Deep Fried Oyster Mushrooms

Game days call for buffalo chicken wings. This is not true for everyone. If you are looking for new vegan foods, then this recipe is a must-try! You can serve these as a finger food appetizer at game day parties if you don't want. And, best of all, they taste just like real chicken! 

If you love oyster mushrooms as much as we do, you might want to see our grilled oyster mushrooms, oyster mushroom chips and pan-fried oyster mushrooms without breading too.

Why should you make this recipe?

This fried oyster mushroom recipe will become one of your favorite party foods. Here is why:

• They cook really fast, so you can easily make and serve them right before serving.
• They are incredibly delicious and taste like chicken.
• You will fall in love with the crispy crust outside and tender and meaty texture inside. 
• This recipe is so good that even non-vegans love it.
• They make a perfect finger food at parties, and virtually any occasion.
• And you can even use this oyster mushroom fried chicken to make vegan burgers or po boy sandwiches.  

Ingredients and Substitutions

We can put the ingredients into three categories.

Oyster Mushrooms: Pearl oyster mushrooms are the best for this recipe. You can use all colors (grey, blue, pink, yellow) and king oyster mushrooms. They all have an incredibly meaty texture and flavor that virtually no other mushroom can match! This is exactly why so many people choose it as a vegetarian and vegan party food ingredient.

As for the oil, use a light olive oil, vegetable oil or sunflower oil.

Wet Batter: It is a combination of almond milk, vinegar, flour, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. We make a quick vegan buttermilk to use in the wet batter. It is our go-to recipe in several vegan recipes that require buttermilk. We use homemade roasted almond milk for it but you can use any store-bought plant-based milk like soy milk, cashew milk or oat milk. If you don’t have any of these on hand, just use plain water.

Also, you can substitute spelt flour, whole wheat flour or gluten free flour for all purpose flour.

Dry batter: We simply combine cornmeal(key ingredient for a crispy texture) with paprika and salt. This mixture gives you the feeling of chicken fries at fast food restaurants. You can substitute cornmeal with breadcrumbs or panko to make these breaded mushrooms but we love the texture of cornmeal more than these. A good substitution for paprika in this recipe would be cayenne pepper or chicken seasoning.

How to make

These fried oyster mushrooms are incredibly easy to make and they cook really quick. They are not deep-fried, we just use 1-2 inches of oil in a pan. But you can definitely use your deep-fryer.

You can finish these in less than 15 minutes and serve them with a wide variety of dipping sauces and accompaniments. So let’s learn how to fry oyster mushrooms in a few steps:

1. Clean the mushrooms with a damp kitchen towel. Cut the rubbery stems off. You can divide them into individual caps or leave them as they are to fry the whole cluster.

2. Make the vegan buttermilk by combining the vinegar and almond milk. Allow them to sit for a minute.

3. Make the wet batter: Combine the flour and spices in a medium bowl. Pour the vegan buttermilk in the dry ingredient mix and whisk until you have a completely smooth batter.

4. To make the dry batter, combine the cornmeal, paprika, and salt in a separate bowl and set it aside.

5. Place the bowl of batter and coating next to a lined baking sheet or cookie sheet. Then, dip each oyster mushroom first into the wet batter with a fork. Allow the excess batter to drip back into the bowl.
6. Then, place the batter-coated oyster mushrooms into the dry coating mixture. Make sure they are well coated before gently shaking off any excess coating. Place the breaded mushrooms in a single layer on the baking tray.

Tip: It is easier when you prepare a breading station like the one you see above. Mushrooms first go into the wet batter, then into the dry batter and then on the cookie sheet.

7. Fry the breaded oyster mushrooms. Heat oil in a pan. Fry the mushrooms for 2 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown. Work in small batches to prevent overcrowding the pan.
8. Once fried, transfer the mushrooms on a paper towel to remove excessive oil and serve warm.

Expert Tips

• Don’t ever wash mushrooms with water. They absorb the water which then gets pushed back out when they are heated, causing the batter to fall off. Simply clean them with a damp paper towel.
• It is easier to first coat all of the mushrooms in the wet batter and dry coating before frying them. By placing them on a baking sheet, they are all ready to be fried quickly and won't have to sit afterward for very long.
• In the dry batter, make sure you use cornmeal, NOT cornstarch, also known as corn flour. You can only get that crispy texture with cornmeal.
• Make sure that you have a hot oiled pan or deep fryer. To test if your oil is hot enough, you can drop a pinch of flour inside. If it immediately starts sizzling, it is hot enough. But, if it sinks to the bottom and doesn’t react at all, you need to continue heating the oil.
• Never overcrowd the pan when frying mushrooms. This will cause the temperature of the oil to drop too much and not evenly fry the mushrooms.

Serving suggestions

So what goes well with these crispy fried oyster mushrooms? 

You can serve them as an appetizer or a game-day snack alongside some ketchup and mayonnaise. This way, the oyster mushrooms taste like fried chicken wings, especially with their crispy meaty texture!

And, you can even use this recipe to make an incredibly delicious vegan oyster mushroom burger or a po boy sandwich! You can make the them as simple or fancy as you'd like! 

Some friends even think that these fried oyster mushrooms taste like fried calamari, which has the same cornmeal coating, when served with tarator sauce. 

Also, you can serve these mushrooms with salads like Turkish coban salad or acili ezme. 

How to store and reheat

Fried food never really keeps that well. Once left to stand out, they absorb the moisture in the air and lose their crispness.

However, if you do need to store any, make sure to place them inside of an airtight container in the fridge. Place them on top of paper towels so that they can absorb any excess moisture.

Then, to give them their crispiness back, we would recommend re-frying them either in hot oil for about 30 seconds or in the pre-heated oven at 400F/200C for 10 minutes.

FAQs

More Oyster Mushroom Recipes

• Pan Fried Oyster Mushrooms
• How to Cook King Oyster Mushrooms
• Creamy Oyster Mushroom Pasta
• Oyster Mushroom Soup

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