I am envious. I love morels and we rarely find any on our property but my neighbor finds grocery bags full on his land! It's just not fair! LOL

This dish is to die for. If you don't have ramps you could sub shallots.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Morels and Ramps in a White Wine Cream Sauce
By Ramona Padovano Source: Marxfoods.com
Serves 4-6

8 chicken thighs with bone and skin
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
8-10 morel mushrooms
bunch ramps, about a dozen, trimmed at each end and rough chopped
1 1/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup half and half or light cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour for dredging

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat a large dutch oven over high heat. Generously salt and pepper chicken thighs on both sides. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.

Add olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter to heated dutch oven. When the oil begins to shimmer, add chicken to the pan. Do not overcrowd the pan. Allow chicken to brown for 4-5 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to a platter.
Reduce heat to medium and add 1 tablespoon butter to the dutch oven. Add morels and ramps. Sautee for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and continue to sautee for an additional minute. Transfer vegetables to the chicken platter.

Increase heat to high and deglaze with white wine. Reduce to a strong simmer and allow wine to reduce by a third. Add chicke stock, thyme and marjoram. Return chicken and vegetables to braising vessel.

Place dutch oven in lower third of the oven. Braise for 90 minutes.

Remove chicken from the dutch oven, skim fat as needed with a large spoon, and add cream. Serve chicken with sauce over top.

Linda

They look like poisonous mushrooms! Send them to me quick. :-)

In the order of (my) preference:

Great with fish, chicken, pork, beef, eggs. I don't use morels for lamb or duck.

dcarch

They look like morels to me, too. Cut one in half. If the stem is all one piece with the top of the mushroom (not two separate pieces like a portobella, etc.) and it's hollow, it's a morel.

Grandma used to soak them in salt water to make sure any small beasts were not lurking in the cap, then dipped them in egg and rolled them in flour and fried them in butter. She also added them to scrambled eggs, which was Dad's favorite.

I don't have any favorite recipes, because I don't really care for them, but I did dry some and grind them up then mix them with salt for "morel salt", and that made the flavor go a bit further.

Enjoy them, it's still in the 40s here, and morels are not yet appearing.

Annie

I ended up making asparagus mushroom risotto using the two morels, and four spears of asparagus from our garden.
After sauteing the morels I set them aside until the risotto was done, and dished up two servings, and stirred the morel pieces in to the servings, to maximize the mushroom-y flavor.

It was really good, i don't know if it was $50 a pound good.

I was really nervous about eating wild picked mushrooms, since I remember reading a mushroom identification guide in elementary school, and the about-the-author page noted that the book was published posthumously, because the author had died from mushroom poisoning.

If you only have a few, don't waste them on a dish where the taste is masked. Simply soak them in salt water for 15 minutes (to remove any little mites) and then saute them in butter.

Simple and absolutely delicious. Morels taste like no other mushroom - very smooth texture and awesome.

Beautiful! I made Cream of Mushroom and Brie Soup for lunch today; can you imagine make it with morels?

lol, Bob, I would love to find a copy of that book.

Cathy, I can imagine it. In a good year I saute them in butter and freeze for cream soup. Never thought about adding brie, though. Yum.

Risotto was a good idea. We like them chicken fried...dipped in egg and then seasoned flour mixed with some Zatarain's fish fry coating with mashed potatoes and mushroom cream gravy on the side. Or in a mushroom crusted quiche. Sauteed in omelets/frittatas. Pasta. Yum. I hope it's a good year...

.

Beautiful! I made Cream of Mushroom and Brie Soup for lunch today; can you imagine make it with morels?

Beautiful! I made Cream of Mushroom and Brie Soup for lunch today; can you imagine make it with morels?

I found one more morel yesterday, and following some of the suggestions here, I made a brie and morel omelette this morning for breakfast.

Wow. Jackpot. Just yesterday evening I found 8 more Morel Mushrooms, some of which are almost 6 inches tall.

{{gwi:370962}}

That is crazy! Morels are about $100.00 a lb here in NY!

You are so lucky!

BTW, the omelette look heavenly.

dcarch