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If you were to ask me what would have been the ideal secret ingredient when I competed on Iron Chef America, I would have said mushrooms, hands down.

I love working with mushrooms, either fresh or dried, and I love their different shapes and flavours.

From now until the end of July, morels – which happen to be among my favourites – are at their peak in British Columbia. They can be found in many places, but ask mushroom experts and they will probably not want to disclose their secret spot. According to my own mushroom source, however, right now morels are coming from Manning Park, about a two- to three-hour drive east of Vancouver.

What makes a great morel mushroom is the ground it grows in. The ideal soil conditions exist a year after a forest fire, which helps sterilize the ground. Manning Park suffered some forest fires last year, and thus we are now getting some amazing morels from there.

When it comes to cooking morels, they go with so many things, such as asparagus with a little cream or Madeira in a sauté. A classic dish is veal with morels.

This recipe comes from a memorable trip I took to France in 1991. I was touring through Burgundy and, late one night, came upon a bistro in Beaune. I stopped for a bite, starting with some escargots, of course, then went on to an amazing dish: poached Bresse chicken with morels, asparagus and cream (the chicken from Bresse is renowned). The richness of the sauce was perfect, and the wonderful flavour of the chicken balanced out beautifully with the morels.

After I came home, I said to myself, when I open my own place, I am poaching a chicken and serving it with local morels, cream and asparagus. The key to this recipe is finding the right free-range chicken and fantastic morels. If you cannot find fresh morels, use dried.

What you need

1 pound green asparagus, cleaned and peeled

2 litres chicken stock

4 large free-range chicken breasts

1 tbsp butter

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2 cups morels

¼ cup dry white wine

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

What you do For the asparagus, bring salted water to boil. Add the asparagus and cook for about one minute until lightly cooked. Drain the asparagus and plunge into an ice-water bath.

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the stock to a boil and season with salt and pepper.

Poach the chicken breasts in the stock for 10 minutes at a gentle simmer. Remove the chicken from the stock and cover with foil.

Reheat stock on medium heat and reduce by half.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and sweat the shallots. Add the morels and cook for two to three minutes. Add the wine and reduce by half. Add reduced stock and again reduce by half. Add cream and reduce by one third. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cut asparagus into two-inch pieces and add to morel and chicken stock mixture.

Cut each chicken breast into 3 large slices. Place a slice of chicken breast in the centre of four large plates. Top with a small portion of mushroom mixture and repeat for the reaming two slices, ending with the mushroom mixture. Serve immediately.

Rob Feenie is co-owner and chef at Vancouver's Lumière and Feenies, a cookbook author and Iron Chef America champion.

Beppi's wine matches A good batch of morels isn't easy to find. Nor is a good pinot noir at an affordable price. Which is a shame, because pinot noir – the grape upon which red Burgundies are based – would be a smashing match for this dish. Two good Canadian pinot noirs (for those lucky enough to live in British Columbia or Alberta) are Church & State Pinot Noir Hollenbach Family Vineyard 2005, $21, and Saturna Island Vineyards Pinot Noir 2005, $16.95.

But I had a similar dish years ago at a restaurant in the Burgundy village of Puligny-Montrachet, and the sommelier instinctively paired it with the renowned local white that's simply named after the village (even though it's a 100-per-cent chardonnay). It was moderately oaked, with a hint of nuttiness (nice with the mushrooms) and just enough acidity to cut through the asparagus cream. Puligny-Montrachets are not cheap, either, but you can come close to that profile with the widely available Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay, about $20.

Beppi Crosariol