Chicken of the woods

[minky]

I harvested my first chicken of the woods yesterday. Today I deep fryed a small amount. These were so good with some ranch dipping sauce! I froze a larger amount of raw chickens to use. I am glad I finally got to try this mushroom!

[pikestabber]

Nice work!

Chickens are in my top 5 for wild mushrooms for sure! I've never tried freezing them raw. I always cut into bite sized pieces, fry in butter with seasoning, portion them out, then freeze each portion inside tightly sealedGlad Press n Seal wrap, then into a Ziploc for ID. Works great. You'll have to let us know how they do being frozen fresh and then used.

[minky]

Frozen chickens were OK but better fresh. 

[pikestabber]

Love those "accidental" finds...

Was headed out to the Red River for some cat fishing on Saturday with the family and decided to stop at a spot I know by a local river where frogs migrate en masse this time of year (looking to solidify our cat bait situation). Didn't get much for frogs but found an absolutely PERFECT cluster of Chicken of the Woods (cincinnatus) growing from the root of an oak tree (3 clusters, actually). Ideally, I would have liked to let it grow a day or two more, but it was right out in the open near a boat landing and I was going to be gone for 2 days, so it came catfishing with me. My rule of thumb is pick it when you see it. I've lost out on chickens before in spots where I thought no one looked.

Anyhow, I've found the cincinnatus variety a couple other times, and for whatever reason it tends to have better texture and even better flavor than (the seemingly much more common) Laetiporus sulphureus . Anyone else agree or disagree with that?

I needed more mushrooms in the freezer like I need another ache in my back, but when opportunity screams at you, you gotta say "why not?" Just seeing that perfect specimen has me itching to find a hen or two, now.

Edited September 6, 2016 by pikestabber

[caddisfly]

Ran into a few fun "accidentals" as well while I was out checking for hens last week.  No hens for me yet in the metro.  

[pikestabber]

Wowzer, that's a lot of chicken! Looks to be on the way out...was it all salvageable?

A few other nice accidents, there, too

[caddisfly]

They made for a much nicer photo than a meal.  I grabbed a couple pounds of the most fresh, but they were still a little chalky after cooking.  Was a nice little pick-me-up after striking out on hens that day though.

[caddisfly]

Hard to miss these:

[derbier122x]

what was that white cotton candy looking one? I've seen those before...

[caddisfly]

The white toothed mushroom is a type of Hericium.  Edible and pretty tasty if it's nice and fresh.

[TigerBlood]

I think that white toothed one is also referred to as Bear's head and/or Lion's mane too.  It's hard enough to get to confidently know mushrooms...but then they can have several different names too!