Chicken-of-the-Woods

One of the side-effects of walking in the countryside with friends at this time of year, is unscheduled foraging. As soon as I walked past this bracket fungus growing on a tree in the vicinity of the castle yesterday, I instantly knew what it was: "Chicken-of-the-Woods" (Laetiporus sulphureus).

I had the fungus pointed out to me around 20 years ago, on a professionally organised "fungus foray" at Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire. Unfortunately the Oxfordshire fungus was high up on a tree and well out of reach. This time the fungus was within arm's reach - hurrah! The guide had told us that Chicken-of-the-Woods" is one of the most delicious there is: both looking like and tasting like chicken and we should grab any opportunity to try it.

I could not believe my good luck this time and picked one piece. Of course, correct identification is vital. The seek App on my mobile phone also identified it as "Chicken-of-the-Woods", and prior to cooking I looked at a number of YouTube videos, for both identification and preparation purposes. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K8HuTHTyP8

However, "Chicken of the Woods" is so distinctive being a bright yellow, growing on trees, and consisting of multiple clusters of fans, that it could hardly be anything else - and certainly none of the dangerous fungi in Europe look anything like this.

chicken of the woods growing wild

The YouTube video suggested marinating in olive oil and Teriyaki sauce, and I improvised with olive oil and Soy sauce - 2 minutes was enough.

marinated chicken of the woods

The video barbequed the slices for 2 minutes, but I fried for 3 minutes ensuring that the pieces were well-cooked and had turned brown at the edges. Cooking the pieces well removes any risk from natural bacterial contamination apparently.

cooked chicken of the woods

I presumed that "tasting like chicken" was just a figment of the imagination as the slices look like chicken. In fact, the fungus really does have a mild taste of chicken, and there is also a good robust and meaty texture. This contrasts with some mushrooms which go slimy after cooking.

This delicious fungus would work well with a venison casserole and presumably would keep more texture than a conventional mushroom. "Chicken-of-the-Woods" is much more quorn-like than mushroom-like, and it probably would work well in a casserole where it would absorb other flavours. One YouTube video makes a version of KFC from "Chicken-of-the-Woods", and anything which brings in other flavours like the KFC batter, would be a great accompaniment.

I would go so far as to say "Chicken-of-the-Woods" is the best edible fungus I've tried! :-)