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Searching for the best cowboy cookies recipe? THIS IS IT! Featuring coconut, pecans, cinnamon, chocolate, and oats. These golden brown oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are thick, chewy, and so flavorful! No chilling required – roll the cookie dough into balls and bake.
Cowboy Cookies Recipe
If there’s one thing I hope you know about me, it’s that I’m obsessed with cookies! I make at least one batch a week. Sometimes more because you know… it’s my job.
Recently, I discovered cowboy cookies and they changed my life. They’re essentially oatmeal chocolate chip cookies loaded with coconut, pecans, and coconut. Here’s why my version is the best:
- No cookie dough chilling! Just make the cookie dough, roll the dough into balls, and bake.
- Texture wise, these cookies are thick, chewy, and a little bit crunchy.
- Brown butter, my “secret ingredient”, adds so much flavor! And helps the cookies bake up golden brown.
- The cookie dough is totally adaptable. If you don’t like coconut, leave it out. Don’t like pecans? Use walnuts instead. You get it, right?
What are Cowboy Cookies (Presidential Election Inspired)
- Cowboy cookies have been around for AGES! But they rose in popularity during the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential campaign. Do you remember this?
- Family Circle Mag featured recipes from each of the candidates wives. And thad their readers vote.
- Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies beat all of the other submissions black and blue! Although I must confess, Tipper Gore’s Ginger Snaps look pretty darn good, too.
After that brief history lesson, I hope you’re ready to run to the kitchen and bake these cookies? and got to work creating my own version of these famous cowboy cookies!
What’s in a Cowboy Cookie: Cowboy Cookie Ingredients
- Butter: We’ll brown the butter because it has SO much flavor and creates golden brown cowboy cookies.
- Sugar: A combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar create sweet, chewy, crunchy cookies.
- Eggs: Bring your eggs to room temperature – and use large eggs. Not medium or extra large. With eggs, size does matter, and using a smaller or larger variety can totally throw off a recipe.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the complex flavors and adds richness to the cookie dough,
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour, for best results. Make sure you’re not packing your flour into the measuring cup. For the most accurate measuring, use a kitchen scale. Or, gently spoon your flour into the measuring cup and level it off with the flat edge of a knife.
- Baking Soda: Helps the cookies spread in the oven.
- Cinnamon: Adds a delightful cinnamon flavor signature to cowboy cookies.
- Salt: Balances the flavors and sweetness. Skipping salt in baking recipes is a big mistake! The key is to use just a pinch.
- Old-Fashioned Oats: AKA rolled oats! Do not confuse them with steel-cut oats or instant oats.
- Shredded Coconut: Use sweetened or unsweetened – up to you!
- Pecans: Walnuts can be used, if you prefer!
- Chocolate Chips: Semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate all work in these cookies.
I used my chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as the base. But added coconut, cinnamon, pecans, and chocolate chips. These are signature ingredients to cowboy cookies, so that’s nothing new. Since we added more dry ingredients, I decreased the amount of flour and added an egg yolk, which keeps the cookie dough moist.
How to make Cowboy Cookies
- Baking Prep: Preheat oven and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Make the Cookie Dough: Because the butter is melted, you don’t need to use a stand mixer or electric mixer for this recipe. Once you add the dry ingredients, take care not to over mix.
- Roll the Dough into Balls: Scoop 3-inch balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Leave a few inches between so they have room to spread.
- Bake the Cookies: About 12 to 14 minutes, or until cookies are golden brown.
Next try these special edition Christmas cowboy cookies!
More Oatmeal Cookie Recipes:
- Chewy Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Coffee Cardamom Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Gooey Brown Butter Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt
- Brown Butter Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
The Best Cowboy Cookies Recipe
Searching for the best cowboy cookies recipe? THIS IS IT! Featuring coconut, pecans, cinnamon, chocolate, and oats. These golden brown oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are thick, chewy, and so flavorful! No chilling required – roll the cookie dough into balls and bake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter melted until browned.
- 1 and 1/2 cups (319 grams) light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup (99 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 and 1/3 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 3/4 cups (156 grams) old-fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup (60 grams) sweetened flaked coconut
- 1/2 cup (64 grams) pecans, roughly chopped plus more for decorating
- 12 ounces (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a large bowl using a whisk, beat together the browned butter and both sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Don't worry if they look a little separated here.
- Whisk in the eggs and yolk, beating until well combined. About 45 seconds. Whisk in the vanilla.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, oats, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined.
- Scoop 2-inch balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between each ball so they have room to spread.
- Bake, one sheet at a time, in preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until cookies are golden and set at the edges and still slightly soft in the center.
- Press extra chocolate chips and pecans on top of cookies when they come out of the oven (optional). Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired.
- Cool cookies on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tried it and loved it?Snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram @Bakerbynature and by using the hashtag #BakerByNature
A recipe with the correct amounts for the ingredients would be most helpful.
would you elaborate on WHAT you think is wrong with this recipe? Your rating is very cryptic! 🙂
Delicious cookies…I cut back on Br. Sugar and still turned out just fine. Definitely a keeper recipe!
I made these but mine really spread out. They aren’t thick like your photo
Try refrigerating them for at least a couple hours to give the dough time to rest. It does help.
I rolled a quarter cup of dough into balls and froze them . When I wanted to
Bake them I
Pit each on a parchment lined cookie sheet two inches apart and baked them 350 for 17 minutes .
They came out awesome . Just leave them on the cookie cookie sheet until they firm
Up .
Mine also. The six-year old great grandson took a bite and said, “I can’t tell you what’s wrong with these cookies.” A check of similar recipes shows twice as much flour and only 75% as much butter. That seems about right. Meanwhile three thumbs down for the recipe as shown above.
Amazing! OregonJon has to be mixing this up with another recipe. Makes no sense. I have extensive baking background and these are awesome
What adjustments do I need to make if I use Quick Oats?
I just made this morning and they are so delicious Easy recipe with very clear insurrections. I love them and will be gifting these in my thank you baskets tomorrow. Hoping I don’t eat them all before I pack it. 🙂
I made these today and they are awesome. Easy recipe with very clear instructions and great hints for better results. My family loves them!
Hello! I’m not sure if you can answer this, but would it be possible to make these cookies without butter? Using something else as a substitute?
You can use a plant based butter sub
These are the best cookies ever! My family loved them and ate a whole batch in one night!
If I want to add banana into this . What are the changes I should make? I have over riped bananas at home I want to use them in this cookies please reply asap.
I hope I’m too late… but maybe you should make some banana bread insteaf
There’s a disconnect between the photo and the recipe. In the photo the pecans are left whole and there’s some sort of salt sprinkled on top. Not that big a deal except for that I scrolled up and down and up and down to see if there was some discussion or comments about that. It is really tough to use recipes that require you toMove all over the place to find the instructions and comments and then the ingredient list and then the real instructions. Makes me feel like I need to print instead of use Pinterest. I like to find recipes that I want to keep and use over and over again. Hope this is delicious and worth the site dancing.
Hi Dawn. I used extra finely grated coconut and whole pecans to decorate the top of the baked cookies. If you’d like yours to look like mine, simply press a few whole pecans on top of the freshly baked cookies then sprinkle with coconut.
Tap on “print” then screen shot the recipe. Makes it easier to follow
Thank you, Sherri! I have never tried screenshot on the print version. This is a game changer! I like Pinterest for recipes but dislike all the moving ads and videos that pop up constantly while scrolling to find the recipe. You have helped me so much!
Screenshot all I do an it helps
It is worth any trouble you find !! Great recipe the best !! I used mini chocolate chips ….loved the sea salt sprinkled over top after baking !! Amazing !!.
PRINT the recipe, put the paper in a folder with all of your other recipes and put the folder in a drawer. Or you might be like my girlfriend who is helpless in the kitchen when the internet goes out! She can barely boil water – she keeps trying to fry it.
Look at instruction #8 and it explains. Totally optional
Hi Dawn! I’m sire with recipes like this, you can tweak it to fit your style. For me, I would coarsely chop the pecans in the food processor, just to break them up a bit before adding to the recipe. The salt sprinkled on top is probably sea salt. It adds a slight salty flavor, like salted caramel, and is totally optional. Hope this helps 🙂
Where can I buy brown sugar?
Any grocery store should have it in the baking aisle – or you can order it online!
It’s in the baking aisle, usually in a plastic bag beside the powdered sugar.