Chicken of the Woods

Laetiporus sulphureus

At the start of the summer in 2020, before the chanterelles began popping up, we were getting antsy for foraging season to start so decided to try and expand our knowledge of all the many mushrooms we were seeing growing all over our property and try and identify some more edibles. Up until then we had only harvested chanterelles but we were super psyched to add some more edibles to our foraging missions. So, one sunny day, we headed out into the forest to gather a sample of all the mushroom species we could find. We came home with a couple of dozen different species, got out our mushroom identification books and tried to figure out exactly what it was that we had found. It was much harder than we thought it would be! There are literally hundreds of different species growing in our area and many edible ones look very much like highly poisonous ones, not a risk we wanted to take!

The only edible mushroom we felt confident we could identify for certain was the chicken of the woods, it really has no copycat species. It is very unique in it’s bright orange colour with yellow underside and the shelf-like way it grows on dead stumps, trees or logs.

We had found a beautiful one that day, just ripe for the picking and large enough for a few meals. We quickly went back to the stump we had found it on and harvested the rest. That night we feasted! We sautéed it up with some onions, carrots, white wine and lemon juice, keeping it nice and simple so we could taste it’s full effect. We had read that it was named the chicken of the woods because it was supposed to taste like and have the same texture as chicken. We were skeptical but they weren’t kidding, it was absolutely delicious! It’s a very hearty mushroom that doesn’t lose much of it’s volume when cooked so even a small portion will fill you up quite nicely.

We had harvested so much that we were able to try out a few recipes over the next few days. We had plenty of left-overs from the first night so the next evening we just added some coconut milk, served it with a loaf of fresh sourdough straight out of the oven and ate it like a soupy broth, also very tasty! The next night we crumbed and pan-fried up big slabs of it and ate it like fried chicken. Another night we served it with a lemon and caper sauce. And with the last of it we sautéed it with a colourful selection of fresh garden vegetables. There are numerous ways to enjoy this delicious and versatile mushroom and we are excited for all the possibilities yet to discover!

Now that we knew what we were looking for (and how delicious they are!) we scoured the property for more chickens and found another 15 or so scattered around. They can grow from May until October so the nice long harvesting season means we will probably find many more. Every find is accompanied by a whoop of joy as we spot the tell-tale orange beckoning through the trees. It really is like finding treasure! We did some research and apparently these huge mushrooms grow back on the same trees again year after year so we have kept a record of exactly where these magical trees are located and will check back again next year. Fingers crossed it’s that easy and we will be rewarded with another bounty every summer!

We collected way more than we could eat fresh so we did some more research to find the best way to preserve them. Freezing seems to be the consensus so we sautéed them up in olive oil with some salt and pepper, filled plastic zip-lock bags with meal-sized portions and froze them for future meals. Because they taste so much like chicken they can be substituted into any dish that you would normally use regular chicken with. My favourite way of cooking it by far is the Indian style Butter Chicken, unbelievably delicious!!