Classic Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto

Creamy and comforting chanterelle risotto is a fall favorite. This recipe makes traditional, creamy risotto with fresh chanterelles and is finished with parmesan cheese. It looks and tastes luxurious but it's so easy to make in just 45 minutes.

During chanterelle season, I use fresh mushrooms as often as I can get them. But at other times of the year, you can easily make this recipe with frozen or dried mushrooms that have been rehydrated.

Besides this chanterelle risotto, you can find them in my melty Chanterelle Croustade sandwich, my Wild Mushroom Soup recipe and my hearty Mushroom Lentil Stew.

What To Serve With Mushroom Risotto

Guess what?! So many people were wondering what to serve with this that I wrote What To Serve With Mushroom Risotto-Top 50 Recipes. So check those out. I also love flank steak with risotto as well as Rocket and Pear Salad and Fresh Fig Salad.

Learning To Forage For Chanterelle Mushrooms

I first learned to pick mushrooms from my dad and although we picked quite a few varieties over the years, the type I pick the most now are chanterelle mushrooms. They are easy to find, easy to identify, and don't have very close look-alikes that are poisonous. Found like little jewels on the forest floor, chanterelles are so delicious.  Others I love to find are oyster mushrooms, shaggy manes, lobster mushrooms (my very favourite for eating) and morels. Boletes and cauliflower mushrooms are also great eating.

*Please note that wild mushrooms should always be cooked before eating and never eat any mushrooms you have not been able to identify 100%.

Ingredients

This great recipe uses just a few wholesome ingredients and is one of my favourite chanterelle recipes of all time. Delicious risotto is great as a main dish or fabulous as a side dish. Find What To Serve With Mushroom Risotto-Top 50 Recipes here.

• Chanterelle Mushrooms - These gorgeous and flavorful wild mushrooms are only available in season. Generally chanterelles are found starting in late August until frost around mid November. Weather plays a large part in how long the season lasts. Chanterelles need moisture and do not grow once the ground gets heavy frost. You can usually find them at the grocery store and farmers markets.
• Arborio Rice - The classic and essential rice for making risotto. Arborio rice is a short-grain rice that easily becomes creamy as you stir it while cooking. In fact in can get so creamy, many risotto dishes do not call for any actual dairy cream. There are other types of rice you can use. Vialone Nano and Carnaroli are the two other main rices used in risotto. They are high starch, short grain rices. These 3 rice varieties are called superfino and are considered the highest quality, essential for perfect risotto.
• Dry White Wine - The perfect compliment to risotto, a light, dry wine adds acidity and body. Choose an unoaked white wine. The alcohol will burn off during cooking though if you choose to omit it, used a teaspoon or two of lemon juice to achieve the acidity for balanced flavor.

Step By Step Instructions

1. In a large saucepan or sauté pan, heat oil on medium and cook shallots and garlic until translucent, then add mushrooms.
   
2. Sauté mushrooms until liquid is reduced and absorbed, remove about a cup to reserve for garnishing your risotto at the end. Next add salt, pepper and white wine and reduce wine by half.
   
3. Reduce heat to medium low and add risotto rice. Continue stirring until liquid is absorbed.
   
4. Add herbs and start adding the hot vegetable or chicken stock about a ½ c at a time, stirring frequently until liquid is absorbed, then adding more, repeating until rice is al dente. (Approximately 20-25 min.) Constant stirring will help the rice release the starches, creating the creamy consistency.
5. Turn heat to lowest setting and add the Parmesan cheese, heavy cream and parsley. Stir until incorporated and melted, season to taste with sea salt and black pepper and turn heat off.
   (Risotto should be a nice creamy texture. If it gets too thick while waiting to serve, simply add in a little hot broth to keep it loose.)
   
6. To serve, spoon into bowls, top with reserved mushrooms and garnish with more thyme or parsley if desired. Mushroom risotto can be served as a vegetarian main course or a perfect side dish for roast chicken or vegetables.

Substitutions + Variations

Vegan Risotto - This Italian rice dish can easily be made as a vegan risotto. Simply use vegetable broth and nut milk in place of cream and chicken broth. Swap out the parmesan for a vegan cheese or sub a tablespoon of nutritional yeast and omit the butter.

Mixed Mushroom Risotto - Use any mix of your favourite mushrooms including porcini mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, shiitake and even white mushrooms in place of chanterelles. Lobster mushrooms will make your risotto a vibrant color and add flavor reminiscent of seafood. Porcini add a deeper, earthier flavor while white buttons make a mildly flavoured risotto. Have fun and use whatever mushrooms you can find.

How To Cook Chanterelles

There are many ways to cook wild mushrooms and really you can use them in almost any mushroom recipe that appeals to you. For chanterelle mushrooms I like a recipe that really highlights their flavor without overpowering them and also showcases their beautiful texture. 

Chanterelles are more tender than store bought white mushrooms and have a sweet, pleasantly strong earthy flavor that really tastes like fall.

The simplest way to prepare them is to sauté them. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat, add a little olive oil or butter and heat until shimmering. Add sliced or chopped chanterelle mushrooms and cook until any liquid has evaporated. Add in chopped garlic cloves if desired and continue to fry until the fresh mushrooms start to get golden brown. Season with salt and black pepper and enjoy as is or on top of a salad or steak.

Served with a side of crusty bread and a glass of white wine, it heralds the arrival of fall and puts me in the mood to start appreciating the rain.

A few other ways I use them are in soup (a no-brainer), on top of salad, in a white lasagna, on crostini, in stuffing for turkey, and in pasta.  (Follow West Coast Kitchen Garden on Instagram to see what else I'm cooking up with these mushrooms!) If you find yourself with cauliflower mushrooms, try my Cauliflower Mushroom Gratin.

How To Preserve Chanterelles

To store for the winter there are multiple ways to preserve.  Some mushrooms are good for drying but chanterelles seem to lose a lot of flavor this way and don't keep quite as nice a texture.

My favorite, tried and true way to preserve chanterelles is to clean, coarsely chop and saute them, pack them into freezer bags or containers and top with some stock, butteror olive oil to cover then freeze.  I've had a lot of success with this method. Once thawed, use them in any mushroom dish, they even fry up nicely to serve alongside a steak.

Related Recipes

Along with this chanterelle mushroom risotto recipe, I have lots of other tasty mushroom recipes. Have a look through these or search mushrooms in the search bar above for all the great fungi ideas!

I hope you get a chance to get out mushroom picking this year or find some at your local farmers market or grocery store because they really are a seasonal treat.

For more on what I'm cooking up, follow me on Instagram or Facebook. You might also like my FREE printable weekly meal planner.

Cheers friends! Sabrina

📖 Recipe

Classic Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto

Creamy, earthy and comforting, this chanterelle risotto is so luxurious. A delicious main course or side dish for fall and winter.

5 from 40 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main, Side Dish

Cuisine: Italian, Wild Food

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 395kcal

Author: Sabrina Currie

Ingredients

• ▢ ¼ c Shallot, Finely Chopped
• ▢ 1 clove Garlic, Minced
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• ▢ 4 c Chanterelle Mushrooms, Cut Into ½" Pieces Or other wild mushrooms
• ▢ ½ tsp Each, Salt And Pepper
• ▢ ½ c Dry White Wine (Unoaked) I used 40 Knots Unoaked Chardonnay
• ▢ 1 Large Sprig Thyme
• ▢ 1 Bay Leaf
• ▢ 1 c Arborio Rice A short grain variety of rice is imperative
• ▢ 3 c Hot Chicken Broth vegetable or mushroom broth are great substitutes.
• ▢ ½ c Parmesan, Grated About ¼ c before grating
• ▢ ¼ c Heavy Cream
• ▢ ½ c Parsley, Finely Chopped
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Butter

Instructions

• In a fairly large (12" diameter +/-) saute pan, heat oil on medium heat and add shallots and garlic. Cook until translucent and then add mushrooms.
• Saute mushrooms until liquid is reduced and absorbed, then add salt, pepper and white wine and reduce wine by half.

  Remove approximately 1 cup to reserve for topping your finished risotto.
• Reduce heat to medium low.  Add in rice and stir until liquid is absorbed. 
• Next add the thyme and bay leaf and start adding the hot vegetable stock.  Add about ½ c, stirring frequently until liquid is absorbed, then add another ½ c of hot stock, stir and repeat until rice is al dente.  (Approximately 20-25 min)  

  You may not need the full 3 cups of stock so test the rice after 20 min or when you've used 2.5 c of the stock and adjust accordingly.  If you find you need more liquid, finish with some hot water as required.
• Turn heat to lowest setting and add the Parmesan, cream and parsley and stir until incorporated and melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper and turn heat off.

  (Risotto should be a fairly loose consistency, if it gets too thick while waiting to serve, simply add in a little more hot veggie stock to correct.)
• To serve, spoon into bowls, top with reserved mushrooms and garnish with more thyme or parsley if desired. Mushroom risotto can be served as a vegetarian main course or a perfect side dish for roast chicken.

Notes

Saute times for wild mushrooms will vary greatly depending on type, age and how much recent rain there has been.  As you saute, the mushrooms will release their juice.  Continue to cook them until the liquid has reduced and been reabsorbed by the mushrooms and then continue longer if you want them to brown. 

This is great with a dry minerally white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Blanc. A Chardonnay is delicious too. Although you should not use an oaky wine in the risotto, it would be a great pairing to drink with the risotto because it plays well off the rich butter and cheese flavours.  (I enjoyed a locally grown and made unoaked Chardonnay from 40 Knots located in the Comox Valley with this)

Nutrition

Calories: 395kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 39mg | Sodium: 937mg | Potassium: 347mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 1423IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 173mg | Iron: 4mg

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