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I have made this Chick Fil A cookie recipe more times than I can count, and the thing that finally cracked it was not the chocolate. It was the sugar. Chick-Fil-A’s own published ingredient list has plain sugar and molasses on it as two separate items, which is just dark brown sugar taken apart. Swap in dark brown sugar, add honey to stand in for their invert sugar, and the cookies stop tasting almost right and start tasting like the ones that come in the little printed bag.
I grab one every single time I go, usually alongside a homemade Chick-fil-A mocha cream cold brew. But they are closed on Sundays and the craving has never once checked the calendar. So this is the version you make at home, with the split-and-press trick that gives you those craggy bakery tops instead of smooth domes.
Table of Contents
- Quick Look At This Copycat Chick Fil A Cookie Recipe
- Why This Chick Fil A Cookie Recipe Works
- What Is Actually In Chick-Fil-A’s Cookies
- Key Ingredients
- Substitutions And Additions
- How to make Chick-Fil-A Cookies
- Expert tip:
- Chick Fil A Cookie Recipe FAQs
- More Chick-Fil-A Favorites
- Copycat Chick Fil A Cookies (Chocolate Chunk) Recipe
Quick Look At This Copycat Chick Fil A Cookie Recipe
- 🍪 What it is — Chick-Fil-A’s Chocolate Chunk Cookie, rebuilt from their own published ingredient list.
- ⭐ Why it works — Twenty-one cookies, no drive-thru, and no waiting out a Sunday closure.
- 💛 Why you’ll love it — Sixteen cookies, no drive-thru, and no waiting out a Sunday closure.
- ⚠️ What to watch for — Pull them at 12 minutes while the centers still look underbaked.
- 🎯 How close to the original — Dark brown sugar and honey copy their sugar, molasses, and invert sugar.
- 🍳 Pan notes — Swirl a wide cookie cutter around each hot cookie for perfectly round edges.
- ⏱️ Ready in — 32 minutes active, plus one hour of chilling worth not skipping.
Why This Chick Fil A Cookie Recipe Works
- Dark brown sugar does the heavy lifting. Chick-Fil-A lists sugar and molasses separately on their panel, and dark brown sugar is exactly those two things premixed, at roughly double the molasses of light brown. More molasses means more moisture held in the crumb, which is why these stay soft for days instead of going sandy by morning.
- Honey stands in for their invert sugar. Invert sugar is right there on their list, and honey is an invert sugar. It is the closest swap a home baker can reach for, and it is the reason the chew lands where it should. You can also opt for light corn syrup if that’s easier.
- Shortening plus butter copies their fat. Their panel reads palm oil and butter. Butter-flavored shortening plus real butter gets you the same structure, thick cookies that hold their height, with the flavor only butter brings.
- The split and press is the whole look. Split each chilled dough ball in half, mash the two halves back together with the torn edge facing up, then bake. That ragged surface is what gives you the craggy, chunky top that reads as the real thing instead of a smooth homemade dome.
What Is Actually In Chick-Fil-A’s Cookies
Almost everyone searches for these as chocolate chip cookies, but Chick-Fil-A officially calls theirs the Chocolate Chunk Cookie, and they bake them fresh in the restaurant every morning rather than shipping them in finished. Here is what they publish on their own nutrition page:
Wheat flour, sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chunks, palm oil, milk chocolate chunks, rolled oats, butter, eggs, invert sugar, water, molasses, salt, baking soda, natural vanilla flavor, and sodium acid pyrophosphate.
One cookie is 370 calories, with 17g fat, 49g carbohydrates, 26g sugar, and 5g protein. Listed allergens are milk, egg, soy, and wheat. There are no nuts and no coconut in the recipe, though they are baked in a kitchen where tree nuts are present, so cross-contact is possible. They are not gluten free, since wheat flour is the first ingredient.
Read that list next to mine and you can see how close this Chick Fil A cookie recipe sits. Their sugar and molasses becomes my dark brown sugar. Their invert sugar becomes my honey. Their palm oil becomes butter-flavored shortening. The rolled oats, both chocolates, eggs, and vanilla stay exactly as they are. The one place I went off script on purpose is chocolate, because I use a full cup and a half of chunks where theirs runs noticeably lighter.
Key Ingredients
- Dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. Dark brown is not optional here. It carries the molasses that keeps these soft and gives the crumb its deeper color.
- Butter-flavored shortening and butter. Shortening has a higher melting point than butter, so half and half keeps the cookies thick instead of letting them spread thin. I use butter-flavored Crisco, which puts the richness back.
- Honey. For chew, not for sweetness. It holds moisture the way their invert sugar does.
- Eggs. Two large, at room temperature. Cold eggs will seize the creamed butter and shortening.
- All-purpose flour. Nothing fancy needed.
- Old-fashioned oats. They add chew without turning this into an oatmeal cookie. Do not swap in quick oats, they dissolve into the dough and you lose the texture entirely. If you want oats front and center instead, my soft and chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies lean all the way in.
- Baking powder and baking soda. Both, for a little lift and for browning.
- Salt. Balances all that sugar.
- Milk chocolate chunks and semi-sweet chocolate chunks. Using both is not a garnish decision, it is how you get that specific flavor. Semi-sweet alone reads too dark, milk alone too sweet.
Substitutions And Additions
- Halving it is easy enough, though if you only want a few cookies my small batch chocolate chip cookies are already scaled for it.
- Light brown sugar works in a pinch, but you lose some color and some chew. If it is all you have, add a teaspoon of molasses.
- All butter, no shortening is fine if you would rather skip it. Chill the full hour and expect a slightly flatter cookie. If you want to go the other direction on flavor entirely, my brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the deeper, nuttier cousin.
- Chocolate chips instead of chunks will work. Chunks melt into bigger pools, which is closer to the real thing, but chips are fine too.
- Toasted walnuts or pecans, about three-quarters of a cup. The original has no nuts, so this takes you off the copycat path, but it is delicious.
- A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, if you want to chase the thing people argue about online. Chick-Fil-A does not list cinnamon on their ingredient panel, and their flavoring is specified as natural vanilla, so this is not a secret ingredient reveal. But enough people insist they taste something warm in there that I think it is worth trying, and a quarter teaspoon is subtle enough that you will wonder whether you imagined it.
How to make Chick-Fil-A Cookies
- Cream the butter, shortening, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs, honey, and vanilla and mix just until combined.
- Fold in the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt only until the flour disappears, then stir through both chocolates. I chop a chocolate bar for this instead of using bagged chips, because the uneven shards melt into bigger pools.
- Cover and chill the dough for at least one hour. This is where the oats hydrate and the flavor deepens, and it is why the cookies stay thick instead of spreading. (Yes, you can taste it. If raw dough is really the goal, make my edible chocolate chip cookie dough instead, it is made to be eaten.)
- Scoop twenty one large dough balls onto a parchment lined sheet. Now split each ball in half and mash the halves back together with the torn edge facing up. This is the step everyone skips and it is the one that makes them look right.
- Bake at 350F for 12 to 13 minutes, pulling them while the centers still look slightly underbaked. The second they come out, set a cookie cutter that is a little wider than the cookie over it and swirl it in circles. The soft edges push right back into a perfect round. (This is an optional step just for looks, if you don’t care about that feel free to skip the step)
- Let them sit on the hot pan for twenty minutes before moving them. They finish setting there, and moving them early is how you end up with a cookie that falls apart.
Expert tip:
- Do you have to chill the dough? You should. Chilling lets the flour hydrate and the flavors deepen, and it keeps the cookies thick. If you are truly out of time, bake straight from the bowl and pull them a minute or two early, but expect more spread.
- The cookie cutter swirl only works in the first thirty seconds or so out of the oven, while the edges are still soft. Wait too long and they set, and you’ll crack them trying.
Chick Fil A Cookie Recipe FAQs
No. Chick-Fil-A’s published ingredient list for the Chocolate Chunk Cookie contains no nuts and no coconut, and their listed allergens are milk, egg, soy, and wheat. That said, they are baked in a restaurant kitchen where tree nuts are used, so if you have a severe allergy there is a cross-contact risk worth asking about at the counter. My homemade version has no nuts either, unless you add them yourself.
Yes. Rolled oats are on their official ingredient list, which is why their cookie has a slightly heartier chew than a plain chocolate chip cookie. It is not an oatmeal cookie though, and neither is mine. Three-quarters of a cup across twenty one cookies is enough to feel without tasting like oatmeal. If you want the real oatmeal version, that is my original Quaker oatmeal cookie recipe.
One Chick-Fil-A Chocolate Chunk Cookie is 370 calories. Mine come in around 280 each, which surprises people given how much chocolate is in them. The difference is portion size, not restraint. Their cookie is a big single-serve bakery portion, and this batch splits the same kind of dough into twenty-one.
Theirs are baked fresh daily in the restaurant, so they are best the day you buy them. Mine keep in an airtight container at room temperature for three to four days, in the fridge for up to a week, and in the freezer for two months. Fifteen seconds in the microwave brings any of them back.
Yes. Scoop forty two small dough balls instead of sixteen large, and bake for 9-10 minutes instead of 12 to 13. Still split and press each one, it matters even more at that size.
People ask why Chick-Fil-A’s cookies taste different from a regular chocolate chip cookie, and it is not one secret ingredient. It is the stack. Heavy molasses from the dark brown sugar, an invert sugar holding the moisture, oats adding chew underneath, and two different chocolates instead of one. Any one of those alone would not do it. All four together is the flavor you are chasing.
More Chick-Fil-A Favorites
If you make these, come back and leave a star rating 🌟 and tell me how close they got. I read every single one, and the ratings are what help other people find this recipe. Tag me @chahinez_tbt so I can see your craggy tops.
Copycat Chick Fil A Cookies (Chocolate Chunk)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening butter flavored
- 1/2 cup butter softened, salted or unsalted
- 1 & 1/4 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks
- 3/4 cup milk chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Cream the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until combined.1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup butter, 1 & 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- Add in the eggs, honey, and vanilla extract, and mix to combine.2 eggs, 3 tbsp honey, 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Fold in the dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, just until the flour mixture disappears. Mix in the chocolate chunks until evenly distributed. Cover the bowl and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 1 hour.3 cup all purpose flour , 3/4 cup old fashioned oats , 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks, 3/4 cup milk chocolate chunks
- Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then set aside.
- Using a large cookie scoop (holds about 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup of cookie dough), scoop out 21 large cookies. Split in half, then mash together again with the ragged edge on top. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-13 minutes.
- As soon as they come out, place a round cookie cutter slightly wider than the cookie over each one and swirl it in circles to push the edges back into a perfect round (this step is fully optional if you want a perfectly round cookie). Then let them cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before transferring to a rack.
Notes
- Chick-Fil-A’s own ingredient list runs sugar, invert sugar, and molasses as three separate items. Dark brown sugar is sugar and molasses premixed, and honey is an invert sugar, which is why this pairing gets closer than a standard chocolate chip cookie ever will. Their fat is palm oil and butter, so butter-flavored shortening and butter is the home equivalent.
- About the cinnamon: Chick-Fil-A does not list cinnamon on their ingredient panel, and their flavoring is specified as natural vanilla, so this is an addition rather than a copycat detail. It comes up constantly in online debates about why their cookie tastes the way it does. A quarter teaspoon is subtle enough to read as warmth rather than as a cinnamon cookie. Leave it out for the closest match to the original. But if you like a little warm add that 1/4 tsp when you add in the dry ingredients and mix.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I might not be able to compare the two cookies at the moment. I ran out of butter, so I used half a stick and half Greek vanilla yogurt as a replacement. But I truly loved this recipe; it gave me a soft-baked cookie, and it was a thick cookie (I don’t prefer them thin and crispy). It was the perfect amount of chocolate, and I absolutely loved it!
The Greek yogurt swap is a pretty good idea, I love that it still turned out well! 🙂
Can you use all butter instead of shortening? Thanks!
You can, just know it changes the texture. Swap in 102g more butter (216g total) and you’ll get a flatter, crispier cookie that spreads more. The shortening is what keeps these thick and dense like the real thing, since it has a higher melting point and holds its shape in the oven. If you go all butter, chill the dough the full hour and maybe a bit longer to help with the spread. Still delicious, just a different cookie!
Phenomenal. I think it’s the shortening and the honey. So flipping good!! Chewy and kinda dense deliciousness. I’ve tried multiple recipes here and they all have been awesome. 100% keeper recipe. I initially weighed out my Costco organic AP flour to what would be the recipe measurements and when it was mixed up I did feel like I needed a little more. I would like to try to figure out what the weight in grams would be vs cup measurements. I’ll have to track better next go around. 🙂
Thank you, this made my day! On the flour: 384g is the weight to go by, so if it felt loose at that, the usual culprit is butter that got a little too soft rather than the flour itself. The gram weight is the more reliable number, cups vary a lot depending on how you scoop. If it still feels loose next time, add 15g at a time so you don’t overshoot into dry. Would love to hear how it goes!