How To Roast Chestnuts? In pan, oven, air fryer and BBQ

How To Roast Chestnuts? The chestnut is a fruit that originates from the Mediterranean environment. The Romans took the fruit to the Netherlands. And we roast and cook the chestnuts. The question in this blog is; How to roast chestnuts?  

How To Roast Chestnuts?

Only sweet chestnuts can be roasted! Roasting chestnuts in the oven takes 20-25 minutes, in a pan, it takes 10-15 minutes and in the Airfryer 10 minutes. Popping in the microwave takes 2 minutes. Take the time for popping on the BBQ! 

The chestnut comes in two varieties, the wild and the sweet chestnut. The sweet chestnut can be eaten and the wild chestnut simply gives you a stomachache, so it is not edible. How do you know whether you have a sweet chestnut or a wild chestnut? Let’s start this blog with that.  

Difference Sweet and Wild Chestnut

The characteristics of the chestnuts are so obvious that you won’t forget it once you know it.  

The sweet chestnut has a husk that is hairy and has many thin long spines. The husk usually contains 2-3 chestnuts. The chestnut is not completely round, often has a flat pitcher and has a tip with a plume. It resembles an oval or is teardrop-shaped.  

The horse chestnut has a husk with a thick skin and a few hard thick spines. The shape of the chestnut is round without a flat side. There is usually one chestnut in each husk.  

So the differences are very clear and now that you know it you will never forget it.  

The sweet chestnut belongs to the large group of nuts. Our blog ‘ Difference between nuts and seeds ‘ explains what a nut actually is.

Tip! To make sure that the chestnuts you want to use are good, you can do the following. Fill a bowl with water and add the chestnuts. The chestnuts that sink to the bottom are good and edible. The chestnuts that float are dried out inside or eaten by insects. So throw it away!   

So, now that you know this, we can get started. We’re going to roast sweet chestnuts.  

Sweet Chestnuts Roast 

We are now going to roast the chestnuts in the oven. Remove the rack from the oven and preheat the oven to 220 degrees.  

When the chestnuts are still in the husk, take them out. Then do the test with the bowl and water (see tip above) and discard the bad chestnuts.  

Make a cross in the flat side of the chestnuts with a sharp knife. This has to be done because the chestnuts start to pop, they get bigger and shoot a bit out of the skin. If you don’t do this, they will literally pop out of their shells and the oven will become a mess.  

During your work in the kitchen, good and sharp knives are essential. This makes work fun and easy. 

Place the chestnuts on the rack or baking sheet and slide them into the center of the oven. After 20-25 minutes, the chestnuts should have popped from their skins. When this is done, the chestnuts are ready. Now remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the chestnuts on a serving platter.  

You cannot eat them yet, because there is one more thing that needs to be done, namely peeling the chestnuts.  

Peeling chestnuts

The roasted chestnuts are almost ready to eat, we just need to peel the chestnuts. Peeling the chestnuts should be done as soon as the chestnuts come out of the oven. Do not let the chestnuts cool, as this will make peeling more difficult.  

Grab the chestnut by the notch and peel off the skin from the chestnut from there. You can leave the thin skin that remains, you can just eat this. 

Then place the chestnuts on a serving platter and serve with a knob of vegetable butter and coarse sea salt. Enjoy your meal! 

Roasting Chestnuts In Pan

Not only the oven is a place to roast chestnuts. It also goes very well in a skillet.  

First check whether the chestnuts are fresh, see the above tip with bowl and water.  

Cut a cross in the chestnut with a sharp knife. This will keep the chestnut from exploding. Place the frying pan on the heat source and melt a knob of vegetable butter. When the butter has melted, the chestnuts go into the pan. Make sure the cross is initially facing up. Put the lid on the pan and roast the chestnuts for about 10-15 minutes. Shake the pan occasionally to make sure they don’t stick.  

When they have burst out of their skins, the chestnuts are ready.  

Remove the pan from the heat source and peel the chestnuts as described in the Chestnut Peeling chapter.  

Serve again on a plate with a knob of vegetable butter and coarse sea salt. If you like sweet, powdered sugar is delicious.  

Chestnuts Roast  Airfryer

We can also roast the chestnuts in the Airfryer, this works very well and is almost the same as the method of roasting in the oven.  

Make sure you have good chestnuts. Read the above tip for this.  

Then cut the chestnuts with a sharp knife, make a cross. Preheat the Airfryer to 200 degrees. Then place the chestnuts in the basket with the cross upwards. Cover with the anti-splash lid and roast the chestnuts for about 10-15 minutes.  

The chestnuts should now be slightly popped out of their skins. Place the chestnuts on, for example, your cutting board and let them cool down for a while. Then peel the chestnuts as described in the chapter Peeling chestnuts. This cooks best when they are still warm.  

Now serve the chestnuts with a knob of butter and salt or sugar. Depending on what your preference is.  

Chestnuts Roast Microwave

Roasting chestnuts in the microwave is also good. It happens quickly but requires careful attention.  

Again, make sure you have good, ripe chestnuts. Read the tip above to determine freshness.  

Cut a cross in the chestnuts with a sharp knife. This will keep the chestnuts from exploding. Place about 15 chestnuts at a time on a deep plate or microwave dish. You should be able to cover it.  

Put the microwave on a medium heat, about 360 watts and roast the chestnuts for about 2-3 minutes. It strongly depends on the size of the chestnuts and the power of your microwave.  

The chestnuts are ready when they pop out of their skins. Let the chestnuts cool for a while and then peel them immediately. Peeling is easy when they are still warm.  

Serve the chestnuts the sweet way with butter and icing sugar or the savory way with salt and butter. Enjoy your meal  

Roasting chestnuts on the BBQ

Roasting the chestnuts on the bbq is always fun and a party for everyone who participates.  

Warm up your bbq as you always do. Make sure to use fresh chestnuts. Read the tip at the beginning of this blog for this.  

Score the chestnuts with a sharp knife and make a cross. Then place the chestnuts on the grill grate. You will now see them pop. When that’s done, they’re done.  

Roasting the chestnuts on the bbq is of course a bit at your own discretion, but you can’t miss the popping. Then they’re done.  

Remove the skin while the chestnuts are still warm, so that the skin comes off easily. You can just leave the second thin sheet on and eat.