What Is Chervil and How Can I Use It?

If chervil has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 65 recipes to try it in.

Key Points

Delicate French fines herbes herb tasting of parsley with a faint anise note.
Add it at the very end; heat cooks the fragile flavor straight out.
Shines on eggs, cream sauces, and mild white fish that stronger herbs overpower.
Substitute fresh tarragon at about a third the amount, or parsley plus fennel.
Highly perishable; use within days, freeze in oil cubes, and skip the dried jar.

What is chervil?

Chervil is a delicate, lacy green herb that tastes like parsley crossed with a whisper of anise. It belongs to the carrot family and grows feathery fronds that look a lot like flat-leaf parsley shrunk down and softened.

In the kitchen its big claim to fame is being one of the classic fines herbes of French cooking. That quartet of parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil lives on eggs and cream sauces, and chervil is the quiet anise note tying it together.

The catch is that chervil is fragile. Its flavor is faint and it fades fast with heat, so almost everything about cooking with it comes down to timing.

Cooking With Chervil

Treat chervil as a finishing herb. Add it at the very end, off the heat or as a garnish, because even a couple of minutes of simmering cooks the delicate anise note right out of it.

It works best on soft, mild foods that would bully a stronger herb. Scrambled eggs, an omelet, a simple cream sauce, poached or baked white fish, young spring vegetables.

Stir a small handful of chopped leaves into a finished cream sauce like the one in Sauteed Chicken in Cream Cheese Sauce and the herb lifts the whole thing without taking over.

Use more than you think. Because the flavor is so light, getting a real anise note takes a generous handful of fresh chervil, not a pinch.

Chop it just before serving so the cut edges do not brown and go bitter sitting around.

It also works raw, scattered over a finished plate. Lemon & Herb Crusted Swordfish and a cold Gaspacho both take well to fresh chervil showered on at the table.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Chervil loves dairy and eggs above all else. Butter, cream, soft cheese, and a squeeze of lemon are its natural partners, and it sits comfortably alongside chives and tarragon in any soft herb mix.

The most common mistake is cooking it. Drop chervil into a pot early and you have thrown away the reason you bought it, since the anise aroma is the first thing to vanish.

Add it in the last minute or at the table instead.

The second mistake is reaching for dried chervil and expecting much. Drying flattens an already faint herb almost to nothing, so dried is a weak stand-in for fresh.

What to Use Instead

Fresh tarragon is the closest match for the anise side of chervil, but it is far stronger, so use about a third as much and add it the same way, at the end.

Flat-leaf parsley covers the green, grassy part but misses the anise entirely. For a closer copy, mix parsley with a pinch of tarragon or a few fennel fronds to fake the licorice note.

A little fresh chopped fennel frond on its own is another decent swap, especially on fish, where its mild anise sweetness fits right in.

Buying and Storing Chervil

Chervil is hard to find in regular supermarkets and is mostly a farmers market or grow-your-own herb. Look for perky, bright green fronds with no yellowing or slime, and skip any bunch that smells of nothing.

It is one of the most perishable herbs there is, so plan to use it within a few days. Wrap the bunch loosely in a barely damp paper towel, slip it into an open bag, and keep it in the fridge crisper.

Chervil does not dry well, but it freezes. Chop the leaves into an ice cube tray, top with water or olive oil, and freeze, then drop a cube into sauces and soups at the end.

The frozen herb loses its fresh sparkle but holds far more flavor than the dried jar.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 tbsp (1g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 2Calories from Fat 0

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 0.0g 0%

Saturated Fat 0.0g 0%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 0mg 0%

Total Carbohydrate 0.5g 0%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars ~

Protein 0.2g

Vitamin A 1% Vitamin C 1%

Calcium 1% • Iron 2%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Food group: Chervil is a member of the Spices and Herbs US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 细叶芹
British (UK) term: Chervil
en français: cerfeuil
en español: perifollo

How much does chervil weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 tbsp	1 grams
1 teaspoon	0 grams

Spices and Herbs

Allspice 904 Allspice berries 37 Star anise 178 Aniseed 23 Bay leaves 2049 Caraway seeds 321 Cardamom pods 100 Cardamom seeds 317 Celery seeds 283 Chervil 65

Recipes using chervil

There are 65 recipes that contain this ingredient.

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