Not Chicken of the Sea…

…but Chicken of the Woods!

My sister, Lona, clued me into her great discovery of an abundant patch of these beauties not too far away!  One should always be very cautious about mushrooms in the wild, but luckily the "Chicken of the Woods" is easily identifiable and has no poisonous look-alikes.

My sister stir-fried her first batch, but I breaded mine--dipping first in egg then in bread crumb, sautéing the cutlets, schnitzel-like in a combo of butter and olive oil.  This was a great dinner!  The bites of cutlet were tender and tasty, and really gave the mouth-feel of something hearty, like tender roast chicken.

But, my dinner only used a small portion of my mushroom haul!  

So next I googled recipes and found Butter Chicken (of the Woods).  

I made a double batch so Lona could have some for her dinner, too.  

I had to fudge some of the recipe's exotic ingredients, but it came out very tasty!

Oh, man, I still had quite a bit left!  My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach!

After more googling, I found that this fungi is good dehydrated--

making it convenient and perfect for adding to soups and stews.

So I sliced the remaining pieces and  popped them into a slow oven to save for later.  

As they are drying in the oven, there's a pleasant smell reminiscent of wild roses 

wafting from the slightly ajar oven door...

I'm not advocating foraging random wild mushrooms, 

but, in this instance, this particular type is very distinctive and unmistakable--

and tasty to boot!