Roasted Chestnuts

Ok, here it goes. Chestnuts are still a staple in some parts of the world, and one of my favorite memories from home when I was growing up. First, when you buy them, pick chestnuts that large, hard and heavy. Those are less likely to be moldy. Also make sure there are no tiny holes in them. Don't let them sit around for days before using them, but if you must, store them at room temperature, in a paper bag. If they are too hard for you roasted, try them boiled, 30 min in medium low heat should do it, but if roasting, they have to roast for the time specified (I prefer 450 degree oven for 30 min), any less and they will be raw!!! Boiled chestnuts work better in stuffings and other dishes. Rasted chestnuts can be too hard. Like others said, the chestnuts have to be peeled when they are still hot. Keep them wrapped in a towel and peel them one at the time. Chestnuts that peel well when cold are stale/old, and therefore not at the peak of their flavor. To peel boiled chestnuts easily, make sure to work in sections and quickly so that the inner skin does not dry up. Still, sometimes it can be a pain, but I love the taste and it is well worth it for me. This recipe is interesting, but I really prefer them plain. They have their own unique taste, why mess with a good thing? If you never had chestnuts before try them plain first. Hope this enhances your enjoyment of chestnuts :)

I loved these. The butter/cinnamon/salt combination was fantastic. I did one thing a little differently. After baking, instead of frying them in the skillet and putting it in the oven, I put them in a baking dish and tossed with melted butter and then broiled on high until they were lightly browned. I think I'm going to try making pumpkin seeds tonight with the same seasoning.

On a whim we bought chestnuts for the "season". We soaked them (an idea from another website) to make the shells a little softer. Then we scored them with a Dremmel tool...a "must". We cooked them for the 25 minutes. We put them in a brown paper bag to keep the humidity in (another website suggestion) and then prepared according to the recipe. We tried small plates with different combinations...1. salt and cinnamon (two thumbs down) 2. sugar and cinnamon (two thumbs way down...too plain) 3. sugar, salt and cinnamon (yuck) 4. cinnamon and honey (something wrong there too) 5. cinnamon, honey and salt (yuck) 6. lots of garlic salt (too garlicky...yuck) and 7. a hint of garlic salt (probably the best...but, can only eat a little of it and then it is too much). We also tried them plain and noticed they did have a little flavor...we just don't know what that flavor would be best in...probably a side ingredient rather than the main ingredient. I guess we would have starved to death 1000 years ago when it was a staple, but luckily we have a refrigerator. I think I would try a soup or stuffing next time...IF there is a next time.

I've never had chestnuts before, but this recipe was easy and tasty. It was, however, very rich. I used only 2 T. butter, and that was plenty. These would be a good snack/appetizer to place out for company during the holidays.

Great recipe. My daughter suggested I drizzle some honey on top when it came out of the oven. Delicious with the salt, cinammon, and honey combination.

Great recipe. I peel the hot chestnuts with my heavy garden gloves on and the task goes pretty quickly.

Very good and much easier since I found frozen chestnuts at my local store. The nuts still had shells but were already sliced and only took about 6 minutes to heat (from frozen) and were very easy to peel. What a difference from years ago when I did the cross-cut and then boiled the nuts and then cooled and peeled them for stuffings, etc.

This was ok. I think it needs a differnt spice rather than cinnamon. As far as people complaining about their fingers hurting. Take the nut out of the shell right when it comes out of the oven. Don't wait for them to cool down. It was a breeze taking the nuts out this way. My husband thought this was very dull tasting, but I thought it was OK. I will try differnt flavors next time.

I ran across this while trying to find a basic roasted chestnuts recipe for Christmas. I followed the directions, slashing the X across the fat, rounded part of the chestnuts. (I accidentally cut through two of them, but that was OK.) I put them on a cookie sheet and baked at 375 for 25 minutes. As SOON as they came out, I carefully peeled the chestnuts one by one. The chestnuts were soft. I tried one before frying in butter, and it had an interesting if not plain flavor. I only put them in butter for about 3 minutes. The butter is mostly for flavor, NOT for cooking... that is important to know! I took them out, then sprinkled them with cinnamon and salt. I did NOT re-bake since they seemed pretty much done at that point. We all ate them up with gusto. What a unique holiday treat!

tastes fine, but actually peeling the chestnuts is soooo much work! not worth it

Awesome, I cut the butter to 1 tablespoon it was delicious!

Make sure to cut nice big Xs in your chestnuts to facilitate peeling and don't store them in a plastic bag. I learned this the hard way when I ended up with many hard to crack and moldy nuts. The ones I salvaged were good. I used less butter and added sugar, cloves and cayenne. The result was delicious, spicy-sweet candied chestnuts.

This was really yummy! They were great right out of the oven. Yes, they're time consuming and my thumb was raw by the time I was done shelling them but hey, it's only once a year. They don't reheat well though - the next day the leftovers were pretty greasy.

If you can get the Italian type of Chestnuts, that is best...they are larger. Get them fresh if you can. If fresh, let them sit in a layer for 5 or 6 days so the skin separates from the meat inside. Then, cut an X in the skin on the flat side. Boil them for about 10 minutes before roasting. Roast at 425 degrees for 60 minutes. Stir a few times during roasting so that they roast evenly. Roast on a flat cookie pan.

This was great! Also instead of using cinnamon for half i tried garlic. It turned out really well.

Served this as an offering at a holiday party. Everybody raved! The only extra I added was cinnamon sugar (just a sprinkle) instead of cinnamon).

These didn't work for us. I'm sure the recipe is fine but we weren't thrilled with the taste of chestnuts.

AWESOME!

Pretty good, but only for the first few hours. They went rock-hard after a while and I was really disappointed. I left out the cinnamon and the overall flavor was delicious! (I don't think that cinnamon would really go with them.) They tasted a little like Butternut squash! I also peeled them when they were still hot like some others said, and it was easy. I will definitely make them again, but I won't cook them as long. Thanks for the recipe!

Taste was 5 stars, but too long in the oven left the chestnuts too hard. Probably I wasn't paying close enough attention, but next time, I will just pan fry them a bit and skip the oven. Also, I used one 2 parts sugar, 1 part cinnamon, and 1/2 part ginger.

It was a bit difficult to get them peeled, but loved the flavor. Maybe the ones we got were not good or I didn't cook long enough. I will try it again though.

Unfortunately, I cannot give this recipe a star rating because I had so much trouble with it. I tried the recipe one time and had so much trouble getting the shells off, plus some of the nuts had mold on them. I thought it was my fault for leaving them in a plastic bag too long. I bought some more and attempted to make them the same day. Same exact trouble. Extremely hard and painful to get the shells off, and sometimes the inner hard skin wouldn't come off, and some of the nuts had mold. That would be the fault of the grocery store but don't know if that explains why they were so hard to deshell. Perhaps I will try the recipe again next year. Just way too much work. Sorry.

I was really excited to make this but, in the end, I was very disappointed. My thumbs hurt for two days after all that de-shelling and the taste was just ok. I love using fresh ingredients, but if I try this again I'll use frozen chestnuts to see if the taste is better without the pain. That's IF I try this recipe again.

.. I 'forgot' to cut the chestnuts not long ago. They didn't explode. However, they were very difficult to shell. I cooked them in garlic butter. Lovely

great

I don't know what I did wrong. I followed the recipe to a T, but even after the first "session" in the oven (I had them in there only 25 minutes), the nuts were so hard we couldn't crack them, let alone bite or chew them. I tried a second batch for only 20 minutes, but after the 2nd session in the oven they were again too hard. Only 2 or 3 were still soft enough to eat, and they were very tasty, but this was a big waste of money as the cheapest I could find was 10 chestnuts for $3.50. 3 edible nuts at a cost of $7 is quite a disappointment. I would suggest only baking 20 minutes, then sauteing in the pan and leave out the 2nd baking session.

This recipe did not work for me at all. Another recipe said to put them in for 15 minutes and the few I pulled out at the 15 minute mark were good. There were still plenty good ones at the 25 minute mark. Then everything went south when I did the butter and re roasted them They came out rock hard. :( . Only a few were salvageable. I'd probably do the 15 minutes and then peel and roast again with the butter.

This was my first time making chestnuts and my last. I don’t know who came up with roasting chestnuts like this but it was not a very good experience for me

Too hard to peel the shell off...

I had trouble with this recipe. Mine turned out dry and tasteless.