Portobello mushrooms are dense, meaty-flavored, and full of nutrients. They also make great "cups" for a savory ground chicken filling. This is a fairly easy and quick-to-fix recipe, and the stuffed mushrooms need only 30-40 minutes in the oven to bake. The filling, in addition to ground chicken, includes lots of vegetables, which keeps the stuffing moist as well as tasty. Think of the wonderful tastes of Thanksgiving stuffing with mushrooms thrown in. While the stuffed mushrooms bake, you can simmer an easy sauce on the stove top to pour over the baked mushrooms. The sauce isn't strictly necessary, but it is good! I serve the mushrooms with a salad and green vegetable, but, if you have hearty appetites at your table, pasta or bread would also make good accompaniments.
Chicken-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms -- Serves 4
4 large portobello mushrooms, washed (yes, wash them!)
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, divided
16 ounces of ground chicken (93 percent lean, and yes, you can use ground
turkey instead)
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/2 cup of shredded carrot
1/3 cup of chopped celery
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon of lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of grainy Dijon mustard
1 egg
3/4 cup of seasoned Panko bread crumbs, divided.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a sheet pan with non-stick cooking spray or line the pan with aluminum foil and coat the foil with spray. With a spoon scoop out the stem and enough of the mushroom gills (setting the mushroom pieces aside) to leave you with a space in the middle of your mushroom caps. Slice a small piece off the top side of the mushrooms if necessary to keep them stable on your baking sheet. You don't want the mushrooms to slide off the baking sheet when you put it into or take it out of the oven! Drizzle the inside of the mushrooms (the cups) with 1 tablespoon of the Worcestershire sauce.
Chop up the reserved mushroom stems and pieces and put them in a microwave-safe bowl. To the bowl with the mushroom pieces add the chopped onion, shredded carrots, chopped celery, and 2-3 tablespoons of water. Partially cover the bowl with plastic wrap or waxed paper and microwave the vegetables for 4-5 minutes or until they soften. Stir them well and add the ground chicken, the remaining 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, parsley flakes, poultry seasoning, lemon pepper, salt, mustard, and egg. Mix everything well. You want the vegetables and seasonings well distributed. The mixture should be a little wet. Add 1/2 cup of the Panko and mix it in well. The Panko will absorb a lot of the moisture. Stuff each of the mushroom caps with some of the chicken mixture, mounding the chicken mixture on the caps. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of the Panko on top of the stuffing mixture. Bake the stuffed mushrooms for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through the the tops have browned. Let the mushrooms cool a few minutes before serving them.
Sauce
1 cup of reduced sodium chicken broth (or reconstituted reduced sodium
"Better Than Bullion")
1 tablespoon of minced dried onion
2 teaspoons of grainy Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons of dried parsley flakes
1/2 cup of white wine
1 cup of light sour cream
In a medium saucepan, combine the broth, onion, mustard, parsley flakes and wine and bring them to a boil. Stir the mixture, reduce the heat to a simmer, and let the sauce cook until reduced by about half. Stir the sauce periodically. Turn off the heat and stir in the sour cream until completely incorporated. Serve the sauce on top of the mushroom caps, if you'd like. (Sorry, I don't have a picture of the sauce on top of the mushroom caps. The sauce, and caps, were eaten before I could take a picture--yum, yum, yum.)
