I've never heard of "chicken of the woods" before. To what are you referring? Since I don't know what chicken of the woods is, can't tell you if the worms/grubs are normal or not.

 

Pics would be a plus, if you haven't eaten them all...lol

 

It's a fungus that grows on trees.

 

Well, I kinda figured it was a fungus of sorts...but I still would have liked a pic. We've had so much rain, it's been mushroom hell up here...just like to see if it was anything we had.

 

That didn't go as planned...

 

................Fail # 2... google it. At least I tried.

 

 

we pan fried some, the texture and flavor is like chicken, but there were a lot of tiny white worm things in them. wouldnt matter if you were hungry...............

they would be great with any kind of sauce, or used in recipes. i read they can be frozen after being cooked for up to 3 months.

if you rip them off the tree they wont come back. if you cut them off leaving a little on the tree they will come back next year.
if you cut off the outter 2 inches, it will grow back this season.

 

The moment i read about them for the first time, i instantly though onion ring batter fried mushrooms : , damnit now i need to find me some suflur shelf

 

More here from fungus and mushroom experts:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/laetiporus_sulphureus.html

http://mushroom-collecting.com/mushroomchickens.html

Note the warnings in this web site:

http://americanmushrooms.com/edibles4.htm

 

wild mushrooms tend to be wormy. It adds to the flavor.
So...yea, fairly normal.

 

My two cents....

What you want to look for on these mushrooms is the obvious newer tender growth on the outer part of the mushrooms. The stuff more toward the base of the mushroom is very woody and I'd suspect that the bugs would be more apt to be there than the outer portion. The outer part is very tender and good. I'd walk away from the rest of it however.

There is no other mushroom that looks like them so once identified you know what they are unlike many other mushrooms with often very similar appearances but possibly even deadly results.

 

Bug in wild mushrooms is pretty normal. I'm a bit squeemish about that and go to extremes to remove them. But you wouldn't really need to if you don't mind eating them.

 

I was taught to soak wild mushrooms in saltwater to help remove 'critters'. Then let them dry out before cooking to remove excess water that will make the cooked texture a bit mushy.