The soil is damp after a few days of rain, and a short blast of sunshine makes the mushrooms spring to life!
I checked the meadow by us, and a few mushrooms have started to sprout. They are meadow mushrooms—here's how I identified them.
Agaricus campestris
They are babies and look like button mushrooms.
Their gills are pink at this stage, but as they mature, they turn brown. The cap is round and then flattened as it grow, with a partial veil around the upper stem.
They are my favourite stage, as they are dense, firm, and crunchy—perfect for a pie!
So, I collected a few, enough for tonight's dinner; I left the rest to grow bigger.
Meadow mushrooms have a mild, earthy flavor with a hint of nuttiness. Their texture is tender, and when cooked, they become slightly sweet and rich, perfect for adding depth to any dish!
At home, and could not wait to make the pie!
Here's how................
Wild Mushroom and Chicken Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
For the filling:
1 whole chicken, steamed, shredded or diced.
1.5 cup mushrooms, sliced - 300 grams
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup double cream
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon thyme or herb of your choice.
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 cup finely diced carrots.
For the crust:
1 package of puff pastry (store-bought or homemade)
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
Instructions:
I first put a whole chicken in the oven, sitting on 3 cups of water and covered it with foil to steam. I baked it for 90 minutes.
While waiting for the chicken, I prepared the rest of the ingredients.
I cleaned the mushrooms by brushing off the soil.
Then, I sliced and diced them and set them aside.
As you can see, they have adnexed gills (free and not attached to the stem)
When the chicken was cooked, I separated the meat and saved the juice as stocks.
For the filling.
In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent.
Add the minced garlic and sliced mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are tender and browned.
Add the carrots.
Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir well to coat. Cook for another minute.
Slowly pour in the chicken broth and simmer, stirring constantly until thickened.
Stir in the heavy cream, thyme, and cooked chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Assemble the Pie:
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out your puff pastry or pie crust, one for the bottom and one for the top (lid) and prepare the baking tray or pie dish.
Pour the wild mushroom and chicken filling into the crust, spreading it evenly.
Cover with another layer of pastry, sealing the edges by crimping with your fingers or a fork.
Brush the top with the beaten egg for a golden finish.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and flaky.
Done!
Let the pie cool for a few minutes before slicing.
With cauliflower cheese as side!
Tasted sooo nice! And extra special.
The meadow mushrooms gave tender texture with a touch of umami and nuttiness and a hint of earthiness, enhancing the pie’s richness without overwhelming it. The crusty pastry and the subtle flavour of the meadow mushrooms perfectly complement the other ingredients, making each bite deliciously balanced and satisfying.
It’s the perfect way to wind down a Friday after mushroom hunting and embracing nature’s bounty.
This dish surely celebrates both the harvest and the magic of mushrooms!
Happy Fungi Friday to all, I hope you had a good one!
Mariah 🍄💖😊
💗This post is dedicated to @fungifriday by @ewkaw and to all fungi friends. 💗
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The look like little golf balls in that lawn :)
The pie looks amazing!
Hehe, they do, and so tasty, thank you @ewkaw. 😊🩷
Another yum recipe - it's autumn, so pie season is starting. Not that there's ever a bad season for pie 😁
Thank you. Yup, pie s so versatile. 🩷😊
That looks delicious! I really appreciate the recipe, although I doubt I'll ever have the dogged persistence to chop carrots so finely. I expect it will work with slices of carrot just as well.
I lament that A. campestris isn't found here (at least I haven't found any), but we do have lots of other wild and tasty mushrooms that I find every day out in the forest. Here's what I have been eating every day since hunting season began.
A parasitic fungus on Russula and other species, the distinctive bright red color and coated appearance, like they've been dipped in batter, makes these delicious Hypomyces lactifluorum easy to identify. They're called Lobster mushrooms because they have the bright red color of cooked lobsters. In early September these are incredibly abundant here.
The bright cheddar cheese to butter color of Cantharellus cibarius helps to spot them in the mossy forest floor, the decurrent veins and solid, veil-less stem make them easy to identify. Perhaps my favorite mushroom, there are lots of Golden Chanterelles well into November.
The Gem-Studded Puffball (Lycoperdon gemmatum) is mild flavored and soft in texture, which I find goes well in flavorful recipes like spaghetti, but only when they're young and solid white clear through. Later they turn brown and become hollow spheres full of spores that burst out when trodden upon, with no culinary value. They seem to only grow in old gravel logging roads that have become grassy strips of lawn here.
Chicken of the Woods, Sulphur Shelf, or Laetiporous sulphureous is perhaps the easiest mushroom to identify, with it's bright orange top and vibrant yellow bottom, without veins, and growing on old, decaying wood. They almost seem to glow in the deep, dark forest. It can get huge. I've seen specimens with well over 100 kilos of fruiting bodies stretching ~ten meters up the trunk of a standing snag. However, with age they get woody and bitter, so for the larger specimens I only trim the outer rim, that remains tender and mild, for eating. Even the tender outer portion is firm, reminiscent of chicken breast, and can be used to stretch chicken dishes, or replace the fowl completely.
There are many more delicious shrooms out there, but these are filling my pockets, hats, and shopping bags I keep stuffed in my back pocket when afield for the purpose, at present. So many mushrooms, so little time to pick them!
Thanks!
Aww, you are so lucky! There are beautiful mushrooms around you. I've been looking for Chicken of the Woods. A couple of years ago, a friend sent me one, and I made a stroganoff. It was so tasty, and it was just like chicken breast. There are no chanterelles or russula around here; I probably need to look further to find them.
You must try them in a pie! I used a noodle peeler for the carrots and chopped them finely, but slicing them thinly is okay.
Thank you for the lovely photos and nice comments. Really appreciated. Have a lovely day! 😊💗
Great, you found mushrooms in the meadow, and you processed them into a very delicious food 😋😋
Sending love and curation Ecency vote. keep giving the best♥️
Thank you, much appreciated. 💗😊
This looks delicious and so much better than a standard sweet pie, also cool you can just harvest the mushrooms in the wild where you live 😀 the mushrooms growing in my village get pooped on by dogs 😣and I wouldn't dare to eat them anyway because they might be poisonous
Thank you, Yes, there are not many people where I live. There are few dogwalkers, but I never cross their path, so I feel confident about my shrooms. You are right; if you are not sure, don't eat them. 😊💗