View Full Version : Chicken of the Woods mushroom
I saw a lot of this otherworldly-looking mushroom on the southern AT last spring and actually have one growing on an old ash stump on the front lawn (chicken of the burbs). It goes from delectable to revolting in just a few days, and this year we finally got to cook some up in a skillet with a little oil and garlic. It really does taste a bit like chicken, and it's reportedly high in protein. Here are a couple of photos of it in prime condition; several days later, it's black, squishy, and smells like a dead animal.
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la.lindsey
07-04-2016, 18:01
Wow weird coincidence! I just tried that this weekend on a section hike. Some hikers had picked a bunch and cooked it up. It did taste like chicken.
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I first tasted it on the AT as well. It was a couple of years ago, at a shelter in VA; I forget which one. I had stopped to get water, but then the skies opened up for about 5 hours. About 15-25 people were crammed in the shelter, and someone was nice enough to cook some up for everyone to taste.
la.lindsey
07-04-2016, 18:25
If you tell me it was War Spur, I'm going to ask if I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone.
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No, it wasn't War Spur. I think it was Clyde Smith shelter.
Grifola frondosa is a polypore mushroom that grows in clusters at the base of trees, particularly oaks. The mushroom is commonly known among English speakers as hen-of-the-woods, ram's head and sheep's head.
Chicken of the woods to those east of the Mississippi :-)
Gambit McCrae
07-06-2016, 08:07
I tried it last weekend as well :-? I did not digest it though as the next morning with a good wiff of the privy I gave it back to the woods. It did smell and taste like chicken though
I got to try a chicken of the woods mushroom thanks to a fellow hiker when I was on a section hike in early June this year- between hot springs and Erwin, TN. The fellow hiker had been looking left and right for a while and saw the stash on an old stump maybe 25 feet off the trail. We cooked it up that night using olive oil, salt and pepper. This version tasted like a cross between chicken and a scrambled egg and had a consistency of soft, fried tofu. I added it to my knorr side dinner mashup, and the hiking partner ate his portion all by itself. Good life lesson to remember for future hikes.
It's a beautiful mushroom at its height of ripeness. Then it deteriorates rapidly, first hardening and losing its color, then gradually turning into a black, stinky, slimy mess. I thought an animal had died in the area until I checked more closely.
Tipi Walter
08-03-2016, 13:35
When I think of this mushroom I think of pulling a backpacking trip into Pisgah NF with one of my favorite girlfriends back in 1987 and she was a budding expert on wild edibles. She eyeballed a big stack of chicken of the woods and commenced to frying it up. We ate heartily and then I noticed the stuff was full of small white worms. I stopped being a vegetarian for about an hour.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Backpacking2008/Backpacking-with-Bob-Ruby-and/i-jM4hQJb/0/L/Trip%2082%20065-L.jpg
I took this pic on the BMT near Whiggs Meadow back in 2008.
I dont believe foraged meat counts against vegetarianism.
Tipi Walter
08-03-2016, 13:42
It wasn't even foraged meat, it was accidental meat, i.e. "side meat".
Mushrooms with maggots on the side, I surmise. :)
Tipi Walter
08-03-2016, 16:42
Maggots possibly but I'm no epidemiologist.
MuddyWaters
08-03-2016, 22:02
For 25 yrs, I don't let wife see me clean speckled trout too close. Frequently they will have some parasitic worms. If wife or daughter ever saw them before I removed them. They'd never eat another one. They've eaten more than they will ever know, they disappear totally when cooked.
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Hmmmm.... 'preciate-cha sharing that Muddy Waters...... (crosses speckled trout off list of things to eat) :-I
;)
u.w.
Trailweaver
08-04-2016, 03:12
Many of the foods you regularly consume have parasites that you cannot see without "visual aid" of a microscope. That's why it's really important to cook all foods thoroughly. It kills the parasites. You will never see me eat sushi for that very reason. (I took parasitology in college, and the course was taught by a doctor who had retired from the CDC. Learned a heck of a lot from him!)
JamesHenryTrotter
09-08-2016, 05:49
Harvested a ton of reishi mushrooms in North Carolina. All kinds of goodies out here! Obviously never eat anything you arent 100% sure of