From her bustling farm, filled with goats, poodles, and garden-grown goodness, to her colorful kitchen, where comfort food reigns, FarmHER Chuckie Hessong shares the magic of real-life cooking, farming, and family living—all with a laugh and a whole lot of heart. Today, she’s sharing one of her all-time favorite farm family recipes: Bacon Grease Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Meet the FarmHER: Chuckie Hessong of Laughing Rooster Farm + Laughing Rooster Eats!
Nestled in Southeast Kansas, FarmHER Chuckie Hessong is the warm heart behind Laughing Rooster Eats and the vibrant matriarch of Laughing Rooster Farm. With a degree in Family & Consumer Sciences and a master’s in Community Development from Pittsburg State University, she blends culinary expertise, family focus, and agricultural know‑how into every recipe and story she shares. At home, she’s often found in her colorful kitchen—teaching, experimenting, or preparing to film segments for her local morning show. On the farm, she’s growing organic veggies, milking her Jersey cow Lady Mae, and caring for a lively menagerie, including goats, sheep, dairy cows, chickens, and poodles.
What are Bacon Grease Chocolate Chip Cookies?
“This recipe is something that reminds me of ‘my people’ who had lots of Southern ways,” Chuckie says. “We always save our bacon grease, so this is a fun way of using it. This cookie is delicious and makes for a fun party conversation of guessing the secret ingredient. Plus, I love that it is a budget-saver and uses something that would often be thrown out.”
Why Use Bacon Grease in Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- For the love of bacon, it’s fun.
- It’s a great way to use bacon grease when I have an abundance.
- It’s cost-effective as bacon grease is considered a by-product by some.
- These cookies are delicious!
For more tips + tricks related to this recipe — like how to safely save, filter, and store bacon grease, and other ways to use leftover bacon grease — check out Chuckie’s blog post.
Chuckie’s Bacon Grease Chocolate Chip Cookies
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOK TIME: 10 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 20 minutes
SERVINGS: 24 cookies
“This recipe is something that reminds me of ‘my people’ who had lots of Southern ways,” said FarmHER Chuckie Hessong. “We always save our bacon grease, so this is a fun way of using it. This cookie is delicious and makes for a fun party conversation of guessing the secret ingredient. Plus, I love that it is a budget-saver and uses something that would often be thrown out.”
INGREDIENTS
- 1/4 cup bacon grease, filtered and cooled to room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chip cookies
RECIPE BY: FarmHER Chuckie Hessong
Love this recipe? You can find more of Chuckie’s farm family favorites over on her food blog, Laughing Rooster Eats.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, allow filtered bacon grease to come to room temperature along with the unsalted butter.
- Add white and brown sugars to the butter and bacon grease. Cream them together until they are light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla, and lightly incorporate these two ingredients. Don’t get too crazy stirring the egg in or your cookies will be tough.
- Add carefully measured all-purpose flour to the cookie mixture. When measuring flour, make sure you stir the flour and never tap it or shake it. It should be measured with very light hands. Also, add baking soda and salt.
- Stir just until the dry ingredients are mixed in.
- Fold in semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- Scoop walnut-sized scoops of dough (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) onto the cool baking sheet. Leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread — three cookies to a row is usually about right for most people’s cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
- Allow cookies to set on the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes to firm up before removing them to a cooling rack.
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