Peanut butter and chocolate lovers rejoice! I’ve combined at least 3 delicious cookies into 1 mouthwatering recipe with my big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Consider yourself warned: these cookies are exploding with flavor, unapologetically thick, and hopelessly irresistible. They’re guaranteed to satisfy almost every cookie craving.
One reader, Dyna, says: “Hands down the BEST cookie recipe I have ever made, and I’ve made a lot of cookies in my time as a 50-something, mother of three. An incredibly satisfying cookie experience. All the extra notes and suggestions too were spot on. Following those tips made for a beautiful, delectable cookie! Thank you for putting this out there into the world for all to enjoy.”

A cookie to end all cookies, these big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are a mouthful. I was inspired to try these decadent treats after seeing the cover of my cookbook, Sally’s Cookie Addiction, for the first time. The glorious monster cookies gracing the book cover are loaded with M&Ms and can be found in Chapter 2.
This recipe, however, skips those rainbow candies and focuses instead on a flavor relationship like no other. Chocolate chips and peanut butter. It’s a match made in cookie heaven! In this recipe, we’re combining that perfect pairing with textured oats to achieve the thickest, richest, and most satisfying cookie.

Video Tutorial
Tell Me About these Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Texture: Loaded with so many delicious add-ins, these cookies have chewy edges, soft centers, and are unbelievably thick. (I’m always shocked by how thick they turn out.)
- Flavor: Ordinary chocolate chip cookies are buttery sweet on their own, but the peanut butter-chocolate pairing here brings a delicious decadence to these cookies. If this flavor pairing is a favorite, be sure to add these peanut butter chocolate cookies to your list, too.
- Ease: Simple to make, the dough comes together in just minutes using a few staple pantry add-ins like old-fashioned oats and peanut butter. Make them for same-day snacking or prepare them ahead of a special occasion (see Note).
- Time: This dough can be prepped and chilled in under an hour. 20 minutes in the refrigerator (the same amount of time we chill dough for brownie cookies) helps the oats soak up some moisture and prevents the cookie from overspreading.
Recipe Testing: What Works & What Doesn’t
- The weight of peanut butter. This cookie dough is adapted from my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The addition of peanut butter here, however, can weigh down the dough. To counter this, I add baking powder for lift.
- A spreading solution. When testing the recipe, I found the cookies weren’t spreading enough. I decided to swap the quantities of granulated sugar and brown sugar. Granulated sugar—dry and thin—helps increase cookie spread. Brown sugar—moist and thick—keeps cookies compact. Increasing the granulated sugar makes all the difference in this dough for the perfect spread. You won’t even miss that extra brown sugar flavor because the peanut butter is our front-runner.
- Fewer oats + more chocolate. When testing, I originally had a higher quantity of oats in the cookies. I decided to reduce that amount to make room for more chocolate chips. Can you blame me?

Choosing the Right Ingredients: Best Peanut Butter to Use
Peanut butter. Though natural-style peanut butter is my #1 choice for eating and snacking, I recommend using non-natural peanut butter for this particular cookie recipe. Natural peanut butter can be used in my regular peanut butter cookies (though the cookies are a little crumblier than intended), but it’s not ideal for today’s recipe. Instead, use Jif or Skippy. You can use creamy or crunchy, but I prefer creamy peanut butter as crunchy can make the cookies taste a little dry. You need 1 cup of peanut butter for this recipe.
Room temperature butter. Like my basic soft chocolate chip cookies, the base of today’s oatmeal cookie recipe is creamed room temperature butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. You can’t cream butter and sugar together if the butter is too warm or too cold. (It usually spells disaster for your cookies!) Room temperature butter is about 65°F (18°C). It’s cool and slightly firm to touch, not warm or slippery. I recommend placing your butter on the counter for 1 hour prior to beginning the recipe to achieve ideal “room temperature” butter. If you don’t have an hour, here is my trick to soften butter quickly. You need 1 cup of butter for this cookie dough.
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
After you prepare the peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies dough, chill it for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. After chilling, it’s time to scoop the dough and bake the cookies. Each cookie uses 2 Tablespoons of dough which is about the same size as these regular chocolate chip cookies. Arrange the cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on your baking sheet. These cookies are large, so I use a medium cookie scoop and overflow it with dough (since the medium only holds 1.5 Tablespoons.)




More Quick Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches
- Mini M&M Cookies
- Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brownie Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies

Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 32 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are easy, thick, and exploding with peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips to satisfy your cookie cravings.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks; 235g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (260g) creamy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (170g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 2 and 1/2 cups (450g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping if desired
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the oats. Once combined, beat in the chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and sticky. Cover and chill the dough for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than 1 hour, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop balls of dough, 2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and arrange 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is only for looks!
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Peanut Butter: Use a non-natural peanut butter like Jif creamy or Skippy creamy. I do not suggest using natural style or oily peanut butter as both produce crumbly, fragile, and sandy tasting cookies. (Try this flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookie if you want to use natural!) Crunchy peanut butter is OK, but I find the cookies taste a little dry with it.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: peanut butter oatmeal cookies
Delicious cookies.
I wonder if anyone has made them as bar cookies?
★★★★★
Glad you enjoy these, Judy! You can turn these into bars. I’d use a 9×13-inch pan. I’m unsure of the best bake time.
I made these on Saturday. I baked half of them then and the rest today Tuesday
Thanks for the recipe
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I made these on Saturday. Wonderful
Thanks for the recipe
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Hi, my friend Kathe made your reciepe… OMG 42 cookies out of one batch. The kids and adults love them!! Sally super easy!! We took pictures too
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WOW how great are these cookies. Soooo great!!! I added a little shredded coconut .A little less sugar maybe next bake but otherwise the BEST cookie I’ve made.
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Can these cookies be made smaller & still be tasty? Of course, baking time will be less.
Hi Linda, they sure can! Keep an eye on them in the oven as there will be a shorter bake time!
how do i make these bar cookies?
Hi Joy, you can definitely try these in a 9×13 inch pan to make cookie bars. We’re unsure of the exact bake time needed, but you can follow the baking time and temperature for our Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars as a guide. Enjoy!
Great cookies! I always use dark chocolate chips. Even my peanut butter dislikers thought they were good ! Feeling like they are kinda healthy with oatmeal and peanut butter in them . Might even like them better than regular old chocolate chip cookies . I used natural chunky peanut butter and they were great . Pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy!
★★★★★
This recipe was fantastic Everyone loved cookies! I was so happy because it was my first time making cookies from scratch without any assistance ☺️ The cookies weren’t too sweet but really yummy! And the peanut butter flavor was wonderful without being overwhelming. I definitely look forward to trying more of your recipes!
I am curious to know the amount of oats in the original recipe please?
Hi Ryan, When testing this recipe we used our oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as a starting point. That recipe has 3 cups of oats.
Best cookie ever! Family loved them more than their previous favorite! Even the elderly lady I care for said they were the best. I substituted Almond butter for the peanut butter. Mmmmm great!
This is my favorite cookie recipe so far. The only thing I changed was I was about 20g short on PB, but they still turned out delicious. Everyone that has tasted them says, “oh these are so good.” Thanks for another wonderful recipe.
★★★★★
I made these cookies last night- they were excellent! I didn’t see your note about the “natural” peanut butter until after I made it. I used Simple Truth Organic peanut butter that’s just peanuts and salt, and they came out as moist, chewy and held together as any other cookie from your blog! I did notice that I had to add a bit more than 1 cup because I was measuring by weight rather than volume. I think the PB with added oils may be a bit more dense and thus for a similar cookie texture you need more of the “natural” stuff. Wonderful recipe as always!
What is nutritional details? Protein, sugar and calorie count per cookie?
Hi Elaine, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
This is the second time I have made these cookies and they are always a hit. The only change I made was I used 3 different kinds of chips and even added some heath bits. OMG!! SO DELICIOUS. This is my go to recipe.
Love this recipe! I use 1/2 cup raw sugar and 1/2 brown sugar. They are sweet enough. I also substitute 1/2 cup of flour (white whole wheat) with plain organic protein powder. The cookies are wonderful and maybe a bit more healthy!
★★★★
Both my husband and I’s favourite cookies! We make them every couple weeks and go through them way too fast. I never leave reviews but wanted to let you know how loved your cookies are in our household!
★★★★★
It’s official….my family is dysfunctional.
The hubs and teenage boys thought these were good, but still felt they took a backseat to the traditional chocolate chip cookie. “Really good, but not our fave” was the verdict.
But don’t you pay any mind to these uncultured and unsophisticated simpletons. THESE WERE BY FAR THE BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER MADE, IN MY OPINION!! Can’t decide if you want chocolate chip, peanut butter, or oatmeal? BOOM!! Here ya go….. all in one fabulous cookie! They were soft, chewy and fluffy on the inside, slightly crisp around the edges, and exploding with all 3 flavors and textures. I am…. complete.
Did I mention that I used Jif creamy peanut butter, but subbed half of it for some “dark chocolate” flavored peanut butter I had that needed to be used up?! Ichiwawa!! (Eyes popping out, head exploding) Thanks for the perfect recipe, Sally!
★★★★★
I am gluten-free and still LOVE this recipe using gf flour! I’ve made it with both cup4cup and bobs red mill 1 to 1 and it has turned out beautifully each time!! I did not have to adjust anything, I substituted the flour right in and had no issues at all. I will say I think I prefer it with the cup4cup, but bobs is a lot less expensive and for the price difference the texture difference was miniscule. These held up for a week and a half, even using the gf flour, they did not get crumbly or fall apart as many gf items tend to do, and only lasted a week and a half because my husband kept a bag of them in his truck to snack on too and from work. I do like smaller cookies, so out of personal preference I just use 1T of dough per cookie and use a cookie scoop and bake for 11min, but that is more personal preference on cookie size than anything else. I highly recommend this recipe to anyone looking for something comforting, chocolatey, and delicious!!
★★★★★
I followed your recipe to the letter…FABULOUS! This is the one to hand down for generations! Thank you
★★★★★
This recipe is A1. I used 1/2 cup sugar & used dark cane for the brown sugar. Just a few drops of vanilla (sweet enough) along with 1 heaped cup chopped chocolate. Thank you for this recipe, it makes the most delicious and healthy biscuits.
★★★★★
These are my 24 yr old son’s absolute favorite cookie! I add 2-3 heaping tablespoon fulls of cacao powder (not cocoa) to make them even more chocolatey. My whole family cannot get enough of them!
★★★★★
Great recipe! My only change was to add 1/2 cup of finely chopped peanuts and just 1.5 cups of chocolate chips. The crispy edges of cookie have that fine crumb texture of a regular peanut butter cookie. The oatmeal gives it a nice chewiness and the peanut butter is an equal star with the chocolate. Really easy recipe!
★★★★★
I just made these I used sugar in the raw (white) & Splenda (brown sugar) & very delicious this is a fantastic recipe will make again!!
I just made these cookies for the third time and I have to say, this is the best cookie recipe I have ever used. Everyone LOVES these. They’re perfect. Bravo.
★★★★★
I’ve made these so many times now for family & friends. Perfect recipe. I like to add mini marshmallows to mine.
Thank You for another Awesome recipe!
I used White Whole Wheat Flour (I told myself the cookie would be healthier this way ) and a tad more dark brown sugar than called for to finish the bag I had.
I only had a bag of chocolate chips and that was plenty of chips in each cookie for us.
I love that this dough keeps well in the fridge. I baked 1/2 one day and 1/2 the next to keep us from eating them all in 1 day…they are sooo good !
In my oven 12 minutes was perfect. They looked a little undone in the middle when I pulled them out but after the 5 min set time they were perfectly done. This recipe is definitely staying in the rotation.
★★★★★
These cookies are delicious, Sally!! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!! I told my husband that I had made them while he was at work and now he can’t wait to come home and eat some
will this receipe work with almond butter instead of pb?
Hi Susan, we haven’t tested it but several readers have commented that they’ve used almond butter and they’ve turned out great. Let us know if you try it!
These are phenomenal!
★★★★★
I’ve made several of Sally’s recipes and have never been disappointed. I’m normally not a big peanut butter fan, but I was pleasantly surprised how awesome these are. They almost taste like a Reese’s peanut butter cup cookie when first out of the oven. The only ingredient I modified is I put less chocolate chips in. I only used about a cup of chocolate chips because I have a husband who likes less in his cookies. I also found when I made these the first time, the recommended amount of chocolate chips seemed a little overkill for my liking. These cookies have a wonderful texture and taste. Thank you Sally for being my go to site for baking.
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Sally, can I make these without the chocolate chips and it will come out the same?
Hi Angie, feel free to omit the chocolate chips with no other changes to the recipe. Or swap for peanut butter chips for even more peanut butter flavor!
These turned out great. I didn’t have the patience to chill the dough and it didn’t seem to be a problem. Will absolutely make them again.
I love this recipe! I only use one cup of brown sugar though and they’re still so good.