RS, I haven't eaten the chanterelles by themselves and can't speak for that, as I have always had them as an addition to a meat dish and of course they absorb and enhance the flavor of the meat. They are somewhat firm in texture. Eating them with pork as you see in the picture made a believer out of me, lol. I tried to read up on how to preserve them and everyone said not to dehydrate them. Some people just chop them up and freeze in a bag of water like some people do fish. I put some in the freezer that way to experiment later.

Funny thing was that today while I was eating lunch, I got a knock on my door...and there was a neighbor I had never met before holding a plastic dish pan with this big shelf mushroom he found in his woods. He had been around to 3-4 other neighbors trying to identify it. It looked like a picture of chicken of the woods I have seen. We discussed our trepidation in trying new mushrooms without expert identification, neither of us wanting to have to get a liver transplant. I did see the following about chicken of the woods....

"some people have an adverse reaction to this mushroom. A small percentage of those who try it experience nausea, vomiting, swollen lips, or other gastrointestinal unpleasantness. For this reason it's important to just try just a little bit of this mushroom the first time to see how it makes you feel. Don't scarf down an entire chicken as you may regret it!"

HHD