Many recipes on this website are drawn from my study of wild food traditions from around the world. Sesame Baked Chicken of the Woods isn't. The recipe is from an old family cookbook my Grandma Phyllis put together-you know, the kind of homestyle, church basement arrangement of pages held with plastic bindings.
Sesame Baked Chicken was my family's all-time favorite way to eat chicken that my Grandma Gerri on my mother's side used to prepare, which she taught my mother to make, who would make it for me, and then my younger siblings after me, upon request, on special occasions.
If I close my eyes, I can still imagine opening up the door after playing outside as a child (or more likely, coming upstairs from playing video games in the basement) and having the ethereal fingers of scent pull me by my nose up to the kitchen.
The aroma of chicken coated with breadcrumbs and sesame seeds, the chicken's juices slowly mingling with the seed's oils creating a delicious crust of "griblets" on the bottom of the pan family members would fight over, is probably the fondest scent memory I can think of from my childhood.
Fun story (and glimpse back to a more relaxed era), one of my favorite times I can remember eating Sesame Baked Chicken was when I was in Second Grade. My teacher at the time (shout out to Mrs. Stoeberl!) held a reading competition in our class.
The grand prize was plucked from a child's dream: the winner got to go to the teacher's house for an evening, where she made your favorite recipe for dinner. 30 years later, this sort of thing wouldn't fly.
I mean, you're not going to know your teachers address, let alone go to their house to share a meal. Not in a million years. Back in 1992, things were a bit simpler I guess.
The recipe's really simple. You take some chicken (the original recipe calls for bone-in chicken) dip them in evaporated milk, roll it in a mixture of sesame seeds and breadcrumbs and bake until it's golden brown and delicious. For the version here, I made a few changes I think even my family will appreciate.
I don't often use evaporated milk as in the original recipe, but I do make a lot of crème fraîche (you can use sour cream) and the gentle tang it imparts is a welcome compliment to the rich crust of breadcrumbs and seeds the same way it works with fried chicken.
To layer extra flavors, I mix some dried ramp leaves into the sour cream. You can use some onion powder if you want, but don't reach for garlic powder, or even worse, the awful stuff known as granulated garlic-it's way to powerful for my taste, and comes off tasting synthetic and overly-strong.
From there, the recipe is basically the same: dip the chicken of the woods into the sour cream batter, dredge in the breadcrumb-seed mix, and bake until crisp and golden. With a little green salad or your favorite veggies alongside, it's the sort of thing memories are made of.
Sesame Baked Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms
Equipment
- 3 Mixing bowls
- 1 Frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 lb young tender chicken of the woods mushrooms
Sour cream batter
- 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon dried crushed ramp leaves optional, 2 teaspoons of onion powder can be substituted
- 6 oz sour cream
- 1 large egg + 1 yolk
- ½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
Dredge
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 cup sesame seeds
- For serving
- Fresh lemon wedges or your favorite dip, for serving
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- A fresh green salad pictured is watercress with violets and wild mustard flowers (optional)
Instructions
- Combine the sour cream, egg and yolk, salt, pepper, and ramp leaves or onion powder in a bowl. Mix the breadcrumbs and sesame seeds in another bowl. Preheat the oven to 350. Clean the chicken of the woods and cut into roughly 1.5-2 oz pieces about the size of a child’s fist.
- Using a fork or toothpick, pierce each mushroom and dip into the sour cream-egg mix, then into the sesame mix.
- Sprinkle on extra sesame mix as needed, transferring finished mushrooms to a baking sheet or pan, such as a cast iron skillet. You can line it with parchment if you like.
- Add the butter to the pan around the mushrooms. And bake for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, when the butter is melted, take the pan out of the oven and baste each mushroom nugget with some of the butter, then put back in the oven and bake until golden, about 10-15 minutes more or until the mushrooms are golden brown and crisp.
Blair Miller
I’ve made these for a few years in a row. I’ve left out the sesame seeds when I didn’t think they were appropriate for the dish I was making. Anyway, they’re fantastic! The one thing I’ll say though is the amounts of batter and dredge end up being off for me every year. For the batter, I’d cut it to 2/3 the amount, and for the dredge, multiply by 4. That leaves me with almost none of either left over.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks for your notes on that Blair. Sorry I've been pokey here.
Julie Hella
No rating yet! I am going to try this. I do not have kosher salt and I do not have unsalted butter. Of course, no ramps either but I do have onion powder. I am tempted just to plunk whole eggs in rather than separate 1 yolk out. Does it really make a difference? I try to be a practical cook.
Alan Bergo
In some recipes it will definitely make a difference. Here you can probably get by with just one egg, let me know how you like it.
Julie Hella
I did it today!! Lots of fudging the recipe to fit with what I had. I am curious, why the toothpick or fork poke for the COW pieces? I think I can improve my cooking. How about melting the butter and drizzling it over the breaded pieces before baking it?There didn't seem to be any melted butter to baste with after 10 minutes.
Jay Zatkovich
I've gor a couple spots for COTWs that produce for me, and never quite found a great way to prep it as "chicken". This one nailed it. I had some dried ramp leaves, too - but instead used some of the dried fermented tamp leaves from your other recipe on soy sauce. I love the sauce, but have found the dried ground leaves from that to be super flavorful as well in so many things. Makes kale chips tasty, for example. I have to say Alan, you're foraging knowledge and recipes have quickly become a absolute priceless as I learn to enjoy what the world has to offer. Thanks for doing what you do.
Val
I was gifted a HUGE prime L. Cinncinatus last evening and made your chicken fried chicken mushroom for breakfast. I know that’s a popular recipe and it was good. I made this one this evening and didn’t have sour cream but substituted sourdough discard in the batter. I couldn’t spoon enough butter for the mid baking basting so I just flipped the pieces (had them in a cast iron skillet). I loved this one even more than the chicken fried chicken! I’m in chicken heaven right now. Can’t wait for you to publish “Fungus.”
Jake Daws
the recipe was great! But I did run out of bread crumbs and sesame seeds before I could finish breading the mushrooms
Jay
I just made this and it is truly amazing! I had some cotw that was a little past it’s prime and also a really nice specimen and they both were excellent in their own way cooking them with this recipe. Thanks so much for sharing.
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked for you.
Kim aka Leslie Morrell
Another winner, thank you. Again, being in S. AZ, can't always duplicate (those mushrooms sounded divine) resorted to just chunks of chicken and it was delicious. Going in my "Recipes I'm Lovin'" file along with the Lamb's Quarters Dip which came out superb. Garnished it with what I had, calendula petals and ribbons of rose petals. Lovely.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Kim. Once I get unpacked here in a month I'm going to try and find the original recipe for chicken (there's no egg needed in the original, but it helps with the mushroom version.
zoey
This sounds delicious and looks beautiful pictured on your plate. Wondering though, around here chicken of the woods does not usually appear until after the violet flowers are finished. Wish I had dried some of my ramps too as they are done too. Thinking maybe subbing naturtium flowers and scallions?
Alan Bergo
I would just sub some onion powder, or, slice the scallions and let them sit with the sour cream overnight to infuse it.
Coop
If I wanted to make it with chicken (being out of mushrooms at the moment) would the cooking time change?
Alan Bergo
Cook until golden brown, crisp, and the juices run-clear when pierced if using bone-in. It may take a little longer depending on the size of the chicken pieces and if they have bones or not, but generally yes.
Harry Wininger
I can't wait to give this one a try. Thanks again for your endless contributions
Alan Bergo
Thanks Harry, this one is pretty close to my heart.