Butter Chicken of the Woods (Vegan Butter Chicken)
Creamy, buttery, rich, spiced gravy covers and surrounds tender chicken of the woods mushroom pieces in our version of an Indian classic, vegan butter chicken of the woods. This flaky, chicken-flavored mushroom is the perfect chicken alternative in this rich, flavorful dish. Serve over rice and enjoy!
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Learning to Cook Vegan Butter Chicken
Butter chicken didn’t originate until the 1950’s in the Delhi providence of India, where a man named Kundan La Gurjal opened a restaurant specializing tandoori style cooking. One dish they became known for was their process of taking leftover marinade juices, and combining it with tomato and butter, and finishing it off with leftover tandoori-stewed chicken. From there the popularity of this dish, which would eventually be called butter chicken, quickly spread throughout the world. You can read more about the origins of this popular chicken dish here.
Before a few days ago, I knew almost nothing about butter chicken. I had seen it in Indian restaurants, and knew its was chicken in a creamy sauce. I had smelled the spiced, tomato and chicken aroma and knew its color- sometimes more yellow, sometimes more orange. But after stumbling upon nearly two pounds of chicken of the woods, and tasting a little of the pan fried mushroom, the flavor seemed perfectly suited to the smell of the dish.
And so I went about my research, looking at different recipes to learn a little about the ingredients, proportions and techniques commonly used. Since I am certainly not an expert, this dish is a far cry from being authentic- not only does it substitute the main ingredient, but the spices have been simplified to ones that I can get my head around. When doing a little research, the first thing I learned was that the butter in butter chicken is more than just a name. Every recipe I found was swimming in butter, with a healthy dose of heavy cream on top of that. I decided to embrace the lipids- I’m not going to eat butter chicken of the woods every day, and besides, chicken of the woods is lower fat than plain chicken.
About Chicken of the Woods
Chicken of the woods is an orange or yellow polypore that grows in clusters on dead or dying trees. As the age they become tough and more woody, but the younger mushrooms have a soft and sort of stringy texture. They are a little tough to clean as they have no problem growing around and incorporating leaves, pine needles, dirt, twigs and other bits of the forest. They also might be infested by small, white worms- a few are okay to pick out, but if there are too many your mushroom is unlikely to taste good and you should probably leave them in the woods. Please remember caution when foraging, and use the golden rule- when in doubt, leave it out- in order to avoid misidentification incidents.
But Does it really Taste Like Chicken?
It is extraordinary how similar these mushrooms are to chicken- although the last time I tasted chicken I was 5 years old, I know the smell and the texture from when I worked in a kitchen- and the similarities between the bird and the fungi are somewhat mind blowing. Chicken of the woods does also have a definite “mushroom” flavor too- it’s certainly more than just a chicken taste-alike. If you are not foraging inclined, you can substitute in a different chicken alternative such as Trader Joe’s Chickenless Strips, although I have it on the authority of a recent omnivore that chicken of the woods are the most convincing substitution.
Got Chicken of the Woods? Try one of these recipes!
- Cream of Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Soup
- Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Picatta
- Vegan Chicken of the Woods Pad Kee Mao
- Battered and Fried Chicken of the Woods from Designing Vegan
- Shredded Chicken of the Woods BBQ Sandwich from Beeteater
Making Butter Chicken of the Woods
Making this vegan butter chicken of the woods all starts with the chicken of the woods, and cleaning your mushrooms. Getting all the bits of dirt, twigs and leaves out involves a careful inspection of each mushroom, which you can do while you carefully shred the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. The cooking process is as follows- first, melt the butter, add the spices and then the mushroom, let the mushroom absorb the spices and butter, add the cream and let simmer until cooked. The last step is to stir in cilantro or parsley- although I think cilantro is the tastier choice, I tend to favor parsley as it is very similar and people don’t have the same soapy taste reaction that some do to cilantro. A grain is pretty much needed to pick up the extra sauce- I ate this with a brown rice.
Butter Chicken of the Woods (Vegan Butter Chicken)
Ingredients
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 small onion
- 1-1 ½ lbs. chicken of the woods mushrooms
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) of earth balance or other vegan butter
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 1 TBSP tomato paste
- 1 loosely packed cup of parsley or cilantro, chopped
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp powdered ginger
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and clean and use your fingers to peel the chicken of the woods into bite-sized pieces
- Melt the butter in a large skillet, and add the onion and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes until the onions are beginning to become translucent, then add in the spice mixture, stirring well.
- After a few seconds, add the chicken of the woods, tossing to make sure all of the mushrooms are covered in the butter and spices. Let cook for about 5 minutes, flipping occasionally so both sides cook.
- Next add the tomato paste and coconut cream, stirring until the paste is mixed in. Heat until it bubbles before lowering the heat and allowing to simmer for 10 minutes. Finally, turn off the heat and stir in the cilantro or parsley. Serve with rice.
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Love the look of this dish!
Looks yummy, could one sub other mushrooms?
You could, but it would change the dish quite a bit from butter chicken to butter mushroom. If you are going for a chicken substitute, I think you would be more successful with something like Trader Joe’s chickenless strips
Hi! I made your chicken or the woods butter ‘chicken’ today, and it was great! Wonderful flavor. It’s amazing how much like chicken it tastes. I did a couple of twists on your recipe. I used raw ginger root instead of ginger powered (and cooked it the same time as the onions) and did the same with some ginger root. I also accidentally used Tandoori massala instead of guar massala, but it turned out great. I thought it was perfectly fine, but my husband thought the fleshiness of the mushroom was a drawback. I then made him some more, same recipe only I fried the mushroom bits until they were crispy before adding them in, and he really liked it. Might be a good tip for anyone who doesn’t like the fleshy texture. I have pics if you want them.
Thanks for the recipe!
Sarah M.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks so much for telling us about your experience with the recipe! I would love to see the pictures- you can send them to me via email (vjzemba@gmail.com) or tag me on social media @veryveganval. Your changes sound great- and I love the note about getting the mushrooms extra crispy. I think a lot of people have an issue with the texture of some mushrooms, and I imagine the crispiness would help that a lot.
Best,
Valerie
Such a great recipe, thank you!! I’ve always wanted to get more creative with chicken of the woods so I was excited when I saw this recipe. I did add lemon juice to mine because I thought it was missing a little bit of a tang. I also added some cayenne pepper for some heat. Delicious!!! I’d like to try it again and simmer the mushrooms in the coconut milk for a bit longer so they get more tender.
Glad you liked it Serda! I think you’re right, and that little bit of added lemon would be lovely. Great ideas!
Sounds tasty, I shall try it. But five minutes sounds too little cooking time for chicken of the woods. In my experience it needs more to make sure it does not give you indigestion, and it will also taste better.
Hope you love it! I agree that a 5 minute cook time might be a little low, but we do simmer them for another 10 or so minutes in the broth in the next step. Enjoy!