Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Salicorne

The best thing you can give me is food I can eat.

Well, maybe love. I’d have to be pretty heartless to say, “Keep your feelings to yourself” – especially if you’re coming to my house for dinner and I’ve cooked a birthday meal and I’m lactose and gluten intolerant, thus making hostess gifts pretty tricky…

But in no particular order, wine, flowers and wild, foraged edibles have to be three of my favourite things – depending on the quality of each.

For instance, grocery store wine; wilting, imported flowers; and dandelion greens are not winners. But a bottle of red from mostly organic/biodynamic/natural wine importers Rézin, a bonsai plant, or lobster and chanterelle mushrooms with salicorne (sea asparagus) show that you know me.

And since I believe that food is part of love, they’re also the way to my heart. And I’m lucky to have friends who actually brought me all of those things, plus more gorgeous flowers, more foraged edibles (pickled cattails and daylily ketchup) and more quality wine.

But what a shame it would be if you gave these things to someone who didn’t know what to do with them.

A soufflé flops every time a chanterelle dies in a fridge. And I’ll admit, I’m so far not the best bonsai mother, as I watch the leaves fall slowly to the floor.

But sea asparagus and strange mushrooms? Check. I’ve got those covered. Now, so can you:

Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Salicorne

2 cups leftover chicken (or cook a couple breasts, thighs or legs), torn into chunks (~ 2″ x 3/4″ x 1/2″, if you’re the measuring type)
1 1/2 tbsp butter (or Earth Balance margarine)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 to 1 cup wild mushrooms, sliced (lobster, chanterelle, Lactarius Indigo, morel – just make sure they’re safe! The amount depends on your budget)
pinch of salt (~1/8 tsp, if you’re a measurer)
1/2 cup white wine (something dry is best, but anything you’ll drink is fine – maybe something from Rézin)
loosely packed 1/4 cup salicorne

Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When bubbly, add the mushrooms in a single layer (work in batches if you need to. The mushrooms shouldn’t touch). Sprinkle with salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn over and cook 3-5 minutes more, until mushrooms are softened. Add the chicken and turn the heat to medium. Pour in the wine and cook for 2 minutes, until the wine is almost absorbed. Add the salicorne, stir and remove from the heat.

Serve with bread, potatoes or nothing. And drink some of that wine while you’re at it.