My youngest daughter loves these, so I make them frequently. They’re great as a side dish, on their own, or a substitute for meat in sandwiches.
The reason I have broiled in quotation marks is because I use the “broil” setting on my oven to make these, but to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what that does. All I know is that I’ve tried to use the “bake” setting" and they don’t come out as crisp. Here’s how I make them.
Ingredients
About 10 baby bella mushrooms, de-stemmed and thinly sliced (see notes)
Salt to taste
Olive oil to taste (enough to have at least a little bit on every slice of mushroom)
Method
Place the mushroom slices in a bowl and drizzle the olive oil on them, then shake salt over top. Using a spoon, mix up the mushrooms so all of them have some olive oil and salt on them.
Note 2: After de-stemming your mushrooms; save the stems. You can use them to make “pulled mushrooms” later. Post about that will come at some point in the future
The broil setting usually employs just the top burner of the oven, and is used for high-heat browning. Great for melting and browning cheese and triggering the maillard effect* in meats and other foods.
The weird part is our oven only has the top burner, with a fan in the back (a “convection oven”). All I know is that a lot of steam escapes out a vent through the top of the stove when I use the broil setting in the oven.
Why don’t you just fry the mushrooms? In a frying pan with oil (I prefer butter, but that’s a choice thing, oil also does the job)
Note: I just realised that ‘broiling’ is basically ‘grilling’ here and I would never consider grilling mushrooms
1 Like
AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
8
Broiling in the oven is dry heat which removes the moisture to make the mushrooms crunchy. Pan frying them in butter is yummy, but they are softened and not crispy.
@Renstar, what @AIMR said. I also sometimes fry mushrooms, but the broiling in the oven gives them a crunchy texture that I’ve never been able to achieve when frying. I’ve never tried grilling them on a BBQ outside, but I assume that would give it a different flavour also. Perhaps this summer I’ll give it a try.