Beer Battered Chanterelle Mushrooms

Chanterelle mushrooms are great for several reasons. They’re easy to find and identify, and they grow over a large swath of North America. To me, chants are also one of the best tasting wild mushrooms. (As with all wild mushrooms, go with an experienced forager in your area or cross reference at least two good mushroom guide books before picking and consuming any wild mushroom.)

Chanterelles are one of the best tasting and easiest to find and identify wild mushrooms. Images by author

But they do have a downside. They are packed with extra moisture. This isn’t an issue when you are sautéing them for a recipe or side dish, as you simply cook until the water escapes and evaporates. Where it starts to be an issue is when you are trying to deep fry a chanterelle. With traditional dry coatings, the moisture gets trapped inside the crust and the crust tends to fall off during the cooking process.

Chanterelles are normally difficult to fry, but this method of drying them overnight and then beer battering makes them crispy and delicious.

There is a way to fry them to a golden crispy treat, though. Start the day before by slicing the mushrooms in half vertically. Place the sliced mushrooms on a paper towel lined sheet pan. Place the pan, uncovered, in the refrigerator at least overnight and up to 24 hours. The dry air of the refrigerator in combination with the paper towels will extract a lot of the extra moisture from the mushrooms.

After drying overnight in the refrigerator, the mushrooms will be smaller and hold less moisture.

When you are ready to cook, leave the dry dredge ingredients in the cabinet and make yourself a beer batter. The thick batter will fully coat the mushroom and hold on even if there is a little liquid remaining.

Mix the batter to about a pancake batter consistency.

Start by heating 2 inches of oil in a deep pan or pot until it reaches 350 degrees.

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To make the batter, add all dry ingredients to a bowl, then pour in the beer while mixing thoroughly. The batter should be about like a thin pancake batter. It should drip from the fork in sheets instead of drops. If your batter is too thin, add a bit more flour. If it is too thick, add just a little water.

Mix the batter and add enough beer or carbonated water to reach the correct thickness to fully coat the mushrooms.

Once your oil is at 350 degrees, drop a few of the mushrooms into the batter.

When your oil reaches temperature, drop the mushrooms into the batter and press down to fully cover the entire surface in batter.

Press them down to make sure they are fully covered. Move the mushrooms, one at a time, to the hot oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan, fry in batches.

Fry in batches to a golden crispy brown.

Once the mushrooms are golden brown and have floated to the top of the oil, scoop them out with a slotted spoon or wire spider, allowing excess oil to drain back into the pan. Move the cooked mushrooms to a paper towel lined plate and continue until all mushrooms are cooked.

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