We spent a beautiful morning in the West Sussex countryside in early September. Expertly leading the pack was Lucy the long haired Dachshund and it wasn’t long before we were confronted by a wonderful flush of fresh chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphurous). Bright orange and soft to the touch this bracket fungus grows on both dead and living trees and is quite easy to spot on the trunks of Oak and Cherry.
Chicken of the woods is edible but doesn’t agree with everyone and this fungus shouldn’t be eaten if found growing on a poisonous tree such as Yew.
Luckily our discovery was growing on a trunk of dead Oak so we didn’t delay in cutting a fresh young chunk and headed straight back to the kitchen to cook up our treasure. The flesh has a similar texture and fibrous quality to chicken so we simply sautéed strips for around five minutes in a big splash of white wine with smoky chipotle chill flakes, sea salt and parsley…delicious!
Chicken of the woods is an amazing mushroom substitute for chicken….perfect dipped in egg and breaded like a schnitzel or used to create a fungitarian Thai style curry.