Chicory is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 10 recipes to get you started.

What is chicory?

Chicory is a family of bitter leafy plants whose name covers a lot of ground. To most cooks it means the curly, frizzy salad green also sold as curly endive or frisée, with narrow toothed leaves that go from pale yellow at the heart to dark green at the edges.

The same plant family includes radicchio and Belgian endive, along with the broader-leaved escarole, all sharing that signature bitter edge. Chicory root is a separate use entirely: roasted and ground, it becomes the coffee additive famous in New Orleans.

The greens taste sharply bitter raw and mellow with heat.

How to Use Chicory

The pale inner leaves are the most tender and least bitter, which makes them the ones to reach for in a salad. Tear them small and toss with a bold dressing, because a flat vinaigrette gets lost against the bitterness.

Bitter Greens Salad and Maude's Green Salad both lean on that contrast.

A rich, slightly sweet dressing is the classic move. The fat and acid of bacon or a warm mustard dressing tame the bite, which is why Walnut & Roquefort Salad pairs the leaves with pungent cheese and nuts.

Cooking changes chicory completely. Sauté or braise the sturdier outer leaves with garlic and olive oil and the bitterness softens into something nutty and savory, good as a side or stirred into beans, as in White Beans with Roasted Garlic Dressing.

Roasted chicory root is the other story. Ground, it shows up in coffee drinks like Cafe Au Lait and Cafe Brulot, adding a roasted, woody bitterness with no caffeine of its own.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Bitterness wants a counterweight. Chicory greens love fat, salt, acid, and a touch of sweetness, so think bacon, anchovy, parmesan, toasted nuts, plus citrus or a ripe pear. A sweet element like pear or a drizzle of honey is what keeps a salad from reading as merely bitter.

The mistake to avoid is dressing it like delicate lettuce. A thin, lemony vinaigrette cannot stand up to chicory and leaves the salad harsh, so go bolder than you think you need to.

Wash it well, too. The curly, frilly leaves trap grit and soil at the base, so swish them in a bowl of water and lift them out, rather than rinsing under the tap.

Substitutes

Need a swap? For salads, escarole is the closest, with the same family bitterness but a softer, broader leaf. Radicchio brings the bitterness plus color, while Belgian endive gives a crisper, milder version in tidy spears.

For cooking, escarole or dandelion greens hold up the same way to a sauté or braise. If you only want the bitter accent and not the bulk, a handful of arugula stirred into milder greens gets you partway there.

There is no real kitchen substitute for chicory-root coffee. If a recipe calls for it, dark-roast coffee with a little extra strength is the nearest you will get.

Buying and Storing Chicory

Choose heads that feel crisp and look fresh, with pale, tightly furled centers and no slimy or browning leaf tips. A smaller, paler head is usually less aggressively bitter than a large dark one.

Store it unwashed in the crisper, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag with a paper towel to catch moisture, and use it within about five days. The leaves wilt faster than romaine, so it does not keep long.

Wait to wash until you are ready to use it, since extra water sitting on the leaves speeds the slide to slimy.

Quick facts

In Chinese

菊苣根

British (UK) term

Chicory

en français

chicorée

en español

achicoria

Recipes using chicory

There are 10 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 10 recipes