Exuberant Wild Mushroom Chicken

Don’t you love it when a word sticks in your head? I couldn’t get the word exuberant out of my mind so I thought I should create a recipe in honor of the word.

Igzooberent

What is exuberant?

It is being effusive and almost uninhibitedly enthusiastic over something. It is how I also feel about the flavor of morels. A morel is a type of wild mushroom that has a honeycomb appearance and is likely to cost $50/lb. I recently bought 8 of these flavor powerhouses for $4.00 at Whole Foods along with some shitake and button mushrooms to create the dish described below. It is simple to make and the flavor is…well exuberant.

The morel of the story

Prep and cooking time: About 90 minutes

Ingredients:

2 chicken legs/thighs and one breast on the bone

8 morels mushrooms

6 shitake mushrooms

6 white button mushrooms

2 cups chicken stock

2 cups white wine

bunch cilantro

1 cup white onion

1 cup purple onion

1 cut up tomato or several cherry tomatoes

Olive oil for pan

Salts and pepper

Quickly rinse the mushrooms. Slice them in half and place them into a bowl with 2 cups of good chicken stock and 2 cups of white wine like a sauvignon blanc or a dryer Riesling.

I’m just wild about mushrooms

Marinating to create a mushroom liquor for the sauce

Dry chicken piece on paper towel and place skin side down in a large saute pan with olive oil coating the pan’s surface. Heat should be medium.

Dry the chicken parts thoroughly

Once the chicken is browned on both sides (about 8 minutes/side), take the chicken out of the pan and let it rest on a plate. Add to the pan chopped white and purple onion, tomatoes and some freshly chopped cilantro.

After the onions cook (about 7 minutes), add the mushrooms and all of the liquid and turn up the heat a little bit to get the liquid rolling toward boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn it down and let it cook down and reduce for about 10 minutes.

Onions cooking in the liquid leftover from chicken

I’m getting hungry all over again

Simmering the flavors together

Add the chicken piece back into the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 20 minutes. If you have white meat, take it out first and let the dark meat continue to cook for about 15 more minutes.

Take off heat, add back the white meat and cover the chicken with a lid. Let it sit at least 10 minutes and top with more fresh cilantro and the zest of a lemon.

Steam broccoli to serve along side the chicken. I enjoyed a nice Rhone wine (White Grenache).