Learn how to smoke mushrooms in a smoker! This smoked portobello mushroom recipe uses a combination of slices and caps. Smoked mushrooms have a delicious, earthy flavor that is great with burgers, steak, sandwiches, and salads. Forget waiting for good grilling weather to use the Traeger. You’ll love how easy and inexpensive it is to make smoked mushrooms indoors with a stovetop smoker.
There’s fungus among us! Smoking mushrooms is a great solution for what to do with a lot of mushrooms. You can use them as an appetizer, side dish, condiment, or snack.
You can use an indoor smoker to give your mushrooms a smokiness and meatiness that both vegetarians and omnivores enjoy. Portabella slices turn out like a smoked mushroom jerky while portabella caps stay a bit juicy. So much yum!
You can leave your smoked mushroom caps plain for more versatility, or coat them with mustard and herbs for flavor. And if you don’t have big portobello caps, no worries, you can smoke baby bella mushrooms too!
Want crispy mushroom chips? Try slicing your mushrooms thinly before trying this recipe for smoky mushrooms. You won’t be able to resist how delicious dried smoked mushrooms are.
I’m totally sold on this method to get great grill flavors without leaving the house. Don’t let rainy or snowy days mess up your menu. Snag this recipe for smoked portobello mushrooms and enjoy them all year long!
Jump to:
- 📋 Calories, Net Carbs, Protein
- ⭐ Benefits
- 🥘 Ingredients
- 🍽 Equipment
- 🔪 How to Make Smoked Portobello Mushrooms
- ️⏲ Smoking Time and Temperature
- 🌡️ Leftovers
- 🍄 How to Serve
- 💭 Expert Tips from a Dietitian
- FAQs
- 👩🏻🍳 More Mushroom Recipes
- 🔥 More Smoker Recipes
- The Disclaimer…
- 📖 Recipe
- Mustard Herb Variation
- 💬 Comments
📋 Calories, Net Carbs, Protein
Per Cronometer, one serving of Smoked Portobello Mushrooms has 20 calories, 2 grams net carbs, and 3 grams protein. The mustard herb variation provides 29 calories, 3.3 grams net carbs, and 3.1 grams protein per serving. Mushrooms are a low calorie and low carb food.
Are mushrooms protein? No, mushrooms are considered part of the vegetable group on the MyPlate. Three ounces of portobello mushrooms provides only 2-3 grams of protein. When replacing meat with mushrooms, you need to find another way to add more protein to your meal.
⭐ Benefits
What are the benefits of mushrooms? Here’s why you should make this smoked portobello caps and slices recipe:
- Special diet friendly: This is a vegan recipe, gluten-free, low-carb, keto, dairy-free, Paleo, and low calorie. If you have dietary restrictions, you can probably still eat these mushrooms.
- Nutritious: Cooked portobello mushrooms are good for you. They provide many of the essential B vitamins, including niacin (vitamin B3), riboflavin (vitamin B2), plus vitamins B5 and B6. Additionally, you're getting some minerals from portabella mushrooms, including phosphorus and potassium.
- Helps increase your vegetable intake: As mentioned, mushrooms count as part of the vegetable group on the MyPlate. When you add more mushrooms to your diet, you are helping to increase your intake of veggies!
- Super versatile: You can enjoy these tasty mushroom slices as a snack or incorporate them into a meal. Whatever floats your boat!
- No need to brave the foul weather: If the weather is getting cold or rainy where you are, no worries! You don't have to go outdoors for this smoker recipe! Using an indoor smoker makes smoking foods super convenient.
- Inexpensive way to smoke foods: Many outdoor smokers, such as the Green Egg, cost hundreds of dollars. Indoor smoking methods tend to be far less expensive and is a great alternative if you are on a tight budget! Stovetop smokers also tend to use a lot less fuel (wood) than outdoor smokers.
- Delicious: Mushrooms are packed with umami flavor that adds something special to meals. If you like mushrooms, you need to see how smoking elevates them to another level. So tasty!
🥘 Ingredients
You only need two ingredients for basic smoked mushrooms. Here they are:
- Portobello mushroom caps and slices
- Cooking oil spray
Sturdy mushrooms hold up better in the smoker. I prefer portabella mushrooms to white button mushrooms in this recipe because they shrink less with cooking.
That said, portabellas (brown mushrooms) are simply a more mature white mushroom. They’re actually the same variety of mushroom, and can be used interchangeably in this recipe.
I used portabella caps, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use cremini mushrooms (baby bella mushrooms) instead. You could experiment with whole mushrooms, or try cutting them in halves, quarters, or slices.
If you don’t like portobellos, try shiitake, oyster mushrooms, chanterelles, maitake, morels, or porcini instead. You may want to decrease the smoking time for smaller mushroom pieces.
To make the delish mustard variation, you’ll also need to have these on hand:
- Grainy mustard
- Dried sage
- Dried thyme
- Garlic powder
- Lemon zest
- Salt and pepper
🍽 Equipment
In addition to a cast iron skillet, there are a few pieces of special kitchen equipment that you need to make smoked mushrooms on the stovetop. These items can be ordered on Amazon:
- Indoor smoker (I am using a large Nordic Ware kettle smoker for this recipe)
- Mesquite smoking chips (I use Cameron's wood smoking chips)
I love using mesquite wood chips for smoking mushrooms because they provide a deep, smoky flavor. Hickory is another great wood to smoke with for strong smoked flavor.
If you do a lot of smoking, I recommend trying different types of chips to find your favorites! Make sure to only use wood chips that were intended for smoking foods.
Here are some options if you prefer a milder smoky flavor:
- Alder chips
- Apple chips
- Cherry chips
Note: the wood chips used in many indoor smokers are not the same as the wood pellets for outdoor smokers. Indoor smoking wood chips are much smaller, closer in size to wood shavings.
🔪 How to Make Smoked Portobello Mushrooms
Get your assortment of whole portobello caps and slices together. Rinse them well with cool water to remove any dirt and pat them dry with a paper towel.
You can eat the gills of portobello mushrooms, so I never bother removing them. If your caps have small bits of stem attached, I would remove those. You can save the mushroom stems to use in other recipes.
The first time I tried smoking mushrooms, I smoked them right after cleaning the raw mushrooms. I felt the smoke did not adhere to the mushrooms as much as I would have liked. Luckily, I found a much better way to smoke mushrooms after that.
What you need to do is dry saute your mushrooms in a cast iron skillet prior to smoking them. Cook them in batches if the mushrooms don’t fit in a single layer in the skillet.
Use medium heat and flip them occasionally as they dry. No soggy mushrooms for us!
It took 5-10 minutes for most of the liquid to evaporate from the mushroom slices. The mushroom caps took about 15 minutes. They will shrink quite a bit as they lose moisture.
Put the mushrooms in a single layer on a plate and let them rest in the fridge overnight. This will give them a chance to dry out even more.
See the notes in the recipe card if you want to make the mustard herb variation!
️⏲ Smoking Time and Temperature
How long to smoke mushrooms? What temp to make smoked mushrooms in a stovetop smoker? Smoke mushrooms for a total of 20-25 minutes at 190-210F (88-99C). The smoker needs to stay in this temperature range for the entire smoking period.
Set up your Nordic Ware or other kettle smoker with 2 tablespoons of shredded wood chips. Lightly mist the smoking tray with cooking oil spray and put the drip pan and smoking tray in the smoker. Place the mushrooms in a single layer on the tray (gills down for the caps).
Put the lid on the smoker. Ensure the thermometer is attached properly, and the lid vent is closed. Turn your stovetop vent fan on.
Put the smoker on a stovetop burner and turn the heat to medium-low. Allow the smoker's thermometer to come to 190 degrees Fahrenheit (88C). Sometimes I turn the heat to medium if the smoker is coming to temp too slowly.
Once the temperature comes to 190 degrees (88C), turn the stovetop to low, and set a timer to dry smoke the mushrooms for 30 minutes. Make sure that the smoker stays within 190-210 degrees Fahrenheit (88-99C) for the entire smoking period.
You may need to adjust the stovetop's heat or open the vent on the lid to keep things in the optimal temperature range. Check it fairly often!
If the heat on the smoker is going up too fast, try lifting the lid briefly. This should help you bring the temperature back down, giving you more time to adjust the heat.
After the 20-25 minutes is up, turn off the stovetop and remove the mushrooms from the smoker. Extinguish the spent wood mesquite chips by soaking them in water. Let the mushrooms cool down, and enjoy!
🌡️ Leftovers
Smoked mushrooms can be stored in a covered container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can reheat them for a couple minutes in the microwave or in an oil-sprayed pan on the stovetop. You can vacuum seal and freeze smoked mushrooms, but the texture will change a bit when you thaw them.
🍄 How to Serve
As I mentioned above, smoked mushroom slices turn out like portobello jerky. Very thin slices turn into crisp mushroom chips. They are great to snack on by themselves!
Try mixing a little melted butter or olive oil and garlic together. Drizzle your garlic butter over the smoked mushrooms to add some decadence to your day.
If you're hungry for a meal, quite a few entrees would be excellent with a mushroom topping. Here are some main dishes that go with mushrooms:
You could also add these mushrooms to your favorite soup or sandwich. So good!
💭 Expert Tips from a Dietitian
This is a level 1 recipe (may help support fat loss). If you are looking for weight loss, mushrooms are a fantastic way to add lots of volume to meals for very few calories. An entire 8-ounce package of portobello mushrooms is only around 50 calories. Additionally, they are delicious (one of the most important things when talking about any recipe, IMVHO).
I think it's nice to try smoking both mushroom slices and whole caps the first time you try this recipe. The slices become chewy and dry, almost like a mushroom jerky. The smoke flavor is able to permeate the slices more than the caps since the slices have a greater proportion of surface area.
On the other hand, the caps remain a little juicy. They are excellent sliced and piled on burgers, salads, or anywhere that could use a lift of umami.
If your whole smoked mushroom caps are sturdy enough, they could be used as a low carb burger bun. There are endless possibilities for using these smoked mushrooms in recipes. Feel free to get creative!
FAQs
To cold smoke mushrooms, I recommend getting a cold smoking gun. They are available at a variety of price points on Amazon. Smoking guns can be used for cheeses, cocktails, meats, veggies, and sauces in addition to mushrooms.
Mushrooms are a very low carb food, and thus keto friendly. Three ounces of portobello mushrooms have only about 2 grams of net carbohydrates. They’re Whole30 and Paleo compliant as well.
Vegan diets exclude all animal-based sources of food. Since mushrooms are fungi, neither plant nor animal, they are considered vegan. (Mushrooms are also compatible with plant-based diets, though they are not technically plants.)
Mushrooms may contain trace amounts of vitamin B12, but should not be counted on as a reliable source of this vitamin. If you are vegan, you should get vitamin B12 from supplements and/or fortified foods. It’s better to play it safe than risk a serious nutrient deficiency.
Mushrooms provide variable amounts of vitamin D and should not be counted on as a source of this vitamin. Some mushrooms have been treated with UV light to increase the amount of vitamin D that they provide. However, information about whether mushrooms have been UV-treated is typically not available on product packaging.
Both portobello and portabella are accepted spellings in Merriam-Webster. You may also see baby bella mushrooms sold under the name "cremini."
👩🏻🍳 More Mushroom Recipes
Want more recipes using mushrooms? Here are some dishes to try next:
- Tagliatelle ai Funghi (Pasta with Mushrooms)
- Air Fryer Breaded Mushrooms
- Air Fryer Stuffed Mushrooms (Imagine making smoked stuffed mushrooms with these. YUM!)
🔥 More Smoker Recipes
Looking for more indoor smoker recipes? I've got you! Check these out:
Join our community! Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter to be kept up-to-date on all of the latest and greatest recipes! You can also follow me on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!
The Disclaimer…
All recipes on this website may or may not be appropriate for you, depending on your medical needs and personal preferences. Consult with a registered dietitian or your physician if you need help determining the dietary pattern that may be best for you.
The nutrition information is an estimate provided as a courtesy. It will differ depending on the specific brands and ingredients that you use. Calorie information on food labels may be wildly inaccurate, so please don't sweat the numbers too much.
For more information on how the three recipe levels may help with a weight management goal, refer to my overnight oats no sugar post. Let's get cooking!
📖 Recipe
Watch How to Make It!
Smoked Portobello Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 12 ounces portobello mushrooms (340 grams; use a mixture of whole and sliced caps)
- cooking oil spray of choice
Instructions
- Note: Start this recipe the night before you want your mushrooms.
- Rinse your mushrooms well with cool water to remove any dirt and pat them dry with a paper towel. You do not have to remove the gills of your mushrooms. Do remove any stem pieces from the mushroom caps, and save them to use in other recipes.
- Dry saute your mushrooms in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, flipping occasionally. You may have to cook them in batches. It will take about 5-10 minutes for most of the liquid to evaporate from the mushroom slices, and 15 minutes for the mushroom caps.
- Let your mushrooms rest on a plate in the fridge overnight before smoking. Put them in a single layer. This will allow them time to dry out even more.
- The next day: Set up your Nordic Ware or another kettle smoker with 2 tablespoons of shredded woodchips. I used mesquite chips. The chips you use should be meant for smoking foods.
- Lightly mist the smoking tray with cooking oil spray and put the drip pan and smoking tray in the smoker. Place the mushrooms in a single layer on the tray (I prefer to lay the caps gills down).
- Put the lid on the smoker. Ensure the thermometer is attached properly, and the lid vent is closed. Turn your stovetop vent fan on.
- Put the smoker on a stovetop burner and turn the heat to medium-low. Allow the smoker's thermometer to come to 190°F (88°C). (Sometimes I kick the heat up to medium if the temperature is rising too slowly.)
- Once the temperature comes to 190°F (88°C), turn the stovetop to low, and set a timer to dry smoke the mushrooms for 20-25 minutes. Make sure that the smoker stays within 190°F-210°F (88°C-99°C) for the entire smoking period.
- You may need to adjust the stovetop's heat or open the vent on the lid to keep things in the optimal temperature range. Keep a close eye on things!
- If the heat on the smoker is going up too fast, try lifting the lid briefly. This should help you bring the temperature back down, giving you more time to adjust the heat.
- After the 20-25 minutes is up, turn off the stovetop and remove the mushrooms from the smoker. Extinguish the spent wood mesquite chips by soaking them in water. Let the mushrooms cool down, and enjoy!
Notes
Mustard Herb Variation
Ingredients:- 2 tablespoons grainy mustard
- ½ teaspoon dried sage
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Terrified Amateur says
Oh, so today the site provider decides to play ball? Twice I responded to your last entry (the spaghetti squash), Summer, though a computer somewhere deemed me a bot, and blocked my comments.
As these remarks seem destined for a far happier fate, I'll note this is the first time I've met up with someone who smokes mushrooms. Now that it's on the radar, though - brilliant!
The treatment (smoking) does wonders for all manner of proteins, so why not apply it something equally umami-rich, i.e., mushrooms?
Your glazing these with a mustard-forward sauce is quite reminiscent of a favorite preparation of mine, deviling. In fact, the glamor shots at the top look more than a bit like deviled short ribs I did up last month.
The five stars are entirely yours, my friend. Well-earned, Summer!
Summer Yule says
Thank you so much for your persistence in leaving a comment! I am at a bit of a crossroads right now in terms of deciding whether to make the leap to a new host or to stick with my current (frustrating, albeit very affordable) one.
Deviled short ribs sounds absolutely fabulous. You are welcome to send some my way anytime! 🙂
Terrified Amateur says
Test.