Who needs an open fire to roast chestnuts? You can do it yourself using your oven! Roasting and peeling chestnuts is a relatively simple process. Homemade roasted chestnuts will fill your home with a wonderful aroma– they smell like the winter holidays!
Did you know that chestnuts are sometimes referred to as the “bread of the mountain”? This is because, unlike other fatty tree nuts, chestnuts are much higher in carbohydrates. In northern Italy, before the arrival of corn, ground chestnuts were a key component in making polenta. In early 19th century America chestnuts were very common; so common, in fact, that farmers would allow their pigs to fatten up by eating the extra chestnuts that had fallen to the forest floor. The high quality lumber produced from chestnut trees was often used in furniture making and construction. During the first half of the 1800s a blight that arrived with Asian-imported trees nearly wiped out the American chestnut. Those trees were eventually replaced with heartier and more resistant chestnut trees, which are the type we see most often today. Chestnuts are now viewed as more of a seasonal holiday luxury. If you’ve ever traveled to New York City, you’ve surely noticed the sweet smell of chestnuts being roasted and sold by street vendors. It’s intoxicating!
If you would rather not go through the work of roasting and peeling your own, you can generally find pre-roasted and shelled chestnuts at major supermarkets and gourmet shops. Keep in mind that roasted chestnuts are best eaten right away, as they mold and spoil fairly quickly. NOTE: edible chestnuts are very different from horse chestnuts (commonly found in back yards), which are terribly bitter and toxic. Only use edible culinary chestnuts for roasting!
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How to Roast and Peel Chestnuts
Ingredients
- 1 pound raw chestnuts, in shell
- sharp knife, pot and strainer, large bowl
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. To prepare your chestnuts, grasp them firmly between your thumb and index finger and carefully make a long slice across the rounded top of the chestnut with a sharp serrated bread knife. Careful, the shell is slippery. You should be able to slice it in one motion. If you have trouble cutting through, use gentle sawing motions, don't force the blade down or you run the risk of cutting your hand.
- Be sure to cut all the way through the shell.
- Once all of your chestnuts have been cut, place them into a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a simmer.
- Once the water begins to simmer, remove the chestnuts from the water using a mesh strainer or slotted spoon and transfer them to a baking sheet.
- Roast for 15 minutes, or until the shells begin to peel back where you cut into them.
- Remove the chestnuts from the oven. Place them into a bowl and cover with a towel for 15 minutes. Allowing them to steam a bit will make them easier to peel.
- Once the 15 minutes have passed, simply pull on the shell and slip the chestnut out. Some will be easier to peel than others. Both the outer shell and the tough brown skin around the chestnuts should be peeled off. If you run into any nuts that seem gooey or disintegrated inside, it means that they have spoiled. Chestnuts tend to have a short shelf life, spoiled nuts should be tossed.
- Voila! You now have freshly roasted and peeled chestnuts. They're not the easiest things to peel, but these tender, sweet and fragrant nuts are a welcome treat during the winter months.
Rose V says
This method was amazing!… easy easy peeling… hey… did you ever get that recipe for candied chestnuts?… would love to try that!
carolyn says
Just tried this. Excellent results…chestnuts ready to put in stuffing
Susan says
My chestnuts turned out very tasty with your recipe. I grew up with just baking the chestnuts in the oven, but felt there had to be a better way to get them nice and soft. Your technique was perfect. I covered the chestnuts with water and heated the water to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit, popped them in the oven for 25 minutes and let them sit with a tea towel over them, just like you said, and then peeled. They were so good, I ate 8 of them right then and there!
Thank you!
Maxim says
Thank you for sharing this recipe, results are great!
I’ve added my own twist by simmering them with a stick of cinnamon, for maximum holiday home fragrance.
Janis Ruggiero says
Looking forward to trying this method. I have a sensational recipe for braised chestnuts with Port wine and Thyme. Made it once before and it took me so long to open them my hands turned black
(requires 2 lbs). Thanks for posting this method.
Dave says
Thank you, Tori.
Your’s is the exact-same method I remember my dad using, to make chestnuts, when I was a kid.
Dad passed-on a few years ago, but the smell of those chestnuts, “roasting” in the oven, brought back some great memories!
Tori Avey says
Love those food memories, and how a simple smell can trigger them. 🙂
Anna Ho says
I’ve tried many recipes. This was the best- shortest cook time and instead of using a knife to cut through the shell, I use kitchen scissors. Much safer and just as effective!
Tayler H. says
Great tip!!
Angela says
I look forward to chestnut season every year! I’ve tried a few different methods for perfectly-cooked and easy to peel chestnuts. Year after year I struggle to peel them, which makes it more of a dreaded chore than a treat. This method has merit, and I followed the instructions, but 15 min in the oven is not nearly enough time to cook them. Mine were still very firm. They are fresh, but very large, so next time I will bake for at least 30-35 minutes.
Tjs says
Still need to roast them for about 10 min @ 375 after they are peeled ?
RJC says
Your nutrition facts box doesn’t tell us what the serving size is.
Ashley at ToriAvey.com says
Hi, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. There are 4 servings in this recipe for 1 lb of chestnuts, so the serving size would be 1/4 lb.
Art Thompson says
I’m 79 and have never SEEN a chestnut before this week, when I found some at a local vegetable market. I have about a pound and a half. Didn’t want to waste a single one. I trust your recipe! Thank you!
Kathy says
Hallelujah!! I’ve finally found a way to make chestnuts where I don’t have a struggle to get them peeled! Every year I make these for the holidays and they have never come out right. They either burst in the oven or they’re so hard to get out of the shells that they all fall apart. My family loves them but every year I dread buying them because of this reason. This year we actually got the chestnuts from our chestnut tree before the squirrels did LOL. Having that overwhelming feeling of dread, I figured there must be a better way, so once again, I went looking for a recipe and this was the first one I found!! I will never cook chestnuts another way! Thank you so much Tori! My holiday guests will be pleasantly surprised.
Wizzy says
We’ve had a chestnut tree in our garden and this is the first time in 25 years that we have gathered enough nuts to wonder what to do with them! Looking forward to trying this method!
Have tried roasting In the oven …lots of explosions and mess!
Sharen Perkins says
Holy smokes, I must not have cut thru the shell enough, as some exploded in the oven… what a mess. I covered the rest with a towel and peeled them… They were very bitter and left an awful taste in your mouth… will let the deer have them from now on.
Tori Avey says
Sharen, you may have been trying to roast horse chestnuts, which are terribly bitter and actually toxic. Edible chestnuts are starchy and slightly sweet. Don’t eat the bitter ones!
Becky S says
If you are picking chestnuts the outer shell should be dangerously thorny. Leather gloves are very helpful if they haven’t completely opened to let the nuts out. You should have to fight the deer for them.
Debby says
You must peel the inner membrane off that’s under the hard skin, otherwise they are very bitter and furry tasting, It’s a bit of a mission but a sharp knife helps by scraping it off !
Cynthia says
Thank you.. My favorite recipe is candied chestnuts. I used to buy them, but seeing now how easy it is to roast my own..Bamm..Gonna make 10lbs of Candied chestnuts for my Christmas gifts this year!
Kristina says
What is the recipe you use for candied chestnuts? Thank you!
Elena Panova says
Very easy to make, perfect results! Thank you for your beautiful recipes, Tori!
Byron says
How long do you simmer for or do you you mean bring to the boil?
Ashley at ToriAvey.com says
Hi Byron, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Remove the chestnuts from the water as soon as it starts to simmer, it should not reach a full boil.
Carol Dorey says
This was the first day of the season for our chestnuts to begin falling. I chased two deer away, gathered up a big bag of nuts, turned on my oven, simmered them, roasted them and we’re enjoying snacking on warm chestnuts with our evening glass of wine. This is the best way we’ve ever prepared them.
Tori Avey says
You made me want a chestnut tree, Carol! 🙂
Kelly Finney says
Everything was perfect I love the step by step instructions especially for people that have no clue what they’re doing with me lol Anyway is there a easy way to store the chestnuts after I do all of this how do I keep them from molding or spoiling is there a method of keeping them tasting as good as they are when they come out the oven after I store them somehow thank you
Tori Avey says
Hi Kelly, you can freeze them in freezer-safe bags! Refrigeration will extend shelf life for a couple of days, but for longer storage freezing is the way to go. 🙂
Paul says
I kept several bags in an airtight container from last year in our spare fridge. They were good until about May, in June they were all woody and spoilt.
If you don’t have the room in a fridge to keep lunch boxes full of chestnuts try these two methods from “preserving food without freezing or canning” a collection of techniques from the gardeners and farmers of Terre Viante.
Method 1: soak the chustnuts for 2 days and remove any that float.
Let them dry for no more than 1 day in a well ventilated room, out of direct sun. There must be no residual water.
In a bucket/box player a layer of kiln dried sand and alternate with chestnuts then sand until full.
Method 2: soak the chestnuts for 2 days, but this time with a few drops of vinegar. Rinse and repeat twice more, a total of 6 days, again remove any that float.
Arrange in a single layer and put them out in the sun, but this time allow a full week of drying, bring them in at night to avoid dew.
Store them in a dry room.
They will harden over time, but can be rehydrated.
I also add a little olive oil to the water when boiling as it somehow dries the inner skin allowing easier peeling.
I’ve tried all types of chestnuts from Italian and Chinese, to ones I forage for in the woods. The ones I ate in Rome from a street vendor in November were delicious and easy to peel, when we get Italian imported chestnuts in December in the UK, they have a very dull lacklustre shine to the shell.
Always try to buy shiny chestnuts and give the shell a squeeze, it should be hard and have no give.
I’m more of a fan of small chestnuts, either from the woods, or from sainsburys (a slightly upmarket supermarket) I find the imported larger Italian/Chinese versions have an inner skin that is notorious to remove and don’t taste as sweet as the smaller version.
I’m not sure if you have the same type in the states as a lot of your sites say never to eat them raw, due to tanine, but we eat them raw over here and no one has died.
Happy roasting.
Cyndi says
Great recipe. Simple and easy. Can the roasted chestnuts be frozen?
Tori Avey says
Yes they can!
Tina says
Thanks for the great post, I tried the tips tonight and they turned out perfect. We left them a little longer as we were getting dinner ready and they still peeled well bar about 4 where the inner skins were sticking. 🙂