These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies truly are the best I’ve tried! They’re soft in the middle and chewy around the edges. Absolutely addicting!

The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Growing up there was pretty much just a handful of cookies that we (as in the royal ‘we’ that would pretty much just be ‘me’) would make at home to satisfy the old sweet tooth. No-Bake Cookies, Sugar Cookies and Snickerdoodles were all part of the arsenal. But none got as much action as this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe did in my teenage cookie craving days.
I’m pretty surprised it’s taken me this long to pull these oatmeal choc chip cookies out of the proverbial hat and post on the blog. But in reality, I’ve been giving this recipe the cold shoulder while I’ve been on the search for the ‘perfect’ chocolate chip cookie. You know, the one that makes me weak in the knees, the one that has me reaching for a glass of the coldest mug of dunkable milk.
After making these babies again for the first time in several years, I’m convinced I was looking in all the wrong places, and that like so many things in life, I had the ‘perfect’ formula in front of me all along.

This oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe came from my mom’s friend Annette and was the only chocolate chip cookie I made until the age of about 26 since it was the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I could fathom to exist. Until the afore-mentioned quest led me astray. Until I FINALLY experienced for myself that the grass is not always greener.
Oh jeez. Such vivid memories of me in my mom’s kitchen, packing the brown sugar into a measuring cup straight from the old blue tupperware container with a slice of bread atop to keep the sugar soft. The old, browned cookie sheets that I recently discovered my mom STILL has (I’m pretty sure she still has the blue tupperware too) and the old yellow Oster hand mixer that would barely churn through the dough once the oatmeal was added so that I always ended up mixing with the wooden spoon at the end instead.
The unique thing about this recipe, so far as I can tell, is the instruction to dissolve the baking soda in water before adding it to the mix. I’ve seen a lot of recipes for cookies (thank you, Maria) and this is one technique I haven’t seen before. But I always did it because the recipe said so. I think now it must help get a head start on activating the soda. If anyone has insight, please share so I can sleep at night.
My favorite part of the recipe? How chewy and soft these honey childs are thanks to the 4 cups of oatmeal and the crunch of pecans. These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are almost more like what healthified granola bars only wish they could become when they grown up.

What’s in These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies?
You don’t need any special ingredients to make the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Here’s what I’ve been putting into these cookies for years:
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Dark brown sugar
- Eggs
- Hot water
- Baking soda
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Kosher salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Chopped pecans
- Quick oats

How to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
This is a pretty classic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, then add in the eggs and vanilla.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add to the mixing bowl along with the baking soda that’s been dissolved in hot water. The chocolate chips, oats, and pecans go in last.
Drop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough onto parchment paper-lined baking trays and bake these babies until golden around the edges.
Can I Freeze Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Yes, you can freeze the baked cookies once they’ve completely cooled. When you’re ready to eat the frozen cookies, either reheat them in the oven or microwave, or set them on the counter to thaw.
Can I Omit the Pecans?
If you have a nut allergy, you’re welcome to omit the pecans. Otherwise, I highly recommend adding them in since the slight crunch they add to these oatmeal choc chip cookies is unbeatable.

Tips for the Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Note that this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for quick oats and not old-fashioned oats. If you don’t have quick oats on hand, you can achieve a similar consistency by blending regular old-fashioned oats in a blender until finely chopped (almost powdery).
This recipe is fairly flexible when it comes to the mix-ins. You could use chopped walnuts or macadamia nuts instead of pecans, and the semi-sweet chocolate chips could easily be replaced with milk or dark chocolate chips.
Be sure to take the cookies out of the oven as soon as they turn slightly golden around the edges. If you leave the cookies in for much longer, you’ll over bake them.
More Easy Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
- Cranberry White Chocolate Chip and Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Flourless Chewy Cinnamon Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies
- Milk Bar’s Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- The Best No-Bake Cookies with Coconut
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #foodiecrusheats.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups chopped pecans
- 4 cups quick oats
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cream the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer set to medium-high until creamy, light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well in between additions. Add in the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flour and salt together.
- In a ramekin or small bowl dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add ⅓ of mixture to creamed mix, alternating with 1 cup of dry ingredients and repeat until.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the chocolate chips, pecans and quick oats and mix until just combined.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and drop a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from each other. Bake one sheet of cookies at a time for 10 minutes or until just golden.
- Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes then move to a wire cooling rack until completely cooled.
Nutrition
More Classic Dessert Recipes to Master
- Confetti Cake with Buttercream Frosting
- My Favorite Pumpkin Roll Recipe
- Key Lime Pie
- German Chocolate Cake
- Caramel Apple Pie
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Kiran @ KiranTarun.com
Awesome giveaway!! And I love oatmeal choc chip cookies. Comfort snack at it’s best ;)
patti
Those cookies are delicious and I’ve tried many recipes through the years, be careful not to over bake them, I remove them just before they look completely baked, but I prefer my cookies to be soft. Yes I still have the blue bowl with the bread slice on top of the brown sugar, it goes perfectly with my slightly askew whisk. Your cookies look beautiful Heidi, I’ll have two for breakfast.
Shawna
Homemade cookies!
Stephie @ Eat Your Heart Out
I have a super retro date bread recipe from my great-grandmother, and it also calls for dissolving the baking soda. Maybe it’s just a retro recipe thing? Hard to say, but I always do it, too. Guess we just inherently trust those old, stand-by recipes. :-)
Jennifer C.
I would make cake with buttercream frosting
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
Loving the 4 cups of oats in these!
Karen
As a kid my mom would would make a double (sometimes triple) batch of oatmeal cookies with the recipe on the side of the Quaker Oats box. Some of the dough got baked as is but from there the dough it got divided up- some got raisins, some got nuts, some coconut and the largest some got chocolate chips. They were a super hit at our house with each of us having their favorites.
I’m all in for trying these.
May
I would probably make a huge batch of Momofuku Milk Bar Fruity Pebble Crunch Cookies! Trying to cream the butter and sugar for cookie recipes has already destroyed one of my hand mixers and the other one is dangerously close.
Emily
These are my favorite cookies–well, at least one of them. And I’m pretty sure this recipe would be the first I’d make with the mixer. Or maybe my favorite peanut butter cookies. Or chocolate toffee almond cookies.
Cori
My moms recipe for whip cream frosting on chocolate cake. Its a very touchy recipe and a hand mixer doesn’t work.
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious
Did you bring any of these cookies with you to Carmel Valley Ranch? :)
joan s
well of course i’d have to make these cookies. and i sure would like a kitchenaid in that beautiful sea-blue color!
dana
oh man, these cookies would be perfect alongside my afternoon iced latte! AND I’ve been swooning over other blogger’s stand mixers for a while now. Would love to have one of my own!
Danyelle
Oatmeal crasin cookies!
Heather
Michael Chiarello’s “Unscotti” to ship to my deployed husband! (Less likely to be harder than concrete upon arrival with only one bake!)
Robin
The first thing I would make is my favorite recipe: whole wheat molasses bread.
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel
I’m so glad you used chocolate chips instead of raisins!
Ally's Sweet & Savory Eats
First I would give my old KitchenAid to my mom, who desperately wants one….and then with my new one I’d tackle homemade bread!
Stefanie @ Sarcastic Cooking
Aaaaa! My mom has that Oster yellow hand mixer too!!!!! Memories…. I need these cookies now. Ok maybe tomorrow. But I am for sure making these!
Bethany Wichman
I would make my favorite banana millet muffins! :)
Tracey
I would love to make a big batch of white chocolate chip cookies in my first ever stand mixer!
Lisa Harris
Well, now that you have me good and hungry for chocolate chip cookies, I would have to whip me up a batch of my momma’s chocolate chip cookies with that beauty!
Mary
I would make a birthday cake. Not because it’s anyone I know’s birthday, but because why not?
Michelle
The first thing I would make would have to be cookies – satisfy that sweet tooth!
Bridget @ champagne Frosting
I think I would have to whip up an extra tall 4 layer chocolate cake with mounds of vanilla frosting!!