TL;DR (Quick-Answer Box)
- What it is: A jewel-colored, savory-sweet holiday side dish of nutty wild rice, roasted chestnuts, dried cranberries, quartered dried apricots, celery, carrots, onion, fresh herbs (thyme, sage, and parsley), and butter.
- Why you’ll love it: An elegant, make-ahead alternative to traditional stuffing or a simple rice pilaf, perfect for Thanksgiving or a festive dinner party.
- How to make it: Roast and peel the chestnuts. Cook the wild rice in chicken stock, water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Plump the dried cranberries and quartered apricots in hot water, then drain. Sauté the celery, carrots, and onion in butter, then combine the rice and vegetables with the reserved chestnuts, plumped dried fruits, and fresh herbs, seasoning with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper, to heat through by baking it in a buttered dish.
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This wild rice with roasted chestnuts and cranberries recipe does triple duty at any holiday meal, providing something healthy and gluten-free and make-ahead. Make that quadruple duty, seeing as it’s also immensely satisfying.
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If you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
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I used oil instead of butter, beef stock cube, kaki fruit instead of apricot. Lots more celery and carrots (100 g each per person). Very nice. Served it as a side with spicy Moroccan fish.
Al bo
Wild Rice, Roasted Chestnuts, and Cranberries
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 pounds (about 1 1/2 cups peeled) fresh chestnuts*
- 2 cups wild rice
- 2 cups homemade chicken stock or low-sodium canned chicken broth, plus more as needed
- 2 cups water, plus more as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup dried apricots, quartered
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 large stalks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 10 oz yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoons minced sage leaves
- 1/2 cup minced flat-leaf parsley leaves
- Freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Position the rack in the center of the oven.
- Using a sharp paring knife, carefully score the flat side of each chestnut with a big “x,” cutting through the outer shell and inner brown skin. Place the chestnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until tender when pierced with a fork, 25 to 30 minutes.
- When the chestnuts are still quite warm but cool enough to handle, peel them with a sharp paring knife, removing both the outer shell and the inner brown skin. Discard any chestnuts that look rotten. If there are any chestnuts that are hard to peel, rewarm them in a 400°F (200°C) oven and try again.
- Cut the shelled chestnuts in half. Lower the oven temperature to 350°F (175°C).
- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine the wild rice, chicken stock, water, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover partially, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the wild rice is tender, 40 to 50 minutes. (Occasionally check the liquid and, if necessary, add more stock and/or water as needed. Conversely, there may be excess liquid that needs to be drained after the rice becomes tender.)
- In a small bowl, combine the cranberries and apricots, add hot water to cover, and let plump for 20 minutes. Drain and reserve.
- In a 12-inch saute pan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter and swirl to coat the bottom. Add the celery, carrots, and onion and saute until soft and lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the thyme, sage, and parsley and saute for 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat.
- When the wild rice is tender, drain it in a sieve and add it to the sauteed vegetables. Add the reserved chestnuts, cranberries, and apricots and stir to combine. Add the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
☞ TESTER TIP: MAKE AHEAD
The wild rice can be made up to this point 1 day in advance, cooled, covered, and refrigerated. When ready to reheat, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup chicken stock to keep the rice moist. If baking directly from the fridge, bake for 45 minutes. If you let the dish sit out for an hour first, bake for 25 to 30 minutes. - About half an hour before you wish to serve this, spoon the wild rice into a baking dish slicked with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and cover it with aluminum foil. Bake the wild rice until heated through, about 30 minutes. Serve it directly from the casserole.
Notes
*How To Substitute Peeled Chestnuts
If you prefer not to roast your own chestnuts, you can buy peeled chestnuts in vacuum-sealed packages, cans, or jars at specialty foods stores. If they’re packed in liquid, drain it off. Prepared chestnuts are usually boiled rather than roasted, resulting in some flavor loss. To improve their flavor before using, place them on a rimmed baking sheet and roast them in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 12 to 14 minutes.
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Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
The combination of wild rice and chestnuts is so very good, it guarantees this dish will be a winner. Add in some herbs and dried fruit and it’s downright festive. The fact that you can make it ahead and and bake it the next day makes this pilaf a clear winner for holiday entertaining. Note that you’ll need at least 12 ounces of wild rice to get 2 cups of uncooked rice, so if your rice comes in small boxes or packets of 6 or 8 ounces, you’ll need to buy two. You’ll also want to buy and prep extra chestnuts, as there will usually be some bad ones that you’ll have to discard.
The longest cook time is the rice. It will take about 10 minutes to come to boil, and then needs to simmer for 40 minutes, so it makes sense to start the rice first. You can then prep and roast the chestnuts while the rice is cooking. The dried fruit needs to soak for the same amount of time as the chestnuts roast, so do them simultaneously and they’re ready when the oven time goes off. The vegetables can be prepped and sautéed in the 20 minutes that the chestnuts are roasting and fruit is soaking. Then the dish become a matter of assembly, and you can bake right away or the next day.
My wild rice was not fully tender after 40 minutes of simmering, and as the recipe warns, the liquid was not absorbed, so you will need to drain it. The rice did become fully puffed and tender during the baking phase, and the finished dish was perfect. I would call this 8 servings if there are a lot of other dishes.
This is a festive holiday side dish alternative to bread stuffing or dressing that looks beautiful on the table and on the plate. The nuttiness of the slightly chewy wild rice and sweetness of the fruit go together well, and then there is the crumbly sweetness of the chestnuts as well.
Preparing the chestnuts and cooking the wild rice is labor- and time-intensive, respectively, but if not at the holidays, when? (Actually, this combination would be good at pretty much any time one wants to expend the money and effort, using frozen raw or jarred pre-cooked chestnuts when the fresh ones are not seasonally available.)
It requires careful work and a very sharp paring knife to make the “x” on the flat sides of the chestnuts, and the bigger the “x” the easier I have found it to peel the chestnuts when they are out of the oven and cooled just enough to handle. I did not have to return any stubborn ones to the oven but did have several that were bad.
I used reduced-sugar Craisins. This was served alongside breaded pork chops, cranberry sauce, and cauliflower with cheese sauce. Everything looked beautiful together on the plate.
This wild rice with roasted chestnuts is definitely better the next day after the herb flavors have a chance to settle into the dish. The rice initially tasted a bit bland and I found myself wanting more flavor. I think adding some shallots or garlic would help give the recipe some more depth of flavor.
Peeling the chestnuts is definitely the most labor intensive part of this recipe.
I left off a fifth star because I think reheating this dish in the oven isn’t the best idea. Timing on Thanksgiving can easily slip out of your grasp, as it did for me today, and this lovely dish, which had been perfect when I made it yesterday, got over-cooked in the oven. The wild rice grains nearest the edge of the baking pan dried out so much I was afraid someone would break a tooth on them!
I plan to reheat the leftovers in a saucepan with a little extra stock so that everything will steam and soften up as well as heat up. I think that would also be the best strategy for reheating this dish the first time after it’s been refrigerated overnight.
BTW, David, I love your recipes and find them usually flawless. Thanks for years of wonderful dishes!
Amelia, I’m so glad you made the dish! And thanks for the feedback on reheating. A few questions:
1. Did you let the rice sit out for at least an hour prior to reheating?
2. What temperature did you reheat at?
Yes, I took it out of the fridge about 1.5 hours before I put it in the oven. The oven temp was 350˚. But I left it in the oven for about 45 minutes instead of 30.
Amelia, thanks so much for those details—they solve the mystery!
I think a combination of factors worked against you here. Since you let the dish come to room temperature for that hour and a half, the 45-minute bake time (which is usually intended for a colder dish) was too long, causing that drying out.
But more importantly, your comment made me realize my Note wasn’t as clear as it could be. It failed to mention that you should add a splash of stock before reheating to keep the rice moist, and that the timing depends on whether the dish is cold or room temperature.
I’ve updated the recipe just now with those details so no one else runs into this. Thank you for helping me make the site better!
I used oil instead of butter, beef stock cube, kaki fruit instead of apricot. Lots more celery and carrots (100 g each pp). Very nice. Served it as a side with spicy Moroccan fish.
That sounds like a lovely meal, Al!
Hello! I’m going to try your wild rice with roasted chestnuts and cranberries recipe this Thanksgiving. Just a naïve question—will 8 ounces of wild rice produce the necessary two cups for the recipe? or should I buy 16 ounces? Thank you!!! Lisa Steinberger
Hi, Lisa. One cup of wild rice yields between 3 and 4 cups of cooked rice. So this recipe will yield between 6 and 8 cups of rice, in addition to the chopped vegetables. Hope this helps.