How to Eat Chestnuts—Including the Best Ways to Prep, Roast, and Serve Them

Like candy canes and eggnog, chestnuts are often associated with the holidays (cue the Christmas carols), but why sideline this seasonal delicacy to a few nights a year? Curious to learn more about how to eat chestnuts for festive occasions—and everyday enjoyment—we turned to culinary experts for suggestions. It turns out that this starchy treat has a lot to offer home cooks, transcending stuffing and classic desserts.

Chestnuts 101

The chestnut (botanical name, Castanea) is a large, brown nut that grows inside a spike-covered fruit (called a burr) on tall, deciduous trees. While burrs contain clusters of up to seven chestnuts, each chestnut has a single seed, making it a true tree nut. The fruit is harvested from October through January (hello, holidays).

American history: A mainstay of Native American and early settlers' diets, chestnuts are undergoing a renaissance. In the first half of the 20th century, native chestnut trees, grown from Mississippi to Maine, were decimated by a fungus called chestnut blight, but in recent years, enterprising farms have begun restoration efforts, breeding blight-resistant hybrids.

Revival: Tyler Akin, chef-partner of Bastia, a Mediterranean restaurant highlighting Corsican and Sardinian cuisines, uses chestnuts from Bloom Farm, a regenerative farm in Pennsylvania, for Corsican dishes and cocktails. While European chestnuts clock about 4 percent fat content, he says, American chestnuts have about 10 percent. "Accordingly, the European fruits tend to be starchy without the pronounced sweetness and nuttiness of American chestnuts."

Buying and Prepping Chestnuts

Once removed from the spiky burr, chestnuts are typically sold fresh, still nestled in their hard brown exterior, or jarred, canned, or frozen. Frozen and fresh are preferable. 

"If you get fresh chestnuts, you have to score them (with an X in the top) and roast them; otherwise, they are really hard to peel and explode in the oven," says Shawn Matijevich, lead chef-instructor, online culinary arts and food operations at the Institute of Culinary Education. Scoring allows the steam to escape. 

Roasting Tips

Prior to roasting, soak the chestnuts, then blanch in boiling water so they're easier to peel. Akin recommends roasting them on a baking sheet in a preheated 350-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 30 minutes, and shaking the pan every 5 to 10 minutes during roasting. He then places them in a closed container for 5 to 10 minutes to create steam and loosen the skin for peeling. For more explicit instructions, follow our roasting guide.

Boiling Chestnuts

Alternatively, you can boil them, but it's not ideal. "Boiling chestnuts that have been similarly scored is an inferior but equally effective way to arrive at peeled fruit," says Akin.

Toasting Chestnuts

After peeling away the skin, Akin suggests toasting the fruit again. "Even when making a chestnut soup, which requires simmering the nuts to soften them and impregnate them with water or stock for a smooth purée, the results are better if the fruit is toasted first. I can't recommend this step highly enough!"

Frozen Chestnuts

Frozen chestnuts are usually sold blanched, Matijevich says. Most are peeled and ready to use, but check the packaging to make sure.

Chestnut Flour

A gluten-free alternative to traditional flours, chestnut flour can be used for everything from homemade pasta to baked goods (see below). You can buy it, or make your own by roasting, peeling, drying, and grinding the chestnuts into a fine powder.

Don't Miss

How to Eat Dates 15 Delicious Ways, From Sauces and Sweets to Sandwiches

How to Eat Tahini—From Flavorful Dips and Grain Bowls to Decadent Desserts

Cooking With Chestnuts

Freshly roasted chestnuts are tender, with a baked-potato-like texture, and can be enjoyed in countless ways. You can, of course, eat them simply roasted, but our experts have other preferred uses for this shapeshifter, both sweet and savory.

Chestnuts are essential to New England standards like cornbread dressing and croquettes, French favorites like chestnut velouté (a silky soup) and marrons glacés (candied chestnuts), and a major ingredient in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese stews, dumplings, and rice specialties (like kuri gohan).

Chestnut Purée

Matijevich likes to blend chestnuts into a smooth purée, which isn't always possible with other nuts. "Because of its smooth texture, the purée blends well into other preparations, so you get the flavor with no texture difference." 

He uses the purée to heighten sweet and savory creations. "I like to add it to cake, filling, pastry cream, mousse, soup, and sauces—it adds a wonderful, nutty, earthy flavor." It also stars in the French-Italian classic Mont Blanc dessert.

Corsican Specialties

Chestnuts are integral to the culinary heritage of Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean Sea influenced by French and Italian cultures. Akin shares some favorite dishes:

Pulenda: A polenta-like porridge made with chestnut flour, water, and salt, "Pulenda, cuts to the soul of Corsica," says Akin. He sets it like corn-based polenta, then pan-fries slices in clarified butter, and tops it as he would waffles or French toast.

Chestnut soup: This works wonderfully with roasted mushrooms or lobster as a garnish, says Akin.

Sauces: Chestnuts can also take your favorite sauces (those old chestnuts!) to the next level. "We like to fine-ground toasted chestnuts to mount into ragu and Bolognese sauce to give it an underlying nutty backbone and help bind the sauce," Akin says.

Desserts: As Matijevich notes, chestnuts make baked goods and other sweet stuff, like pastry cream (crème pâtisserie) sing. Many Corsican desserts use chestnut flour, says Akin. He mentions chestnut beignets, crêpes, and canistrelli cookies, a crunchy treat meant for dipping.