Decades. I spent decades of failed cooking attempts, burns, chestnuts burned on the outside and raw on the inside, trials in the oven, in a regular pan, in a pan with holes, and decisions to just give up and eat them only when my mom cooked them… to finally come to this truth: cooking roasted chestnuts in the air fryer is the new discovery of the century!
Or I could say it’s the Eureka moment in cooking chestnuts, or… ‘oh my gosh!, then it’s trueee!’ or other expressions of this sort that crossed my mind while peeling my first and well-cooked roasted chestnuts cooked with the air fryer (and eating every other one, but let’s overlook that… 😃).

Before I tell you how to cook roasted chestnuts in the air fryer, let me tell you a bit about this appliance of the moment, and what roundabout ways brought me to own one. 🙂

The air fryer – also called, in English, Airfryer – is a fryer (a name, a destiny!), which allows you to fry using just a minimal amount of oil, assisted by a simultaneous strong air blast. A ventilated fryer, in short, which thanks to this happy union produces much lighter and healthier fries than traditional ones (although, according to some, not entirely comparable in the final result, which is understandable. And obviously, when I fry something, I’ll let you know the result).

What I didn’t know before owning one, and what was a discovery for me, is that beyond the name “fryer,” this clever device also functions as a mini oven (but there are also large air fryers, not just mini like mine). The air fryer is therefore also usable for “oven” cooking and not only to achieve fries as my blessed ignorance suggested. Given the excellent results I obtained with my roasted chestnuts, I can say it works really well as a mini oven.

Air fryers have spread a lot lately, but in reality, they’ve been on the market for quite some time. Years, I’d say. Only that, and let’s say it, up to a certain point, no one cared about them. The only person I knew who used the air fryer and praised it in unsuspected times was Giovanna, my colleague/friend blogger and coach of the WW Propoints diet. Years ago, during the period of my aforementioned blessed ignorance, Giovanna was already cooking and publishing recipes with this thing called the air fryer, which I didn’t know about and which, just because it was called a fryer (due to my very negative past experience with a real fryer, used twice and then banished from my life), didn’t interest me at all. So much so that every time I read one of her recipes cooked with her air fryer, while reading it, I simultaneously translated it into a recipe cooked in my oven, and that was it.
(Giovanna!! don’t laugh!!! 😄)
And since I usually fall in love with every new appliance, tool, or kitchen gizmo that comes my way, I’ll tell you that I was even very proud of myself for this lack of interest I had for a kitchen tool. Like: one less gadget in my crowded kitchen, take that!

Then at some point, air fryers started appearing everywhere. I don’t know when the current media boom of the air fryer officially started. Nor do I know on the wave of what reason, event, or advertising campaign.
But the fact is that I started to suspect it was its moment of glory when – and it sounds funny but it’s true – the stationery supplier from whom we get our office supplies started including among the gifts for purchases this colorful air fryer.
Which I blatantly ignored on the first occasion, choosing instead a set of pans. I needed them. 😄
Some time later, they offered it again. I thought about it.
Indecisive, think today, think tomorrow… when I finally decided, ops time’s up!, gifts changed, and the air fryer was gone.
But oh well, never mind, I said. Indeed, better this way, I don’t need it.

Guess what?
That’s exactly when the curiosity worm started wiggling in me.
I could gift it to myself for Christmas. No, no, I don’t need it, and it’s too small, what do I do with it since there are four of us, two of whom are ravenous teenagers? I could gift it to myself for Christmas. No, I don’t have space in the kitchen, and where would I find the time to learn to use it? Oh, but I could gift it to myself for Christmas. Nooo come on it’d be a needless expenseee! Ohhhhhh, but what a pity though, not having seized that gift opportunity, I would have satisfied my curiosity. But oh well, never mind. Too bad though, yeah I know they won’t offer it again, already twice….

And so it was that a few months later… ta-dah!
In a moment, I stocked up on CDs, padded envelopes, and printer paper. 😃

It arrives.
I take it out of the box.
But it’s so small! I read the booklet. I read the attached recipes. I put it back in the box. It’s small! Nothing fits inside! I have no idea how to use it! And now what do I cook with it?

I barely have time to ask myself when… Saint Team Light and Tasty points the way. 😄
The ingredient chosen by the Team for today, chestnuts, couldn’t have been more perfect!

So. If you also have an air fryer just sitting there and don’t know how to use it… great! Start like this!
As a first use, use it to cook chestnuts, I assure you it will surprise you!!!

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Below are two more fun recipes with the air fryer, and the collection (very useful!):