This mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe is truly the best! It’s got the perfect minty flavor, rich chocolate chunks, and creamy texture.

Are you a mint chocolate chip fan? Then let us introduce you to…the best homemade Mint Chocolate Chip recipe! This one’s pretty darn perfect, in our opinion. The flavor is fresh and beautifully minty, the texture is beautifully creamy and scoopable, and it’s studded with bittersweet chocolate chunks perfectly dispersed into every bite. This recipe holds loads of nostalgia for me as it’s my childhood favorite: so this homemade version is my dream come true. We’ve cracked the code to making this popular ice cream flavor at home! My 4-year-old self would be proud.

Ingredients in mint chocolate chip ice cream

Mint chocolate chip ice cream is a peppermint ice cream base mixed with chocolate chips or chunks. If you’re a purist like us, you’ll expect it to be a lovely shade of mint green, though it can be anywhere from white to neon green. This ice cream flavor has quite the fan following: I’ve been one since I was 4 years old. So we designed this recipe to taste like what you’d expect from a purchased pint: but even better. Here’s what you’ll need for this mint chocolate chip recipe:

• Whole milk
• Heavy cream
• Cornstarch
• Granulated sugar
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Peppermint extract
• Green food coloring
• Bittersweet chocolate
• Neutral oil

What people are saying about this recipe

A few readers helped to recipe test this mint chocolate chocolate chip ice cream recipe before we shared it here (thank you to all!). Here’s a bit of what we heard about this recipe:

• “My husband told me, ‘This is exactly what I look for in mint chocolate chip ice cream. It’s the perfect level of mint and the right ratio of chocolate: I get some in every bite. I kindly request you make this again!’” -Brianna
• “The mint flavor was the perfect amount and the bittersweet chocolate was an excellent complement. The texture over storage time was completely consistent – tastes delicious, scooped perfectly. 100% will make again!” -Nicole
• “It was really easy to make this recipe and the ice cream tasted great! The mint was the perfect amount. It was fun to use ingredients I already had on hand to make a flavor of ice cream I had never made before!” -Sarah

Notes on ingredients

There are a few things to note about ingredients for this mint chocolate chip recipe. Here’s what to know:

• Make the color as green as you like, or omit the food coloring. To us, mint chocolate chip ice cream should be mint green. But if you’re a purist about food coloring in your desserts, we get it. Omit the food coloring and it tastes just as good! The color will look pretty extreme before churning but it evens out afterwards.
• Peppermint extract is very strong. All you need is ½ teaspoon here. You’re welcome to use more, but we found it had an aftertaste of alcohol with more extract.
• Use the vanilla extract too! Using only peppermint extract tastes a little one note. Add the vanilla extract and it balances out the flavors. (Trust us!)

For the chocolate method

This mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe is special not just because of the minty flavor. For me it’s the chocolate. Pouring melted chocolate into the cold ice cream achieves the stracciatella effect with irregular pieces: after you try it once, you’ll never go back! Here’s what to note about this method:

• Straciatella is the name of a gelato flavor with a vanilla base and irregular-shaped shreds of chocolate (inspired by the Italian soup of the same name). Traditionally melted chocolate is poured into the ice cream towards the end of churning, where it solidifies and then gets broken into very small pieces.
• How to do it? In this recipe, we add melted chocolate to the cold ice cream after churning and stir with a spoon (instead of continuing to churn). This achieves large chocolate chunks instead of the very fine chunks in straciatella.
• Adding a bit of oil to the chocolate makes the chocolate pieces have a softer, easier to bite texture. (It’s similar to Graeter’s ice cream chocolate chunks, if you are familiar with this brand!) Of course, you can skip the melting altogether and just stir in chocolate chunks…but this method is 100% worth it.

Required equipment: ice cream maker

This mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe does require an ice cream maker. However, this is the only way to make “real” ice cream at home. (Most no-churn ice cream recipes use sweetened condensed milk as a shortcut.) You’ll find this piece of equipment a great investment you can use to make sorbets, sherbet and ice cream year round. There are two main types of ice cream makers to try:

• Freezer bowl ice cream maker (inexpensive). Find any sort of freezer bowl ice cream maker for the most economical choice. Here’s the 2 quart freezer bowl ice cream maker we use; it’s a little more expensive but it’s held up well. Make sure to freeze the base of the ice cream maker overnight before making this recipe.
• Automatic ice cream maker (expensive but easy to use). Do you make ice cream often? You might want to consider this automatic ice cream maker, which is larger and more expensive. However, it requires no pre-freezing, so you can make ice cream any time you please! You can also make multiple batches back to back without needing to freeze the base again.

How to make mint chocolate chip ice cream (basic steps)

This mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe uses the classic method making ice cream: make a custard, churn it in an ice cream maker, then freeze to “ripen” the texture. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

• Make the custard (5 minutes): Simmer the cornstarch, whole milk and sugar 4 to 5 minutes, taking care that it doesn’t boil. Then add in the heavy cream, more milk, vanilla, peppermint extract, food coloring, and salt.
• Cool the custard (30 minutes): Cool down the custard before churning it. You can do this in a few ways: the quickest is to pour it into a 1-gallon zip-top bag, seal it, and place the bag in ice water for 30 minutes. Or you can transfer the mixture to a large metal or glass bowl and place the bowl in a smaller bowl of ice water for 1 hour.
• Churn (25 minutes): Then churn the ice cream in the ice cream maker. After 25 minutes, it makes a soft serve texture.
• Add chocolate (10 minutes): Melt the chocolate and oil in the microwave (see the instructions below). Place half the ice cream in a loaf pan, drizzle in the chocolate, and break it into pieces and stir in with a spoon. Repeat, then add the remaining half ice cream and repeat.
• Freeze or “ripen” for hard ice cream texture (at least 2 hours): Freeze the ice cream for 2 to 4 hours for a scoop-able, hard ice cream texture.

More ice cream recipes

Want more inspiration for your ice cream maker? Here are a few of our favorite homemade flavors: