Chives
chyvz
Allium schoenoprasum
Mild, fresh, oniony, grassy.
What it is
Chives are the slender green leaves of Allium schoenoprasum, the smallest of the cultivated onions, with a mild, fresh, oniony flavor far gentler than a bulb onion. They are one of the four French fines herbes, alongside parsley, tarragon, and chervil, and they finish eggs, potatoes, soups, and creamy dishes with a delicate allium note and a pop of green. The lavender flowers are edible too. Chives are best fresh and raw, snipped over a dish at the last moment, since both drying and cooking strip away their gentle flavor. They are easy to grow on a windowsill.
What it pairs with
Goes wrong with: long-cooked dishes that flatten them.
Common in French cooking.
Whole vs ground
Chives are a fresh herb, snipped and used raw. Drying loses most of their delicate onion flavor, so fresh is the only worthwhile form.
How to handle it
Snip with scissors and scatter over finished dishes for a gentle onion lift. Add at the end, since heat quickly dulls their fresh flavor.
Storage
Keep fresh chives wrapped in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze snipped. Dried chives have little flavor.
Buying note
Choose firm, bright green stalks with no slime. Growing your own gives the freshest supply.
Classic dishes
fines herbes, baked potato, scrambled eggs, vichyssoise.
Out of chives? Substitutes
No substitute is exact. These are the closest by flavor behavior, with the ratio to start from and how the result will differ.
| Use instead | Ratio | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| the green tops of a scallion | 1:1 | a little stronger and more oniony, but close |
One odd thing
Chives are the smallest species of cultivated onion, grown for their slender leaves rather than any bulb.