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These sweet and salty, soft and chewy Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies are a perfect option when a cookie craving hits. Lightly toasted salted honey pistachios paired with dark chocolate chips in these loaded cookies that are perfect for a simple treat or the cookie exchange. These will be a fan favorite every time!

Sea salt pistachio chocolate chip cookies arranged on surface with flaked sea salt over top.

Why you’ll love this family favorite recipe!
Recipe Ingredients
Recipe Variations
Step-By-Step Instructions
Recipe Tips
Storage Instructions
Other Cookie Recipes
Salted Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
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I love pistachios but I don’t use them in recipes enough. That ends today with these chewy, sweet and salty pistachio chocolate chip cookies. I want them on repeat and have the cookie dough frozen right now for any time I want a freshly baked cookie!

Cookie recipes are some of my readers’ favorites, and I hope this one becomes one of yours for sure!

Make sure to try these fan favorites as well: Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies, Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies (even if it’s not the holiday season, these are everything!), Key Lime Cookies, and these Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies that I actually make more than any other cookie!

Why you’ll love this family favorite recipe!

When it comes to a simple dessert recipe, cookies are always a great idea. The inspiration for these cookies actually came from my favorite Avocado Toast with Honey + Pistachios–who knew!

The sweet and salty of the pistachios with the rich dark chocolate and flakey sea salt is everything when it comes to a soft chewy cookie in my opinion.

These cookies are:

simple to make
rich and gooey and everything a cookie needs to be!
freezer friendly
a little sweet and a little salty
perfect for everything from a rainy day to the cookie exchange

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Recipe Ingredients

See full list of ingredients with exact measurements in recipe card below.

Butter, eggs, flour, pistachios, chocolate chips and other ingredients arranged on surface.

pistachios: raw shelled pistachios are ideal. It can be a pain shelling them all, I know but you can certainly buy them pre-shelled if that helps. If you get them already roasted, you can still toast them up a touch for an added layer of flavor.
butter: unsalted is what I used. Salted will work, just lessen the amount of salt you add to the cookies by half.
flour: all purpose flour, measured by weight if possible, or spooned and leveled
baking soda: make sure it’s fresh for the best cookies
corn starch: this adds a softness to this cookie recipe. If possible, don’t skip this. However, the cookies will still work if you don’t have any
chocolate chips: I prefer dark chocolate chips but your favorite chocolate chips are fine! Milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, use what you have and love!

Recipe Variations

These cookies are amazing as is, but here are some other ways to vary them:

vary the chocolate chips. Use dark or milk chocolate or add in some chopped dark chocolate chunks for an elegant look.
Toss in some M&Ms. If you are looking to make these pistachio chip cookies more festive, red and green are great during the holidays!
dried cranberries or raisins are also great
drizzle the cookies with melted white chocolate

Step-By-Step Instructions

Pistachios in skillet with wooden spoon.

Step 1: In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add the pistachios and drizzle the honey and sea salt over, toast the pistachios for about 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently until they are lightly toasted and begin to become fragrant. Transfer to a cookie sheet or parchment in an even layer to cool.

Pistachios in plastic bag with rolling pin to crush them up.

Step 2: Once cooled, you can pulse them a few times in a food processor to chop, place in a bag and beat with a heavy spoon or rolling pin. Get a variety of sizes of pistachios from big chunks to small grains to really get a lot of pistachio flavor throughout each cookie.

Melted butter, white and brown sugar in glass mixing bowl.

Step 3: While pistachios cool, whisk together the flour, sea salt, baking soda and corn starch. Set aside. Add melted butter and sugars to large bowl.

Mixed butter and sugar in bowl with eggs and vanilla added in.

Step 4: Using an electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and sugars until smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated. (You can use a whisk for this part but I prefer the mixer.)

Dry ingredients added to wet ingredients in bowl with hand mixer propped beside bowl.

Step 5: Slowly beat in the dry ingredients mixture. Don’t over mix. Just mix until the flour is incorporated.

Cookie dough in bowl with pistachios and chocolate chips beside.

Step 6: You can use a hand mixer or spoon for this part.

Pistachios and chocolate chips added to bowl with cookie dough.

Step 7: Fold in the chocolate chips and cooled chopped pistachios.

Pistachio chocolate chip cookie dough in bowl with spatula.

Step 8: Time to chill–chill the dough for the at least 30 minutes but I highly recommend at least one hour for best results. For ease in forming the cookies if chilling longer than an hour, chill the dough for about 30 minutes and then use a 1½ tablespoon cookie scoop and roll into balls. Arrange on a parchment lined dish or container and chill for the remaining time.

Cookie dough balls on parchment lined baking sheet.

Step 9: Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. Allow the cookie dough to sit out for about 5-10 minutes to slightly soften before arranging 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Freshly baked cookies on parchment lined baking sheet.

Step 10: Bake for about 9-12 minutes or until the edges start to become golden brown. The top may look undercooked, but they will still set. Better to under cook than over cook. Allow the cookies to cool for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to fully cool. We like to sprinkle the cookies with flakey sea salt at this time.

Wire rack with pistachio chocolate chip cookies cooling.

Recipe Tips

For best results, weigh your ingredients. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, make sure to at least stir the flour to aerate before measuring. Then spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level with a knife. Don’t scoop your measuring cup straight into the flour as this can cause you to measure much more flour than needed and your cookies will not spread and be dry. I weighed my 2 sticks of butter the other day and they came in at 222 grams–so just using 2 sticks is not always the best option!
Chilling is a MUST for these chocolate chip pistachio cookies. The wait will pay off in the end as the melted butter is a big reason for the chewy texture. If you don’t chill the dough, they will definitely spread.
It is better to under bake these cookies. If you are worried about the cookies being too soft on top, you should be okay pulling them out once the edges become golden. The cookies still bake slightly even when pulled from the oven.
We like to press in some extra chocolate chips on top as well as a couple pistachio pieces for extra pretty cookies. We also like to shimmy each cookie inside of a round biscuit cutter or cookie cutter to make nicely circular cookies.

Storage Instructions

These cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for about 4-5 days. Adding a slice of white bread to your air tight container can help keep them at their softest.

To freeze, make sure the cookies are completely cooled and then freeze in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months.

To freeze the cookie dough:

Spoon and roll into balls. Line evenly on a plate or tray to allow the dough to flash freeze. After about 2 hours, transfer to a freezer safe sealed container. Store the cookie dough for up to 3 months.

Allow the dough to completely thaw before baking or bake frozen and add about 1-2 minutes at the most to baking time if baking frozen cookie dough. Mine cooked perfectly in just over 12 minutes.