These rank at the top of our list when it comes to the Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. We recommend scooping them large so they have time to develop buttery crisp edges and retain their soft centers. We’ve found that everyone has their “perfect” chocolate chip cookie and since many factors (elevation, humidity, personal preference) influence what is “perfect” for YOU, we recommend trying a few to find your favorite! Our two other favorite recipes are these Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies and also the famed NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. If you love this recipe below, it’s also the inspiration behind our beloved GIANT Chocolate Chip Cookie, and in bar form, these Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars! If you want just a few cookies, try our little Small Batch Chocolate Cookie Recipe, which makes just 6-8 cookies.
Scroll past recipe card for step by step photos and instructions!
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Description
This cookie is a perfectly chewy, bakery style chocolate chip cookie– crisp on the outside and soft in the center.
Ingredients
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoon butter (1 1/2 sticks) melted and cooled until warm*
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
*You want your butter melted, but not hot. It’s best when it has a milky look, not clear yellow. Your dough will be quite loose if you use hot melted butter and you’ll need to wait for it to harden a bit before scooping your dough. I recommend melting slowly at half power until all the pieces are almost melted and let residual heat finish melting it. It should be just warm to the touch, not hot.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Adjust oven rack to middle position. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
Beat butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop into balls* and bake until outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy. Baking time will depend on the size of your cookies. I think the texture of these cookies are best when scooped large, about 3 tablespoons of dough, each, which will bake for 9-12 minutes. Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.
*alternate scoop method: This recipe as written from ATK suggests rolling 1/4 cup dough into a ball and then breaking it in half, placing the broken side facing up on the cookie sheet. The craggly texture of the top creates a nice shape and texture to the baked cookie. That being said, I almost always just use an extra large cookie scoop and skip the breaking part because it’s quick and easy and they still turn out amazing.
How to make Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe relies heavily on brown sugar, which is something that helps give it a warm caramel flavor and chewy texture.
Another main component in achieving a good texture is the addition of an extra egg yolk.
You can use any chocolate chips you like. I personally am always a fan of semisweet chocolate chips in cookies, and most desserts. I love Ghirardelli brand, but use whatever you have and like!
Size Matters!
I prefer the texture of these cookies best when scooped large, in a ball of about 3 tablespoons dough. A scooper works great! Don’t flatten them down after placing them on the baking sheet.
Bake Your Cookies
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes to Explore!
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
GIANT Chocolate Chip Cookie
Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars!
Small Batch Chocolate Cookie Recipe
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Questions & Reviews
Those eggs are cool!!!
Great.. I give up chocolate for Lent and you’ve got the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies.. just a few more weeks to go and then I’ll try them out 🙂
Thanks for putting on a print recipe link. That’s awesome. It saves me from having my laptop open in the kitchen (which is a stupid thing for me to do)since I’m too lazy to just write it down.
Oh YUM!
That last picture is the best. . .
Whoa – I had no idea eggs came in so many different colors. How is that possible? Your cookies look great and I bet they did taste better because of their farm fresh eggs.
Hillary
Chew on That
This is quit similar to my cc recipe I use but it is a whole egg rather than the yolk. I will have to try this. I also enjoy doing mine with m&m's. So yummy! You did a good job with your post. For a minute I thought I was watching Good Eats.
Best chocolate cookies ever!
I’m a city girl too so I’m in awe of those eggs! 🙂 These cookies look so delicious!
Alrighty, you’ve convinced me. I’m starting them, even though we’re now going on midnight. And I’d love to get you started on the Tollhouse recipe. It boggles my mind. It worked great in Virginia. Upon moving to Utah, I produced nothing but flat horribleness. I still can’t make them work here in Texas, but my husband can–he refrigerates the dough overnight. I don’t have time for that.
I’ve made this cookie, and it is definitely a keeper!! I value the same cookie qualities as you do – crispy exterior and chewy center. Melted button and brown sugar seem to do the trick. My cookies do not come out as thin as yours… not sure why. I think I would prefer thinner cookies. Alton’s also worked very well for me, though they were also relatively thick.
Kate- no I wouldn’t make a trip to the store just for parchment. I bet your pans work just fine!
Everyone-
I mentioned in my post that cookies just turn out different for so many reasons. What may be the “perfect” cookie for someone somewhere may be a total flop for someone else. I had recipes I loved in Seattle that just don’t work here in Idaho. I tried Alton’s Brown recipe, which I’ve heard a lot of people rave about and they turned out horrid. And don’t even get me started on the Tollhouse recipe. So who knows- this may be “the one” for some people (like my husband!) and not for others.
I only have one other recipe that I use a lot and love and I think at some point I may post that one too. It’s been a “no-fail” for me. If anyone wants it, you’re welcome to email me to get it!
Sara, I would really like your other chocolate chip cookie that you mention in this comment. I too have a difficult time with getting the cc cookies to be crisp on the edges and chewy (but cooked) on the inside. I really enjoy your website sooo much! Always look forward to your emails. Thanks! Jane
Wow, this seems to be quite the divisive cookie! I will have to try it and weigh in…I have to say my cc cookie recipe hasn’t been the same since we moved. I’m not sure if it’s the humidity or the elevation or just an all-around sense of evil, but I’m not happy about it.
Oh, and Who Knew? Seriously, this very morning I was thinking, “Hey, what ever heppened to her?! Did she stop reading our blog??” I’m glad you’re still here! 🙂
So I want to try this RIGHT NOW but . . . do I have to use parchment paper? I have those heavy pans mentioned in Kate’s recipe that I usually use. I don’t have any parchment paper. Though a trip to the store at 10 o’clock at night isn’t entirely unwarranted in the case of a pregnant mama with a craving, is it?
I made these and didn’t have any luck with them, they didn’t turn out the way yours did!
Holly- I’ve yet to try the NYT recipe. It’s been in my file for months. I kind of resisted since it was so ‘trendy’ in food blogger world. Stupid, I know! And how on earth can you taste an egg yolk?? You must have some sort of super sense! Hopefully we can find a way to still be food soul mates, haha.
Lindsay, like I said, I think chocolate chip cookies are completely about preference. I think the main difference is that this cookie is chewier. The margarine in Kate’s make them a bit softer all around and the full butter in this recipe gives a crispier outside/edge (the centers are still really soft though). They definitely have a chewier texture over all though, so if you love Kate’s, then this one might not be the texture you like. But there’s only one way to find out! Do you really *need* an excuse to try cookies? haha
My stomach is totally growling. I might be out of eggs right now…drat!
Chocolate Chip Cookies are my favorite treat. Up until now, sara, you and I have been like food soul mates, but I find this recipe…well, abominable. I made it only once.
surprising from the test kitchen, but I thought these cookies needed more salt and the texture just wasn’t right to me. Even worse, I could taste the extra egg yolk in there, which was weird.
I swear by the New York Times cookie recipe from july 2008. To me, it is perfection! apparently, perfection is in the eye of the beholder!
I like the green egg comment, I did not know what they were until culinary school, since I did not boil eggs often enough, but the cookies rock!
This is the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!
mmmmmm cookies.
So these colored eggs are normal? Is it because of what the chickens are fed????
Oh no, I’m torn! After I tried Kate’s recipe (the first recipe I ever tried from here and the one that fully converted to your blog), I swore I would never use another chocolate chip cookie recipe! But, now, I guess I’ll have to be unfaithful and try this one out–it’s just too tempting.
So what would you say the difference is between these recipes? I mean, in the results, of course.
I love these cookies! This is my favorite chocolate chip recipe.
When we make cookies at our house we call it “warm dough”. I love them barely cooked an doughy. That is if the ever make it to the oven.
Mmmmm these look amazing! I love the colorful eggs, too. Were you still at home when I was working at Kelsey Creek? They had the coolest chickens that laid all sorts of colored and speckled eggs. I used to bring home the really neat ones and blow them out to use as Easter decorations. They would be awesome as chocolate filled eggs, too!
What?! Farm eggs are colored? I knew there were white and brown but green and pink and other pastel colors? The picture looks like you colored them for Easter.
How funny Ellen, we must be in snyc! I hope you like these. Check out the other chocolate chip cookie recipe we have posted on our site too- it’s fantastic as well. Now that you’ve got 2 good ones, you’ll never make flat cookies again!
It is too funny, that last night I made some CC cookies and they turned out flat and not too appetizing. This morning I was talking to my husband and said, “that’s why I never make CC cookies because they turn out like this, I don’t know what to do.” He responded, “Maybe you need a new recipe.” So I thought I would hop on over to your site to see if I could locate a recipe and usually some tips or tricks on technique, Then VIOLA! That was today’s post — I am thinking I was meant to be a great cookie maker after all. It’s fate! I can’t wait to try these out!
I LOVE this recipe. I have adapted it some, even tried it with part whole wheat flour. I make the basic version of this all the time.But I agree, I just use my cookie scoop when I make them.
That is my absolute favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies ever. I like it with dark brown sugar. They are so chewy. And they never last long around our house.
We love Cooks Illustrated here. Everything we have made from there has been divine!
I like my cookies any way but Grumpy loves them chewy!
I’ve made this recipe so many times. I think it has the best flavour because of all the brown sugar. The only problem is.. there is so much moisture that the edges don’t stay crisp!