These classic and fuss-free chocolate chip pancakes are the best adult and kid-approved breakfast! Easy to make with a short list of pantry staples, this simple recipe yields a flawless batch of light and fluffy pancakes with gooey chocolate in every bite.
Is there anything better than a batch of old-fashioned homemade chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast? I don’t think so!
Made with a simple 8-ingredient batter, this chocolate chip pancakes recipe yields fluffy-on-the-inside and golden-on-the-outside pancakes every time. The chocolate chips in every bite are just a bonus!
Best of all? Just like my apple, cinnamon roll, and red velvet pancakes, these sinfully sweet chocolate pancakes are perfect for whipping up for weekend breakfasts and brunches. You can also batch-cook a stockpile to freeze and enjoy any day of the week!
Table of Contents
Recipe highlights
- It’s perfect for kids and adults. A classic pancake breakfast is a treat in itself, but there’s something about adding chocolate chips that makes the experience extra special for all ages.
- Freezer-friendly. You’ll love the convenience of having a stash of ready-to-reheat pancakes in the freezer when you’re craving pancakes, chocolate, or both!
- It’s just plain delicious. I have dozens of excellent pancake and waffle recipes, including pumpkin pancakes, lemon ricotta pancakes, and cinnamon roll waffles. However, these easy chocolate chip pancakes are truly the best.
Family-friendly recipes like this don’t take much to make – just a small list of pantry staples. Here is everything you’ll need:
- Flour. All purpose flour is perfect for pancakes. Head to the FAQs to learn how to modify this recipe for special diets, like gluten free, dairy free, etc.
- Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the batter.
- Baking powder. This makes the batter rise. For the best results, use the freshest baking powder you can find.
- Salt. To help bring all of the flavors together.
- Milk. Any type of milk should work. You can even use buttermilk for extra fluffy pancakes.
- Oil. Use a neutral-tasting oil, like vegetable or canola oil.
- Eggs. Egg yolks bind the batter together while whipped egg whites are the secret to light and fluffy pancakes.
- Chocolate chips. You can use milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate chips. Or stick with my sugar free chocolate chips to cut down on the sweetness.
How to make chocolate chip pancakes
Warm and fluffy homemade pancakes are just a few steps away! Here’s what you need to do:
Step 1 – Mix the batter
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, oil, and egg yolk.
Add the wet mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, then gently stir to combine.
Step 2 – Add the whipped egg white
In a third mixing bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. The white should be doubled in size, look extra fluffy, and stand up straight, just like in a pavlova recipe.
Gently fold the beaten white into the pancake batter until combined.
Step 3 – Fold in the chocolate chips
Finally, fold in the chocolate chips until they are completely immersed in the batter.
Step 4 – Cook
Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Drop spoonfuls of the pancake batter onto the hot surface, then cover it with a lid.
After a few minutes, remove the lid and flip the pancake to finish cooking on the opposite side. Repeat this step until you run out of batter.
Serve the batch of hot chocolate chip pancakes with your favorite toppings, and enjoy!
Pancake topping ideas
- Melted butter
- Maple syrup
- Whipped cream
- Chocolate syrup
- Strawberry sauce
- Melted peanut butter
- Chocolate sprinkles
- Caramelized bananas
- Caramel syrup
- Fresh strawberries
- Some lumps in the pancake batter are ok. Trying to smooth them out will result in overmixing, which means dense and flat pancakes!
- Not sure if the skillet is hot enough? Drop in a teaspoon of batter. If the batter lightly sizzles, the pan is ready!
- You’ll know the pancakes are ready to flip when you see bubbles forming all around the sides and close to the middle (after about 2 minutes). Use a glass lid so you don’t have to constantly lift it and risk releasing the steam.
- To keep the cooked pancakes warm as you work through the batter, place them on a baking sheet in a 200ºF oven.
Variations
There are no rules when it comes to pancake mix-ins. Make this breakfast a real show-stopper by using any of these extras:
- Spices. Add cozy, dry spices like cinnamon and ground nutmeg to the batter to warm things up.
- Vanilla. Just a touch of vanilla extract will deepen the sweet and creamy flavors. We often do this with banana pancakes.
- Chocolate. Double chocolate chip pancakes? Yes, please! Mix ¼ cup of cocoa powder with the dry ingredients.
- Peanut butter chips. Use a 1:1 ratio of regular chocolate chips and peanut butter chips to make your pancakes taste like chocolate peanut butter cups.
To store. Keep any extra pancake batter covered in the fridge and use it within 24 hours. If you have leftover pancakes, keep them wrapped in plastic or an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.
To freeze. Layer the pancakes between sheets of waxed paper in a freezer-safe sealable bag or airtight container. Freeze for up to 2 months and reheat directly from frozen.
To reheat. Microwave a few pancakes at a time for 20 to 60 seconds. To reheat a large batch, it’s best to rewarm them on a baking sheet covered with foil in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.
What to serve with pancakes
I like to pair pancakes with something savory or salty, to balance out the sweetness! Here are some of my favorites:
I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour but a 1:1 gluten free flour blend should work well. You can also add chocolate chips to my naturally gluten free coconut flour pancakes, almond flour pancakes, and oat flour pancakes instead.
For dairy free chocolate chip pancakes, use your favorite dairy free milk and use vegan chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips. Or make my almond milk pancakes or oat milk pancakes with chocolate chips instead.
The batter can be made up to 24 hours before cooking, but no longer. After 24 hours, the baking powder deactivates, and the pancakes won’t rise as much as they should.
Pancake batter doesn’t typically work for waffles without tweaking the ingredients. Instead, you can add chocolate chips to my almond flour waffles and oatmeal waffles recipes.
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Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 large egg separated
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, oil, and egg yolk. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
- In the third bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Slowly fold in the beaten whites into the batter until combined.
- Fold through the chocolate chips.
- Add oil to a non-stick pan and place over medium heat. Once hot, drop large spoonfuls of the pancake batter onto it and cover the pan immediately. Cook the pancakes for 2-3 minutes, remove the lid, flip, and cook for another 2 minutes. Repeat the process until all the pancake batter is used up.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.
I was on keto diet in the past summer. It is low carb but I had a tons of fats so everything was good. I love to eat fatty food!?
Oh wow- I’d love to hear how it went!
Can this hatter be cooked in a waffle iron?
Hi Meecie- I think it should work (my previous pancake recipes have, I just haven’t tried this particular one)- You might need to add a dash more liquid though 🙂
Can I use a powdered starch like corn or potatoe starch and how much if so?
I haven’t tried, feel free to experiment and see!
When I started Paleo I definitely ate more low carb than I do now, but I found I need more carbs in my life for sure. These look so insanely fluffy it’s unreal – need to try! With a side of bacon of course, still low carb!
YESSSSSS. Seriously, stop making me crave savory all the time!
Yay for pancakes! Carbs are awesome. Brains absolutely love them! Though I love trying things with new flours and vegetables in different ways, so sometimes I try low-carb recipes for fun. Like this one!
Right? It’s interesting if they work out well!
I am going to start my own list and I put pancakes on top 😉
When I think about prep diet I have this sad picture of tons and tons of tupperware with plain chicken and broccoli in mind. I love chicken and broccoli but not like that. To me it’s such a masochistic sport. Not necessarily for the body but for the mind.
I once met a female figure competitor and I better keep my opinion about her to myself. Though this was surely a character thing not a figure competitor thing.
Definitely more for the mind!!!!
Some figure competitors…yeah, not the best!
omgsh these look amazing! so fluffy and chocolatey. i don’t know how those competitors do it… i would last maybe two hours until i was caught eating peanut butter from the jar
Haha right? Thanks Christina!
This reminds me of the days when I competed in bodybuilding competitions! Oh wait, I never did that. Haha. Seriously, though, these pancakes look insanely fluffy. I’m running on pure fumes these days b/c the rest of the house is crazy sick, and I want nothing more than a huge stack of these flapjacks. (I just typed flapjakes. I don’t know who that is…)
Geebuz! Seeing as these are low carb and you need energy, you totally get to replace the maple syrup with pure sugar.
low carb pancakes mean all the carbs as toppings 😀 caramelized banners anyone 😉
I love caramelised bananas!
The best ooey gooey topping ??
Again, is butter a carb?
I love that these DON’T use, like a cup of egg whites! Very cool and pinning for later!
Right? So many call for like, 10 egg whites!
Guess I know what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow! 😉 ..these look so deceiving…like they’re packed with wheat flour and sugar!! Genius..
Right?! Thanks so much, Amy!
Low carb is the worst! Ughhh life without bread is just not a good life.
Right? Thanks so much, Shannon!
There’s a woman at my gym who does those competitions and in the past 5+ years I’ve been going to that gym I’ve literally NEVER seen her skip a day. Ever. It’s insanity because I skip all the time, but she is there at 5 AM every single day without fail. It’s pretty impressive.
As far as low-carb goes, I think you know how I feel about that 😉
WHAT?! that is incredible….I don’t know how some people can do that!
I thought my life was complete after you posted the first recipe to this blog. BUT then this happened!!!!! I have been picky about my pancakes as of late and haven’t been happy with how any of the recipes turned out. Can’t wait to try this one out 😉
Please do, Kinsey!
These pancakes are so crazy thick! It’s pretty amazing that only 3 tbsp of coconut can do that. I am also amazed by the bodybuilder diet. I don’t think I could do it. Too much you have to give up. Granted it is temporary, but my body has already been through it’s own challenges. I don’t want to mess that up.
Right? That’s the magic of my favorite flour!
No way you’re in my life FOREVER. MWAHAHAHA. Send me some pancakes.
Haha, I’ll pass..not sure how it would hold up with USPS!
I don’t think i could ever go low carb but if I can have these pancakes I may reconsider!
NOOOOO. We need you to try out a quadruple twist..off the beam!