Shredded Chicken (of the Woods) Barbecue Sandwich

'Tis the Season for Chicken of the Woods pulled barbecue sandwiches!

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Mushroom season is upon us, and the forests and trails near BeetEater Street are teeming with wild mushrooms!  One of my favorite wild mushrooms is Chicken of the Woods. This bright-orange polypore grows year round, but in the fall they come out in droves in the Mid-Atlantic.  The texture if this mushroom is stringy and fibrous and bears an uncanny resemblance to cooked chicken.  It will shred into bits just like chicken, which makes it a perfect stand-in for chicken in this pulled barbecue sandwich!

The fibrous and stringy texture of this
mushroom bears an uncanny resemblance to
cooked chicken!

Mr. T and I hunt our own chicken of the woods.  When you find it in the wild, it’s usually in huge amounts of 5 pounds or more. Just like deer-hunters, we usually try to eat as much of the fresh mushrooms as we can, but we also clean, blanch and freeze the excess in small sandwich bags so that we can enjoy them throughout the year.  

I know that not everyone can hunt mushrooms on their own, but chicken of the woods can sometimes be found in farmer’s markets, some health food stores in the bulk section, or in Asian grocery stores.  If you are lucky enough to know an experienced mushroom hunter who is willing to share their haul with you, be kind and throw them a few bucks!  Mushroom hunting can take many hours, sometimes with little to no results. I don’t advocate hunting these yourself unless you are accompanied by an experienced mushroom hunter who you trust. There are poisonous look-alikes out there, so please do not be cavalier! I do not claim to be an expert on wild mushrooms, so please don’t interpret my observations about mushroom hunting as advice! Please learn the risks of eating wild mushrooms before consuming them.

For this sandwich, I combined water-sautéed chicken of the woods with a store-bought barbecue sauce (although, I suspect that this Vegan Date BBQ sauce from Mary’s Test Kitchen would be 10-times better!).  This barbecue pairs perfectly with some of my homemade Zuc’ Slaw and a topped with a few home-pickled jalapeños, although store-bought peppers are just as good. Homemade fridge-pickles are another great topper for this sandwich. Try it out for yourself and add your own spin!

Chicken of the Woods Shredded Barbecue Sandwich

The fibrous texture of Chicken of the Woods mushroom makes it a perfect stand-in for chicken in this shredded barbecue sandwich.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time15 minutes
Course: Barbecue, Comfort Food, Lunch, Sandwich
Cuisine: Forager, Southern, Wild Mushroom
Servings: 4 sandwiches
Author: BeetEater

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of fresh chicken of the woods mushroom
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup of prepared barbecue sauce
  • 4 buns or 8 slices of bread
  • 8-12 pickled jalapeños
  • 8-12 dill pickle slices
  • 2 cups vegan cole-slaw I recommend my homemade Zuc’ Slaw

Instructions

  • Wash the chicken of the woods mushroom, and pull it apart with your fingers into fine shreds to resemble shredded chicken.
  • Water-fry the mushroom in a fry-pan over medium-high until it is cooked all the way through.
  • Stir about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of barbecue sauce into the mushrooms over low-heat until the sauce begins to bind to the surface of the mushrooms
  • Toast your bread or hamburger buns and set aside.
  • Assemble your sandwich. Top your bread with about 1/2 cup of cole slaw, about 1/2 cup of barbecue mushrooms, 2-3 pickle chips and 2-3 pickled jalapeños.
Shredded barbecue goes great on a sandwich with some slaw and jalapeños!
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