chicken of the woods

noun phrase
variants: or chicken-of-the-woods

Definition of chicken of the woods

: an edible bracket fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus) of North America and Europe that forms thick, fleshy, shelflike fruiting bodies (as on tree trunks) which are usually bright orange above and sulfur yellow below Realistically, however, a 56-pound chicken of the woods is old and tough. The fungus is only appetizing when it is young and tender, but even then, it is usually big.— Nina Rao I've eaten chicken-of-the-woods, a bright orange fungus I knocked off a rotting log.— Tina Kelley

called also chicken mushroom, sulfur shelf

First Known Use of chicken of the woods

1960, in the meaning defined above

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