Oven Roasted Chestnuts

You know it's the holiday season when chestnuts show up in grocery stores.  And while I do love chestnuts roasting on an open fire....(queue festive songs that annoy Nick because I only know the tune and have made up the rest of the words), alas...I live in a condo where a fireplace is not readily accessible so an oven will have to do.  

 

Roasted Chestnuts

approx prep time: 10min

approx cook time: 20min

INGREDIENTS: 

1lb of Chestnuts (Pick ones that are not shriveled up and do not have holes in them)

HOW TO MAKE IT: 

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2) Wash chestnuts in a bowl of water

3) Find the flat side of each chestnut and cut a large "X" with a sharp paring knife all the way through the skin.

4) Place on a baking sheet with X side up and bake for 20-30 minutes, until cooked.  It usually means I can crack the shell open by squishing it in a towel.

TIP: 

More of a warning -- Cut a large defined X on the chestnut or else they could explode if the steam is unable to escape from within the chestnut.  Some of my "X"s were not sufficiently large and it caused 2 chestnuts to explode in the oven (makes for an annoying cleanup, and a burnt chestnut smell the next time I used the oven), and one chestnut targeted Nick as he took them out of the oven spraying a fine mist of chestnut debris all over the kitchen.  We still occasionally find bits of it stuck on the fridge or a cabinet door.