This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Addicting fried oyster mushrooms! Seasoned crispy outer crust with a tender meaty texture inside. Serve as an appetizer at your party or game day event; or even as part of a main course as it makes a great meat substitute for fried chicken!
This post contains affiliate links which means if you purchase something from any of the links, Vegan With Curves will receive a small commission. All opinions are 100% my own. Please read my full affiliate disclaimer HERE.
If you never had fried oyster mushrooms, once you do you will be hooked! I cooked these for my dad while watching the game and my dad ate the entire bowl only leaving me with 3 pieces (hey I still love the guy!) Yes they are that good!
Addicting fried oyster mushrooms! Makes a great meat substitute for fried chicken!
Why Fry These Mushrooms?
You don’t have to fry them at all you can saute them and add them to any dish calling for mushrooms. I occasionally fry these mushrooms because they have a very meaty and tender texture reminding you of fried chicken so it’s makes a more natural meat substitute than using a mock meat vegan product. The are so delicious that even if you are not vegan you will find yourself craving these. I recommend using a cast iron or deep fryer for this like my stand by FryDaddy Electric Deep Fryer. Now I don’t own an air fryer at the moment and I cannot make any guarantee that it will work but you are more than free to try it out and see for yourself! (NOTE: In the comment section someone mentioned they used this recipe in their air fryer and it worked out fine so feel free to test it out for yourself!)
Why this recipe works?
- Oyster Mushrooms: As mentioned above oyster mushroom texture is what makes this fried mushroom recipe delicious. Sure you can use any mushroom for frying but then you won’t get that same satisfying texture as you would with these mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are readily available and easily found at your local Asian market. Oyster mushrooms also contain good levels of zinc, folic acid, and niacin.
- Spelt Flour: Spelt flour works really well with this recipe. This works with chickpea flour too but with chickpea flour you get a more crisper thicker coating when fried and a lighter color (think of Popyees chicken texture). With Spelt flour you get a crispy but thinner coating when fried an a rich dark brown color (think of my former favorite KFC). Spelt is not a gluten free flour so it is not recommended if you have Celiac Disease. (Use chickpea flour instead).
- Multiple Uses! Craving a Po boy sandwich? Use these Fried Oyster Mushrooms. Miss fried chicken? Use these Fried Oyster Mushrooms. What a meatless finger food to go with your French fries? Use these Fried Oyster Mushrooms! You get the drift!
How to Make this Fun Finger Food! (READ FULL RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR FULL INSTRUCTIONS)
The key to frying these mushrooms is having both a wet and dry batter. My dad tried to do it on his own with just the dry batter and it didn’t turn out to good (poor guy he didn’t know lol). First you make your wet batter by adding your flour, seasonings and water to a bowl and mix well until completely combined.
Next in a separate bowl make your dry batter by adding more flour and seasonings to a bowl and mix well until seasonings are fully incorporated into the flour.
The you dip your mushrooms in your wet flour batter FIRST ONLY ONCE and then you coat them in your dry batter SECOND ONLY ONCE. Immediately add them to a hot oiled pan or deep fryer making sure not to over crowd them. Because this is not animal flesh, there will be no need to fry for more than 3 minutes until golden brown.
Vegan With Curves Star Ingredient
Spelt in general is often something highly used in the alkaline vegan community. One cup of spelt flour has 11 grams of protein! Read Spelt Flour Builds Strong Bones & Aids Circulation for full knowledge of the benefits of spelt flour.
How to make this Waste/Weight Release (Weight Loss) Friendly?
Well to fried food isn’t something you think of when trying to release weight. However there is a way to occasionally enjoy these without completely going off you your goals.
- Serve this over a salad instead of with French fries or a part of traditional starched filled fried chicken dinner
- Don’t fry them! These mushrooms are great in stir fries simply sauté’ as you would regular mushrooms!
- If you want them breaded you can try baking them with panko crumbs (I have not tried this myself but will in the future and report back to you how the have turned out!)
Curve builders, even though this recipe is high in calories, fried food is nothing something that is healthy that should be eaten daily. But it’s nice to have as treat every blue moon. Enjoy!
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? Tell me how it turned out for you! Was it a hit or miss? Tell me about it. Leave a comment below, rate it, and PIN IT! Also tag a photo @_VeganWithCurves and hashtag #VeganWithCurves on Instagram so I can see it!
Fried Oyster Mushrooms
Ingredients
Wet Batter
- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1 cup water more or less
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Dry Batter
- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
For Frying
- 32 ounce vegetable oil more or less for frying
- 1 package oyster mushrooms found in Asian stores, about a pound
- additional sea salt
- dried parsley optional
Instructions
- Grab your cast iron or FryDaddy Electric Deep Fryer (or whatever type of deep fryer you are using) and pour in oil. (DO NOT PLUG UP YET)
- Take your oyster mushrooms out the package and place in a colander. Pull apart to desired size and rinse well.
- Start making your wet batter. Place 1 cup of spelt flour in a large mixing bowl along with garlic powder, onion powder, and sea salt. Add in water and mixed. Batter should be the right consistency to coat mushrooms; not to thick and not to runny. Set aside.
- Grab a bowl 1 cup of spelt flour, garlic powder, and onion powder and mix until fully combined. Set aside. NOTE: You could use a large Ziploc bag for this to easily add your mushrooms and shake to get an even coat of the dry batter on the mushrooms.
- Next coat each oyster mushroom in the wet batter ONCE and place it in the the bowl and evenly coat with the dry batter ONCE. Do that for all pieces. NOTE: Using a Ziploc bag simply close the bag and shake vigorous until all mushroom are fully coated in dry batter. DO NOT GO BACK IN FORTH BETWEEN THE WET AND DRY BATTER TO PREVENT OVER BREADING IT WILL NOT TASTE WELL!
- Plug up your Fry Daddy Electric Deep Fryer and allow oil to get hot. (Or if using a cast iron heat oil in your iron until hot). Carefully place mushrooms in oil allowing mushrooms to fry for about 2 to 3 minutes until evenly browned. With your fry basket remove done mushrooms from oil and place on plate cover with a paper towel. Sprinkle with additional sea salt and dried parsley (opt) NOTE: Make sure your oil is hot and DO NOT overcrowd your mushrooms in the deep fryer or cast iron. If you need, divide mushrooms in half to cook a handful at a time.
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauces, on top of a salad, or along with your favorite sides for dinner!
Video
Notes
- Feel free to use any flour of choice. I have tested this with only Spelt Flour an Chickpea Flour (a gluten free option) and the both work excellent for this recipe!
- I have never tried this in an Air Fryer (I currently do not own one) but it could work. Try it and let me know!
- You can try this with other mushrooms although I URGE you to use oyster. The texture of these mushrooms are unlike any other. You will not be disappointed!
- DO NOT OVER BATTER!! Dip once in the wet batter and once in the dry batter and immediately fry. I can't stress this enough. If you keep going back and forth between wet and dry batter multiple times you will end up with a overly breaded mushroom that will NOT be good at all.
Nutrition
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my full affiliate disclaimer HERE.
© VEGAN WITH CURVES. UNLESS NOTED OTHERWISE, ALL IMAGES, RECIPES, & CONTENT ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED AND REGISTERED WITH THE U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE. MY IMAGES AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION. WHEN SHARING A RECIPE LINK BACK HERE TO THE ORIGINAL RECIPE. WHEN SHARING CONTENT FROM AN ARTICLE LINK BACK HERE TO THE ORIGINAL BLOG POST. READ FULL COPYRIGHT DISCLOSURE.
I love these but recently when I’ve been making, they come out crunchy but after a minute or two go soggy and not crunchy, anyone know why?
Please tell me what I’m doing wrong ? Mushroom was rubbery and slimy under the batter .
I am sorry to hear that. I do not know why yours is coming out that way. They should not be slimy at all or rubbery at all. Maybe make sure the quality you buy is fresh.
Made these in April ,2020 for the first time and they were AMAZING! Thanks
Can you use an air fryer?
Yes you can try it in an air fryer.
I’m not vegetarian or vegan, and I’m having trouble finding oyster mushroom recipes that don’t call for specialty ingredients like chickpea flour and almond milk, that I don’t have on hand. Would regular AP flour work here?
yes it would!
This is my 3rd time making this and OMG this is SOOO GOOD!!! Served with BBQ sauce, warmed honey, and vegan ranch. My family is dairy-free and vegetarian ( not vegan 🙂 and we all LOVE this recipe.
We recommend a little smoked paprika.
Such a great recipe, again!!
Also, we’ve tried using white flour and it did work, though you could see the difference.
It is nice to have a vegan fried chicken substitute recipe. I tried frying in oil for 3-4 min on each side but the chickpea flour was wet under the crunchy exterior. Next time, I will fry on low for 5 min then increase the temp and fry on medium high for another 5 minutes. Also, the seasoning was a bland. Next time, I will use more spices. Despite these two short-comings, this is an awesome recipe. My meat loving daughter is anxiously awaiting the next batch of Fried Oyster Mushrooms which I am sure will be perfection. Even non-mushroom eaters will like this recipe.
thank you for your feedback!
I don’t leave comments on recipes, but oh my GOD!!!!!! This was amazing. Instantly gone. I used white flour but otherwise did everything the same (ok I did add paprika, cayenne, and chili though). INCREDIBLE! The texture was delicious, and just enough batter on the mushrooms. Thank you thank you thank you for this incredible recipe! I found my chicken sandwich replacement.
You are so welcome!
OMG!! I just found my new favorite! And, best of all my boys ate it all, they loved it. I made small changes. I had almond flower and white flour. so I made the wet batter with just almond flour and added Slap Yo Mamma seasoning, italian seasoning, black pepper and italian seasoning. I saw a couple different videos and everyone is always dancing as they eat this….Boy, I did my dance too! I just found my chicken nugget replacement for my son.
I just cooked this fried ostyers and it was wonderful. I did make small changes. I add Old Bay seasoning, and black pepper. I did not add salt. I also had to cook each batch 5 minutes instead of 3 minutes. The 3 minute batch was a little too light. but I think because I used All purpose white flour. I think need time I will skip the wet batter sometimes I dont need the extra crunch. But I am overly impress this recipe. This will be one of my cheat day foods lists.
The instructions were easy to follow and the photos were an extra plus. Thank you.
You’re welcome!!
Girl. This was stunning and you are correct, it’s addicting! I added more spices and did double dip between the wet and dry batters after I marinate the mushrooms in a weak teriyaki, soy sauce and water solution. They were crisp, meaty and so very tasty. Thank you, my dear. I am hooked!
I was skeptical but this is amazing! I combined this method with some others I found online and changed the spices a bit since I had a good cajun spice mix I wanted to use. And for the batter, i used unsweetened almond milk instead of water. Paired with a great vegan “chicken” gravy I use, this went great with some mashed potatoes. We will be making this again for sure!
I followed somewhat, I used old bay seasoning instead to have more of a fried fish feeling ang I used grape seed oil. Deeeeelish!!!!!
Could I use oat flour? Looks delish !
I know chickpea flour works if you are looking for a gluten-free option. You can try oat flour tho I haven’t personally tested it.
OMG! I was eating them out the pan before serving them. I added sazon seasoning to dry mix because that’s how I would have fried chicken. My only regret was that I didn’t purchase more mushrooms 🤗
I bought an oyster mushroom growing kit at Walmart for under 10 dollars and harvested a LOT of mushrooms from it, just by watering it.
My Lord!!!! These fried oyster mushrooms were incredible. I followed your recipe and only added a little cayenne to the dry and wet mixes. This is unreal. I can’t wait for my 9 year old to get home from school. I know she will love them! Thank you so much…from Chicago!!!
You are very welcome!
THANK YOU! Delicious!
I was looking for a good receipe to deep fry these oyster mushrooms and found it here. I did use egg and only glutenfree flour, also a lot of other spices. But the thing you wrote about 1 wet mixture to dip in and one dry one was my one and only TRUTH! 🙌🏿
Xx
From Amsterdam
Yay!!! So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your feedback!
Just made a “Tester” Batch… Wanted to surprise my daughter and make her a “Fried Chick’n” dinner. She & I are Pescatarians (Her for 11 years Me for 2 years) and I Love making Vegetarian/Vegan/Pescatarian versions of the dishes I’ve always made. She came home early from work and caught me making them… grabbed a piece and immediately ran to the store in the cold and rain to buy more ingredients Lol. Excellent recipe! I modified the seasonings a bit but You absolutely have a new fan!!
Thank you so much!!! ❤❤❤ I giggle when you said she ran back to the store for more ingredients! lol I love that!!