Week 127

I was on the hunt for a delicious mushroom gravy based recipe that doesn’t cheat by using MSG, bouillon, or any kind of additive. I guess you could say it’s healthier than what you would buy in a packet in a grocery store which is an enormous upgrade to one’s quality of food.

Then I found out about porcinis! They are also known as wild mushrooms. I’ve never cooked with porcinis before – they’re pretty expensive. At an Italian food specialty store, it was $6 for 1 ounce of these dried little wild mushrooms. I was intrigued nonetheless. Perhaps this was the answer to all the bland gravy sauces made in the past…

After all the cooking, the porcinis indeed added a depth of flavor to the gravy that made the sauce taste more substantial and woodsy. They absorbed the sauce as they were cooking so once you bite into them it’s pretty juicy.

After so many many weeks of meal prepping every Sunday these porcinis made lunch feel a little bit more special. Try this mushroom chicken gravy recipe for your meal prep program:

wild mushroom gravy

Mushroom Gravy with Chicken Meal Prep Recipe

Servings

10-12 servings! That’s a lot of meals! Share it or freeze the gravy.

Ingredients

1. A six pack of chicken thighs, de-boned and de-skinned and cubed
2. 2 oz of dried wild mushrooms, porcini mushrooms
3. Six sprigs of rosemary
4. Corn starch
5. Dry red wine
6. Chicken stock, 2 cups (used from ginger scallion chicken recipe)
7. Macaroni, one box
8. Two bags of frozen corn
9. Two shallots
10. Three portabello mushrooms

Steps

1. Drizzle oil over handy large pot and heat over medium heat.

2. Wash rosemary and pluck leaves off. Mince the rosemary and mix with chicken. Add salt. Then sauté in the pot until outside looks done. About 10 mins. Set aside.

3. Chop shallots and add to the pan. Thinly slice portabello mushrooms and add to pan. Cook until tender.  Soak the dried porcinis in a large bowl of chicken stock.

4. Add cornstarch to the pot. (Alternatively, use 2 tbsp butter and flour to create a roux). Stir into mushroom shallot mixture. Add red wine and let simmer for a couple minutes or until red wine has reduced by half.

5. Add the bowl of porcinis bathing in chicken stock to the pot. Stir and thicken as desired with corn starch.

6. Boil a pot of water to prepare the macaroni pasta. After water has boiled, add macaroni to the pot. Wait until desired tenderness, about ten mins. Strain with cold water to prevent noodles from sticking (important cooking tip).

7. For the corn, add water to a pan or the gravy pot once it’s been emptied. (I poured the pasta that was in the pot into a storage container and then topped with the gravy).

8. Then I used the gravy pot to make the corn ( making sure to clean gravy out of pot to prevent burning). Once water is simmering, add corn and cook until tender.

9. Combine pasta, corn, and pot of porcini mushroom gravy into Pyrex or storage!

Porcini mushrooms… who would’ve guessed it would make a difference?!