But it was not as easy as the scoreline suggests and, although Forest were 2-0 up within 29 minutes, the home side pushed them all the way.
Phil Picken reduced the arrears with a superb shot and Chesterfield came close to an equaliser before substitute John Thompson sealed the points with a late header.
It means that Forest have won five and drawn two of their seven games under the joint caretaker stewardship of Frank Barlow and Ian McParland and they are clearly the form team in the division.
They also had to contend with a vicious swirling wind and heavy showers but, despite the awkward conditions, both teams served up an entertaining contest for a 7,000-plus crowd.
Forest almost scored in the first 20 seconds and they were rewarded for their bright start when former Chesterfield defender Ian Breckin headed in after Barry Roche misjudged a cross.
Nathan Tyson sprinted away to score a second in the 29th minute after Alex Bailey failed to control a throughball but the game burst back into life when Chesterfield scored a superb goal four minutes later.
Picken burst inside on the left to unleash a right-foot shot that flew inside Rune Pedersen's right-hand post.
That set the match up although Forest could have scored again when Tyson saw a low shot just go past the left-hand post.
Chesterfield came out strongly in the second half and almost equalised in the 52nd minute when Derek Niven crossed from the right and Colin Larkin shot from 12 yards but straight at the keeper.
Roche redeemed his earlier error with a superb save at the feet of Tyson and did even better to beat out a sizzling shot from the striker.
Chesterfield were always dangerous going forward and it needed an athletic goal-line clearance by Wes Morgan to deny Mark Allott in the 80th minute.
Roche again denied Tyson after Jack Lester set him up but any nerves Forest had were settled with two minutes remaining.
Kris Commons swung over a corner and Thompson was at the near post to flick a header into the roof of the net to keep Forest in touch with the top six.