Quick & Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — An incredibly FAST and EASY recipe that produces perfectly thick chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with chewy edges and soft centers!! One bowl to wash, no mixer to drag out, and no waiting around!!
Table of Contents
Super Simple Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
When most people have a craving for cookies, they want them within the hour. Not hours or even days later. And they don’t want to dirty a million dishes or drag out a (stand) mixer in pursuit of their cookie goal.
Enter: this incredibly fast and easy oatmeal cookie recipe with few ingredients that produces cookies that turn out perfectly thick with soft centers and chewy edges.
Just add everything to one bowl, stir by hand with one spoon, and you’re ready to bake.
While I’m normally a huge advocate of chilling cookie dough to avoid cookies that spread or are thin, you don’t have to with these simple oatmeal cookies. Not having to chill the dough makes these 20-minute oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. From the time you’re struck with a cookie craving until the time you’re eating said cookies, it’s 20 minutes.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
For this simple oatmeal cookie recipe, you’ll need the following:
- Egg
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Old-fashioned oats
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
When I say easy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I mean EASY! Follow these basic recipe steps:
- Add the egg, butter, sugars, and vanilla to a large bowl and stir vigorously to combine (your bicep should be burning).
- Mix in the dry ingredients, then gently fold in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop the cookie dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet (a Silpat works, too!) and bake until done.
- Let your cookies cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. They need a little time to cool and set up before you can dunk them into milk!
Recipe Tips
Since you’re beating the dough together with elbow grease, I highly recommend having the butter and egg at room temperature. The softer the butter is, the easier your job will be. Of course you can use an electric mixer, but that defeats the purpose of as few dishes and as easy as possible.
Didn’t plan ahead for room temp ingredients? No problem. Pop your butter in the microwave for 10 seconds or until it’s just barely showing signs of melting. Add the egg to a bowl of very hot water for a couple minutes. A warm egg emulsifies easier than a cold one.
I highly recommend using a cookie scoop as well. The dough is soft, warm, and the domed shape a scoop produces is essential to preventing excess spreading. Same goes for a Silpat, use one.
Recipe FAQs
I scooped the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon sized balls and bake them at 350ºF for 10 to 13 minutes depending on how done I want them. If you prefer softer cookies, bake for 10 minutes, and if you prefer more well-done cookies, bake for a little more time.
Use rolled (old-fashioned) oats whenever you make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Rolled oats are sturdier and chewier in texture and make for a better cookie.
No, quick oats have a much different texture than rolled oats and would act more like a flour in these cookies. Your homemade oatmeal cookies would wind up being too dry.
Of course! I added chocolate chips to keep these super simple oatmeal cookies, but you can add raisins, walnuts, chocolate chunks, or whatever you love in oatmeal cookies.
Yes, you can freeze both the cookie dough balls or the baked oat cookies. Frozen cookie dough doesn’t need to be thawed before being baked, but it’ll need an extra minute or two in the oven to cook through. And if you freeze the baked cookies, you can reheat them in the oven or the microwave when you’re ready to enjoy them.
No-Chill Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick, very soft
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats, not instant or quick cook
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for after baking (or substitute with raisins, walnuts, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the egg, butter, sugars, vanilla, and mix with a spoon aggressively for about 90 seconds, or until smooth and slightly fluffed, i.e. your bicep and shoulder should be burning if you’ve mixed well enough.
- Add the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and stir to combine.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop, form mounds and place on prepared baking sheet spaced about 2 inches apart (I baked 12 cookies on the first sheet)
- Bake for about 10 to 13 minutes (short for super soft cookies, longer for more well-done cookies), or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Immediately upon taking the baking sheet out of the oven, add about 5 additional chocolate chips per cookie. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Oatmeal Cookies:
ALL OF MY OATMEAL COOKIE RECIPES!
Extra-Large Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie — A FAST and EASY recipe for ONE XL soft and chewy very THICK cookie loaded with chocolate!! No mixer needed and so DELISH!!
The Best Oatmeal M&M’s Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, and loaded with M&Ms and chocolate chips in every bite! The cookies are so good they got me a marriage proposal!
Loaded Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – Soft, chewy, and loaded with chocolate! Sinking your teeth into a thick, hearty cookie is the best!
Cowboy Cookies – Chewy oats, sweet coconut, crunchy pecans, and plenty of chocolate! Hearty with tons of texture and they stay soft and chewy! Everyone (not just cowboys) loves these cookies!
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – 3 favorite cookies combined into 1 so you don’t have to choose!! Easy, no-mixer recipe, and always a hit!
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies – No butter and no mixer used in these easy cookies dripping with chocolate!
Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – Only 1/4 cup butter used! Like oatmeal cookies but with banana to keep them healthier! So soft, chewy, and you’ll never miss the butter!
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — Between the molasses and pumpkin pie spice, the cookies are bursting with fall flavors.
Originally posted September 1, 2017 and reposted on April 16, 2021 with updated text.
These cookies were SUPER easy to make, I opted to not use the mixer and glad I didn’t because just the one bowl to clean up. They were also SUPER delicious ! My husband and I devoured them in just a few days unfortunately and he referred to them as “dangerously good”. I substituted half the chocolate chips for raisins. I through in a little cinnamon too. Will definitely be making them again !
Thanks for the 5 star review, Beth, and I’m so pleased to hear these are a massive hit and got the ‘dangerously good’ title from your husband! I love raisins in oatmeal cookies (many people don’t so write my recipes with chocolate chips) so swapping in some raisins sounds great to me!
i love this recipe! I make if every week and add lots of different chocolate to the cookies as well as walnuts – my cookies are decadent and everyone loves them! Thanks Averie!!
Thank you, Fiona for the five star review and for letting me know that you love this recipe and make it every week and doctor them up with different add-ons!
I only had quick cooking oats so I used them in a pinch. They DEFINITELY were not the right texture. But they scratched the itch for oatmeal cookies and the taste was amazing so giving it five stars anyway because I’m the problem. They just looked a little flat. I smushed them back to a slightly smaller circle to try and get them a little thicker, but I like a thin cookie so I wasn’t mad. I will be returning to this recipe when I have the proper type of oat. I made some plain and some with dark chocolate chips and walnut pieces and they were so great!
Thanks for the 5 star review Cheyenne and for also admitting that any issues were a ‘you’ problem and not a recipe problem. Some people give me bad reviews when they change ingredients and basically don’t follow the recipe – so I appreciate you! Glad the cookies worked out decently well and that you’ll be returning to this recipe when you have the correct oats.
Made them today! Thanks so much. Extremely simple. First cookies I’ve ever made :)
Seth that is awesome that these are the first cookies you’ve ever made and hopefully they won’t be the last! Thanks for trying my recipe for your first ever cookies and the 5 star review!
Thank you. Easy, behaves properly, and makes us happy. Thank you.
P.S.: don’t use an immersion blender to mix the butter and sugars. Bad plan.
Thanks Meg for letting me know that these made you happy! And I agree, no immersion blender for cookie dough 😉
I have tried AT LEAST 15 oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and these are the best by far! Sweet chocolatey chewy goodness that melts in your mouth!! Reminded me of the Paradise Bakery recipe before they were bought out by Panera! IYKYK
Thanks for the five star review Beth and I love hearing that these are the best of at least 15 other oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipes that you’ve tried! That’s the best kind of compliment! 🙏🏻
We make these regularly now! It’s a great go to recipe for quick weeknight cookies when the kiddo needs a little pick up!
Thanks so much for the 5 star review and I love hearing that you make these regularly now and they’re a kiddo favorite!