Foods & cuts · Chicory
Halved chicory
Halved lengthways and grilled cut face down. Cooked for what heat does to its bitterness as much as for its texture.
What it is
- Form
- Cut vegetable
- Typical weight
- 40–80 g
- Typical thickness
- 20–30 mm
- Cut
- Not a cut of anything
Why it behaves as it does
Chicory is the catalogue's clearest case of a vegetable grilled to change its flavour rather than to make it edible — it is perfectly edible raw, and the reason to put it over fire is that char and caramelisation set against the bitterness in a way nothing else here quite does. Structurally it is a tight head of leaves held at a root end, so the same rule as fennel and onion applies: keep the root and it stays in one piece. It is far more compact than romaine and so more forgiving; the leaves are packed tightly enough that the interior steams while the cut face colours. The failure is timidity rather than heat — a pale chicory keeps its raw bitterness and has gained nothing. No duration is published.
When is it done?
Food-safety endpoint
BBQHQ holds no food-safety rule for this food. We are not showing you another jurisdiction’s figure in its place — check your national food-safety authority.
When it goes wrong
- It stuck to the grate
- Food sticking to the grate — 2 distinguishable causes.
- It fell apart
- Layered vegetables falling apart on the grate — 2 distinguishable causes.
Afterwards
Cooling, keeping and reheating what is left is general guidance for barbecue leftovers. Neither UK authority publishes anything specific to halved chicory, and BBQHQ does not invent a distinction they do not make.
What we don't know about this
No institutional source has been found that publishes a grilling time for this one. The two extension services behind BBQHQ's other produce timings do not cover it.
What we know we’re missing records what was searched for each of these, and what would settle it.