Vegan (and gluten free) chicken mushroom fricassee with cashew cream sauce

Here is a delicious recipe using the wild Chicken Mushroom, or Sulfur Shelf (Laetiporus sulfureus). This is one of my favorite wild mushrooms. It tastes delicious once cooked (it must always be cooked!) and is fun to find. Bright yellow/orange, this shelf mushroom grows on dead wood (occasionally you’ll find it growing on live wood). It has no gills on its underside - this is very important! A gilled yellow mushroom growing on wood could be the poisonous Jack O’Lantern. The Chicken mushroom is a polypore, so its underside is made up of very tiny pores which you would actually need a magnifying glass to see. Just make sure there are no gills!

Chicken mushroom/Sulfur Shelf

As I was “plating” this recipe for photographing, the word “fricassee” popped into my head. I wanted to call it “Chicken Mushroom Fricassee,” but truth be told, I wasn’t 100% sure what “fricassee” meant. So I looked it up and here is what it said on wikipedia:

“Fricassee is a catch-all term used to describe a stewed dish typically made with poultry, but other types of white meat can be substituted. It is cut into pieces and then stewed in gravy, which is then thickened with butter and cream or milk (see white gravy). It often includes other ingredients and vegetables.”

So in a way: perfect! (and in another way…I replaced chicken with chicken mushroom, and my butter/cream gravy is made with cashew cream, making the whole recipe vegan and gluten-free, and my “white” gravy was orange due to the carrot…so again, perfect! )

Cashew Cream sauce

• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 - 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp onion
• 1 carrot (optional, it will turn sauce orange)
• 1/2 tomato
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp wheat-free tamari
• water to cover, and possibly more if needed as blending, should end up being a thick sauce
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional, adds a bit of cheesy flavor)

Blend all ingredients in vitamix or high powered blender until smooth.

Other ingredients:

• chicken mushroom, sliced (as much as you want and can find!) we used about a pound or so
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil (to saute onion and mushroom)
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• pinch cayenne (optional)
• extra water if necessary
• extra gluten free tamari if necessary

Saute sliced chicken mushroom and onion in olive oil for at least 15 minutes, adding water to steam if pan becomes too dry.

Add cashew cream sauce, mix and heat through. Add spices. Sauce will thicken, add more water and/or tamari (for saltiness) if necessary. If you’ve added more water continue to mix and heat until sauce regains thick consistency.

chicken mushroom fricassee, still in the pan

Serve over brown rice or noodles.

Very yum!!!

~ Melissa Sokulski

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