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Chocolate Nests are a quick and easy Easter treat. These 4-ingredient no-bake cookies are made with chocolate, peanut butter, and chow mein noodles, then topped with chocolate mini eggs.
No-Bake Bird Nest Cookies
These bird’s nest cookies are a classic, much-loved Easter dessert recipe, and for very good reason. They’re simple enough to make with kids, pretty enough to serve as an edible centerpiece, and tasty enough to disappear the same day they’re made!
At their most basic, Easter nests are a 4-ingredient, no-bake recipe made of peanut butter and chocolate chips, chow mein noodles, and the candy eggs of your choice. (I typically go with more chocolate, of course!)
The mixture is shaped like little nests, with the chow mein noodles forming the branches and the chocolate forming the nest itself. The center of the nest is filled with colorful candy eggs, adding a playful finishing touch.
They’re so simple they barely need a recipe, but of course I won’t leave you hanging — I’m sharing my time-tested family favorite recipe below, as well as tips and tricks for success, and fun substitutions and variations if you’re feeling more experimental.
This is just one of the fun & easy Easter dessert recipes we have on SugarHero. If you like this, you’ll also love our Pastel Rainbow Gelatin Cups, Easter Fruit Pizza, and Spring Chick Cupcakes!
🧾 What You’ll Need
Ingredients
These cute Bird Nest Cookies may just be the simplest cookies you will ever make. Just four ingredients needed! (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
- Chocolate chips: I recommend using semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips for this recipe. The peanut butter chips and candy eggs give it more than enough sugar, so I like using a darker chocolate to balance it out. Guittard or Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips both work well.
- Peanut butter chips: Reese’s peanut butter chips give these cookies a delicious peanut butter flavor. Not a fan? You can swap in butterscotch chips or white chips instead, or keep it simple and use all chocolate chips in their place.
- Chow mein noodles: crunchy chow mein noodles are the secret to giving these bird nests their texture and appearance. They can often be found in the “Asian food” section of many grocery stores, and they’re easily purchased online.
- Candy eggs: Fill the nests with jelly beans, marshmallow chicks, or — my personal favorite — chocolate eggs! Cadbury Mini Eggs are the perfect size to place inside the bird nest cookies, but you can use whatever is available to you.
Equipment
Get this: there is NO special equipment required! Just a few kitchen basics you probably have right now:
- Microwave: or you can use a double boiler instead
- Large bowl & spatula: to heat and mix the ingredients
- Baking sheet & parchment
📋 Instructions
These cookies could not be quicker or easier to throw together. A quick 10 minutes to prep, 10 minutes to chill, and they’re ready to go! I’ll take you through the process here, and you can grab the full recipe down below.
- Combine the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips in a bowl.
- Microwave at half power for 1 minute, then stir well. I recommend using 50% power to avoid the chance of your chocolate overheating or scorching.
- Continue to microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between each, until smooth.
- Add the chow mein noodles to the bowl of melted chocolate, and stir until fully coated.
- Use a large spoon to scoop out roughly 1/4 cup of the chow mein mixture.
- Place the cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, then use the spoon to shape it into a nest shape.
- While the chocolate is still wet, place three mini eggs in the center of each “nest.”
- Refrigerate the cookies for 10-15 minutes to give the chocolate time to set.
💭 Variations
These bird nest cookies are delicious as-is, but there are a couple of ways you can switch things up! Here are some variation ideas:
- Swap the baking chips. While the semi-sweet chocolate and peanut butter combination is delicious, you can totally play around with flavor and flavor combos. Try butterscotch chips, caramel chips, or white chocolate chips.
- Use another crunchy. These cookies work great with Rice Krispies or crushed cornflakes. My favorite swap, though, is crunchy toasted coconut!
- Try other nest add-ins. Fill your chocolate nests with whatever Easter candies your heart desires. Try jelly beans, Peeps, or little chocolate figurines.
💡 Tips and FAQs
- Microwave at 50% power. Microwaving at half power prevents the chocolate from overheating, scorching, or seizing up.
- Chill the cookies. Chilling the cookies in the fridge for 10-15 minutes gives the chocolate time to set up.
- Set out before serving. While the cookies do keep best in the fridge, they taste better when they’re not super cold. I like to set them out for 10-15 minutes before serving for the perfect flavor and texture.
🐣 More Easter Desserts to Try
Looking for more sweet treat recipes for Easter? Here are a few more of my favorites:
Easter Nest Cake
Easter Bird’s Nest Cupcakes
Chocolate Easter Bird’s Nest Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips, 2 cups
- 12 oz peanut butter chips, 2 cups
- 12 oz chow mein noodles, about 5 cups
- 60 Cadbury chocolate mini eggs, 1 9-ounce bag, or other candies
Instructions
- Combine the chocolate chips and peanut butter chips in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at half power for a minute, then stir well.
- Microwave at half power again for 30 seconds, and stir. Continue to microwave at half power and stir until the chips are completely melted and smooth.
- Add the chow mein noodles and stir well until they are completely coated with chocolate.
- Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment. Use a large spoon to scoop out about 1/4 cup of the chow mein mixture, and place it on the baking sheet. Use the spoon to spread it into a round shape with a slight indentation in the middle. Continue to scoop out the rest of the chow mein mixture. You should get about 20 chocolate nests from this recipe.
- While the chocolate is still wet, place 3 Cadbury mini eggs (or other egg-shaped candies) in the center of each nest.
- Refrigerate the trays to set the chocolate, for 10-15 minutes. Once set, the nests can be removed from the trays and served. Keep extra nests in an airtight container in the refrigerator, with pieces of parchment or waxed paper between each layer. Nests will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator, and are best when they have warmed up at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.
MEASURING TIPS
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Click here to learn more about baking measurements and conversion.Nutrition
Could you give us an approx size for those parchment squares, it would help in giving us a visual size for the nests, we can pour faster. Also, all nests would display well on an Easter platter. Thanks.
Hi Sylvia. The squares were about 3″x3″. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Really love this recipe!!! I have a little one and the idea and the decoration he really enjoy them and liked them. Thank you for the recipe, will be in my favorite recipes 🙂
Awesome! I really hope your little loves making these like mine do. Lots of good memories.
I love these and how easy they are to make! They are not only tasty, but also make a cute display on your table.
Hi Gina! These are so fun to make. Thanks for leaving a comment.
This dessert is so simple to make but adds a fun element to the Easter dessert table. So cute!
Thanks Sharon! They are so cute at Easter time.
love how easy these are, and they’re so cute! perfect easter treat
Hi Rebecca! Thanks for leaving a comment. I’m so glad you liked the recipe.
Quick and easy to make, these super fun and festive treats will be a huge hit at my Easter dinner.
Hi Nikki! I hope your family loves them as much as mine does.