Stuffed Morels with Chicken and Cheese
Satisfying, savoury, and special. Everyone loves stuffed mushrooms, especially when they're made with very special morel mushrooms and filled with a flavourful mix of chicken and gruyere cheese. Here's our savoury recipe for stuffed morels that will leave everyone begging for a second helping. This irresistible dish can be served as an appetizer over some toast or as a small side dish on a plate. You can keep the stuffed morels whole, or slice them in half for a nice presentation.
Prep Time: 1 h 30 min
Total Time: 2 h
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 34 g dried jumbo morels
- 125 g ground chicken (or substitute with cooked rice for a vegetarian version)
- ½ small onion
- ½ French shallot (or regular shallot)
- 1 small garlic clove
- Parsley
- 40 g gruyere cheese (or: French Comté, old cheddar)
- 25 g butter or olive oil
- 2 cups mushroom stock
- ½ cup white wine (or cooking wine)
- ½ cup sherry wine (or cooking wine)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 egg (optional)
Preparation
Rehydrate the morels
In a big bowl, pour warm chicken stock and add the sherry (or any red cooking wine) to the mix. Immerse the morels completely into the mixture, then let sit for 15-20 minutes. The mushrooms will get bigger as they reconstitute, so make sure there is enough liquid to cover them.
Preparing the chicken and cheese stuffing
Mince the garlic, shallots, onion and parsley. Dice the gruyere cheese into small bits.
Combine those ingredients (garlic, shallot, onion, parsley, cheese) with the ground chicken in a bowl.
Add salt and pepper. Mix equally.
TIP! You can add an egg (or part of an egg) to the stuffing preparation to help get the right texture. This is especially helpful if the ground meat is dry or when using rice in place of meat.
Stuffing the morels
First, strain the mushrooms, making sure to save the rehydration liquid you soaked the morels in. It will be used later on in the recipe.
TIP! Don’t hesitate to gently squeeze your morels to get rid of excess liquid—morels are like sponges and tend to retain fluids. You can also save the rehydration liquid for flavouring your soup, sauces, and gravy.
Get a plate for both your stuffing and strained morels. After trying many different methods, we find that the easiest way to delicately fill the morels is to use the handle end of a teaspoon. Hold the morel firmly with one hand while stuffing it to the very top of its base.
Cooking the stuffed morels
Melt the butter in a pan at high heat. When the pan is hot enough, add the stuffed morels and sear them on one side.
When they get a golden colour (around 1-2 minutes), turn them over to do the same on the other side. Lower heat to medium, then add the white wine and 2 ladles of the rehydration “juice”.
Cover and let cook for another 10-12 minutes before serving.
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