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French Onion Chicken of the Woods Casserole
This is the perfect autumnal dish to feed to your family or a small crowd after bringing home a nice chunk of chicken of the woods mushroom (Laetiporus). This shelf fungus is aptly named, as the texture and flavor are quite similar to chicken, making it perfect for dishes like this.
You do have to have good timing when foraging for them, though. Many chicken of the woods (COW) specimens are too old and dry, making them chalky, with an unfortunate mouth-drying quality. You only want to bring home nice and fresh specimens of COW – brightly colored, tender, moist, and with little insect damage. This will give you higher-quality dishes and may astound you as to how much this stuff resembles chicken in the pot!
I used a Dutch oven for this recipe, as it allowed me to cook on the stove top and transfer to the oven, but you could tweak the recipe to use a casserole dish instead if you don’t have a cast-iron Dutch oven at home. You also may want to go heavier on the cheese… I generally prefer my dishes lightly cheesed.
Also, give yourself lots of time to properly caramelize the onions – it’s probably going to be well over half an hour. Any recipe that tells you otherwise is lying to you for expedience’s sake!
- Prep Time30 min
- Cook Time1 hr 15 min
- Total Time1 hr 45 min
- Yield6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 lb tender chicken of the woods, shredded into small, bite-sized chunks
- 8 medium onions, sliced thinly
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil or lard + 1 tablespoon neutral oil or lard
- Salt and black pepper
- 1 cup chicken or mushroom stock
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 sprig rosemary, stem discarded, minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1⁄4 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups beef stock
- 7 ounces Swiss, Emmental, or Gruyère cheese, shredded (more if you like it really cheesy)
- 1 baguette, sliced into 2-inch slices
- Chives to garnish
Preparation
Add 1 tbsp oil to a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until deeply caramelized.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F. Add the baguette slices and toast until quite hard. Set aside. Increase oven heat to 450°F.
Add the other tbsp of oil to a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the shredded COW and cook for 5 minutes. Add the rosemary, garlic, butter, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 2 more minutes, then add the flour and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the stock, Worcestershire, soy sauce, and simmer, stirring, for 10 minutes. Turn off heat.
Once onions are done, add them to the pot, stirring them in. Taste for salt and pepper, and add more if need be. Nestle the bread slices on the top, pushing them down a bit. Sprinkle the cheese over top and put it in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and melty. If you’d like a little crisp on top, feel free to broil for a couple of minutes.
Garnish with chopped chives or parsley. Enjoy!
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