put together some notes on their experience identifying them. I'll go over the key points as I see them.

Appearance in Clusters

While it's only one part of the puzzle, one of the tell-tale characteristics is the mushrooms appearing in dense clusters. They'll often be very low to the ground like blewits and may appear to be "hugging" the ground.

Another thing to consider is the size. Mature mushrooms can be quite large, and I've seen caps around six inches across although they're typically more modestly-sized.

Caps

The caps are usually a sort of khaki or light brown, often darker when young. But, if the mushrooms are covered under leaves they can be pure white, as shown in the image below. Avoid white aberrations unless you're certain.

Again, like blewits, the cap color varies with age. On L. decastes, the cap is typically darker on younger mushrooms, gently fading over time to very light brown, and eventually to a dark brown as they mature and decompose. The images below show three different ages of mushrooms from the same patch for reference.

The darkest caps I've seen are from cultivated varieties, which could be due to age, or being different, similar species that takes well to cultivation.

Stems

These are firm, dense mushrooms. The stems, even more so than the caps are extremely fleshy, and more than one account I've read likens them to squeaky cheese or string cheese. On large clusters they can be very thick and meaty, as shown below. Note the wavy, asymmetrical caps and very thick stems on the mushrooms below.

Gill attachment

Another confusing aspect as it can apparently vary by collection. They can be attached to the stem, typically with a notch as pictured below which has been present in most of my collections. However, Kuo writes that they can also appear decurrent like an oyster mushroom beginning to run down the stem.

White Spore Print

While it's only a small part of the puzzle, fried chicken mushrooms have a white spore print. This one of the first things you can notice in the field besides spotting clusters of mushrooms.

Relation To Elm Oysters

Elm oyster mushrooms share similarities with fried chicken mushrooms. Before being transferred to the genus Hypsizygus which they're currently placed in, elm oyster mushrooms were known as Lyophyllum ulmarius.

There's truth in the historical classification here, and from a tactile perspective both mushrooms are similar in texture with a sort of fleshy, almost waxy feel to them. The flesh is dense on both mushrooms and pulls apart in a way that will remind you of string cheese.

Look Alikes

This is the trickiest part as there's many similar mushrooms that will grow in clusters on the ground. Some, like blewits and honey mushrooms are edible, while many others are not, or have conflicting information on edibility.

In all transparency, mushroom authority Michael Kou says L. decastes is not recommended as an edible as it's difficult to identify.

From Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest

"Several poisonous species of Clitocybe, including some not featured in this book but present in the Midwest) are very similar and are best separated with microscopic analysis."

My opinion, is that If I (a cook who's never been on an organized mycological foray) and a handful of others I know can pick them, you can learn them too. Just remember: "when in doubt, throw it out".

Broadly speaking, there's a few different varieties of mushroom to watch out for you don't want to eat: Clitocybe, Leucopaxillus, and Tricholoma.

Personally, the only ones I worry about are Clitocybe, and even with those you're just trying to weed out the worst ones, like C. dealbata, and C. dilatata, which are also unlikely to be fatal, just very uncomfortable. There's also others like C. robusta, and C. subconexa, which I'd assume are mildly problematic.

In short, I avoid any group of clustering, all-white mushrooms. Unless I know the patch well enough that I instinctively know a cluster is Lyophyllum, I pass, as there's numerous clustering mushrooms that can fruit at the same time and place.

I think my favorite quote here, (paraphrased from Michael Kuo, whose books you should already own) was from my friend Pete Hauteman:

"You identify Lyophyllum decastes by ruling out others you don't want to eat."

Some Clitocybe are edible, but some mushrooms in the genus are known to contain muscarine. The good news, is that muscarine will probably make you sick, but isn't likely to kill you. In the North American Mycological Societies' Thirty-plus Years of Mushroom Poisonings, only one death was attributed to muscarine from a Clitocybe. One fatality is still too many though.

It's also worth noting that muscarine is also found in Amanita muscaria and Amanita pantherina-both mushrooms sometimes ingested as a narcotic. However, Clitocybe and Inocybe species can contain 1.6% muscarine by weight, where A. muscaria is around .0003%, or roughly 3000 times the concentration.

Don't let that scare you. Just remember, you're not trying to identify fried chicken mushrooms, you're trying to rule out Clitocybe.

General Cooking

Like most mushrooms the first thing I do is I give them a swish in cool water or scrub lightly with a small brush if needed, leaving them to dry on paper towels.

If you've cooked with blewits, elm oysters, or late fall oysters, these are very similar. All of these mushrooms typically have a high water content that needs to be cooked off to concentrate their flavor, which means they're perfect candidates for the dry saute.

To do a dry saute, cut the mushrooms into large pieces, put in a nonstick pan and cook on moderate heat until they're wilted and starting to brown. Next add oil, salt, and any other seasonings and proceed as you would for any other mushroom.

Flavor-wise fried chicken mushrooms have a mild, slightly nutty taste I'd compare to elm oysters and late fall oysters, with the latter being slightly more flavorful. One big difference to mention though is the stems, which are tender and perfectly fine to cook alongside the caps, which is not the case with elm oysters.

I've added them to all kinds of things. They're great in mixed mushroom sautes, or simply fried up all alone. If they're browned first they make a great soup mushroom.

The flesh is tender and silky, similar to an elm oyster, and after pickling and cooking in broth every which way I never saw a hint of mucilage or slime that's common with some species.

Do you pick these mushrooms? If so what's your experience with them been like? Feel free to leave a comment or any tips for others that you think could be helpful.

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