Last updated: May 15, 2026
The Five Guys milkshake is legendary for one reason: it is absurdly thick, genuinely creamy, and completely customizable with mix-ins that actually get blended in. Here is the exact Five Guys milkshake recipe to recreate it at home, along with every popular variation you can make.
What Makes the Five Guys Milkshake Recipe Different
The Five Guys milkshake stands apart because of its base: real hand-scooped ice cream blended with whole milk and malted milk powder, with no soft-serve shortcuts. The result is a shake that eats more like ice cream than a drink.
Five Guys uses a Spindle blender, also known as a milkshake machine, which blends from the bottom up and creates a uniquely smooth, aerated texture. A standard blender at home produces a delicious result, though the texture is slightly different from the restaurant original.
The Classic Five Guys Milkshake Recipe
This base recipe is the foundation for every variation. Master it and you can make any Five Guys shake flavor at home.
Ingredients
- 3 large scoops (approximately 1.5 cups) vanilla ice cream, full-fat
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons malted milk powder (Carnation or Horlicks)
- 1 pinch of fine salt
Method
- Chill your blender cup and glass in the freezer for at least 10 minutes before starting. Cold equipment keeps the shake thick.
- Add the milk to the blender first, followed by the malted milk powder. Let it dissolve for 30 seconds.
- Add the ice cream on top of the milk. Do not reverse this order: milk first prevents the blender from struggling.
- Blend on low for 10 seconds, then medium for 15 seconds. Do not over-blend or the shake will thin out from heat and air.
- Pour into a cold glass immediately and serve with a wide-bore milkshake straw.
The malted milk powder is not optional if you want the authentic Five Guys milkshake flavor. It adds a faint, nutty depth that distinguishes the shake from a generic vanilla blend.
The Most Popular Five Guys Milkshake Recipe Variations
Five Guys offers dozens of mix-in combinations. These are the most popular and the exact proportions that work best at home.
Oreo Milkshake
Add 4 to 5 Oreo cookies (broken) to the base recipe. Blend briefly, about 5 seconds on medium, leaving some larger cookie chunks visible. The Oreo milkshake is Five Guys’ most ordered shake by a significant margin.
The key is not to over-blend. Visible dark cookie pieces against the white cream is the hallmark of a proper Oreo milkshake.
Strawberry Milkshake
Swap the vanilla ice cream for strawberry ice cream, or add 1/4 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries to the vanilla base. Blend fully on medium until smooth and evenly colored.
For the most authentic flavor, use Breyers Natural Strawberry ice cream rather than a heavily artificially flavored brand. Real strawberry pieces make a visible difference.
Chocolate Milkshake
Use chocolate ice cream as the base, or add 2 tablespoons of Hershey’s chocolate syrup and 1 tablespoon of Dutch-process cocoa powder to the vanilla base. Both methods produce a deeply flavored chocolate shake.
The dual addition of syrup and cocoa powder gives a richer, less sweet chocolate note than syrup alone.
Bacon Milkshake
This is the Five Guys signature novelty shake. Add 2 strips of cooked, crumbled crispy bacon to the vanilla malted base and blend briefly on low for 3 to 5 seconds. Serve immediately.
The bacon should be cooked until very crispy and crumbled into small bits. The combination of salty bacon and sweet vanilla cream is genuinely excellent and not gimmicky once you try it.
Peanut Butter Milkshake
Add 2 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter (Jif or Skippy Natural) to the vanilla base. Blend on medium until fully incorporated with no visible peanut butter streaks.
For a Peanut Butter and Banana shake, add half a ripe banana along with the peanut butter. This is one of the best combinations on the entire Five Guys menu.
Coffee Milkshake
Add 1 tablespoon of instant espresso powder and 1 tablespoon of Kahlua (or just more espresso powder for a non-alcoholic version) to the vanilla base. Blend fully.
The espresso powder dissolves easily into the milk before blending and produces a properly coffee-forward shake rather than a faint hint.
Tips for Getting the Five Guys Milkshake Texture Right at Home
Texture is everything with the Five Guys milkshake recipe. A thin shake is a failed shake.
Use the Highest-Fat Ice Cream You Can Find
The richest ice cream produces the thickest, creamiest shake. Haagen-Dazs Vanilla, Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla, and Tillamook Old Fashioned Vanilla are excellent choices. Light or reduced-fat ice creams have more water and produce a noticeably thinner result.
French vanilla ice cream, which uses an egg custard base, produces an even richer texture than standard vanilla. It is worth seeking out for this recipe.
Keep Everything as Cold as Possible
Milkshakes thin out quickly from heat. Freeze the blender cup for 10 minutes, use ice cream straight from the freezer, and pour into a pre-chilled glass. If your blender takes more than 30 seconds to blend, the shake will be noticeably thinner by the time you pour it.
Some home cooks pre-chill the milk by pouring it over a few ice cubes in a cup before measuring out the 3/4 cup needed for the recipe. This extra step makes a real difference on warm days.
Do Not Add Ice
Five Guys milkshakes contain no ice. Adding ice waters down the flavor and produces a thin, icy texture that is nothing like the original. The thickness comes entirely from the ratio of ice cream to milk, not from ice.
If a shake is too thick to blend, add milk one tablespoon at a time rather than reaching for ice.
How to Make a Five Guys Milkshake Without a Blender
The authentic method at Five Guys uses a milkshake spindle machine rather than a household blender. If you want to replicate this more closely at home, a KitchenAid stand mixer with the whisk attachment is an excellent substitute.
Soften the ice cream slightly at room temperature for 5 minutes, then combine all ingredients in the stand mixer bowl and whisk on medium-high for 20 to 25 seconds. The stand mixer produces a particularly smooth, aerated texture that closely resembles the restaurant result.
A manual method also works in a pinch. Soften the ice cream in a large cold bowl, add the milk and malt powder, and use a large spoon or fork to beat vigorously for 60 to 90 seconds until smooth. The result is less aerated but still thick and rich.
Nutritional Breakdown of the Five Guys Milkshake
A standard Five Guys vanilla milkshake contains approximately 680 to 760 calories, 27 grams of fat, and 110 grams of carbohydrates. The addition of mix-ins like Oreos or peanut butter adds 100 to 200 calories on top of the base.
The homemade version using the recipe above is calorically similar, since the same ingredients are used. Using reduced-fat milk (2 percent rather than whole) saves about 40 calories without significantly impacting texture.
Questions People Ask About the Five Guys Milkshake Recipe
What ice cream does Five Guys use in their milkshakes?
Five Guys uses a proprietary hand-packed vanilla ice cream as the base for all their milkshakes. At home, the closest match is Haagen-Dazs Vanilla or Tillamook Old Fashioned Vanilla, both of which use high butterfat formulas with minimal stabilizers and produce the thick, rich result the recipe requires.
What is the secret ingredient in a Five Guys milkshake?
Malted milk powder is the ingredient most home recipes leave out that makes the biggest difference to the flavor. Malted milk powder, either Carnation Malted Milk or Horlicks, adds a faint, toasty, slightly nutty depth that is unmistakably present in the restaurant original and absent from versions made without it.
Can you make a Five Guys milkshake without a milkshake machine?
Yes, a standard household blender works well if you keep everything cold and blend briefly (25 to 30 seconds total). A KitchenAid stand mixer with a whisk attachment is even closer to the restaurant result. The key is not to over-blend, which introduces air and warmth that thin the shake out.
How many mix-ins can you add to a Five Guys milkshake?
Five Guys allows unlimited mix-ins at no extra charge, which is one reason their milkshakes are so popular. At home, the practical limit is about 2 to 3 substantial mix-ins before the flavor becomes muddled. The best combinations pair one fruit or flavoring with one textural addition, like strawberry with Oreo or peanut butter with banana.
Why does my homemade Five Guys milkshake come out too thin?
The most common cause is over-blending. Every extra second in the blender adds heat and air, both of which thin the shake. Other causes include using low-fat ice cream, warm equipment, or too much milk. Start with slightly less milk than the recipe calls for and add more only if the blender struggles.
Is the Five Guys milkshake made with soft serve or hard ice cream?
Five Guys uses hard-packed hand-scooped ice cream, not soft serve. This is a key reason the texture is so different from fast food milkshakes at McDonald’s or Burger King, which use soft serve as the base. Hard-packed ice cream is denser and creamier and produces a significantly thicker result.
Make the Five Guys Milkshake at Home Tonight
The Five Guys milkshake recipe is simpler than most people expect: great ice cream, whole milk, malted milk powder, and your chosen mix-in, blended cold and fast. Start with the classic vanilla malted base and then work through the variations.
Every ingredient is available at a regular grocery store and the whole process takes under five minutes. Once you nail the texture, you will never pay restaurant prices for a milkshake again.
