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
I was scared to make this recipe because every batch of CCs I make turns out terrible, but I nailed this on my first shot! I gave them away to ladies from church who both said they thought I bought them from a bakery!
Also I think this recipe trumps my MILs, whose recipe my DH swears by.
I am tempted to make more today! (And I made 2 batches yesterday_)
And, by the way, I live in Arizona. Surprisingly, no altitude problems or alterations.
These turned out perfectly! Once again, you guys have blown me away by the amazingness of your recipes. I shared these cookies with one of my best friends, my boyfriend, and my roommate. They all loved them.
these tasted delicious, but they didn't turn a pretty brown or flatten like yours. Not sure why?! My husband raved about them–thanks!
These ROCK! Mine came out perfect and looked like they came from a professional bakery! Used parchment paper, and cookie scoop to mold the cookie dough! YUMMY!
I have made this recipe twice now in the last week. I have a 'party' I'm going to tonight and I was positive I wanted to bring these cookies ….SOOOOO good!
They are delicious! I added some dried cherries and used chocolate chunks instead of regular chips. divine. I am up here in the Seattle area and I had to cook them for 2-3 more minutes than the recipe called for, but no biggie. They are DELICIOUS! Thanks for a new favorite! I finally found a recipe I can do right! My sister in law has an amazing recipe that I seem to mess up all the time, here is to "my" new cookie!
Thanks!
These are, without a doubt, the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for this recipe!
SO, probably not high altitude? What do you think? I am in Wyoming at @ 6380 ft….. adjustments or not?
Crazy Jay- haha, hard to keep everything straight, right?! I'm in Idaho at about 2,900 feet so a little lower than Utah.
So, after reading all the commotion for the other Choc. Chip Cookie about high altitude, vs, sea level, this cookie was made by Sara, who is in Utah, and so it should work at high altitude??? Do I have everything straight?
YIPEE!!! now i finally have the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie recipe! i've never been successful with chocolate chip cookies for some reason. it's been completely frustrating! but these turned out PERFECT and they are the TYPE of cookie that i love. texture is to die for! thank you thank you thank you! i feel like i've found the pot of gold!
I made these cookies- and they were the best choc chip cookies I have ever had. They are very chewy, but that's what I love about them! Just perfect.
okaie, so those were reallie great cookies! my brother didnt like the cookie dough, but i thought it was fantastishh! =D
when i put the cookies on the sheet i did them both ways you wrote about; i took pics of them afterwards to put on here but it wont let me put it in a comment =/
anywhoo, my mom &&i liked the normal ones while my brother liked the ridges on top. so now imma have to make them both ways, lol; alreadie having to make chocolate chip dough &&whatever my dad wants in a smaller portion of dough [like white chocolate or butterscotch chips], so its a lotta work!! but soo worth it!! =D
when the alarm went off i was just itching to eat those cookies! when i took them out i knew i shoulda waited to put the cookies onto the rack, but i couldnt! lol. luckily onlie one cookie broke – &&just a littlie bit! i was hoping more would brake off so i could burn my mouth with its goodness, haha. well when i ate that little piece of cookie without a chip, it tasted kinda sugar cookieish; which is a plus with mi familia(=
good recipe! DEFF using it again.
i was just searching around for some recipes &&i picked yours(=
i mean they look delicious; but i'd like to see how the other from CI turned out too.
i guess i could just try some when i bake them, lol.
nvm then, ill bb for an update on how they were!
Ah Shelbie, that stinks! I wonder what happened…I can only think that something had to have been measured wrong because that shouldn’t have happened!
Can I just say how much this recipe failed for me?
Yours look so BEAUTIFUL! I was actually excited on my way home from school today to start these cookies because I knew my mom had gone to the store to get chocolate chips.
But once I had mixed all the ingredients, exactly how I was supposed to, the dough was very sticky(I guess from the melted butter?) and hard to work with. So I added about 1/3 cup more flour, but it was still pretty sticky. And after they were baked, they lacked the attractive brown color that yours had, so they seemed undercooked, yet the edges weren’t crispy–they were rock hard! The center was soft and chewy as promised, but the edges were extremely messed up.
Where did I go wrong? 🙁
WOW! These cookies turned out perfect even in my very funky Bosnian oven. I also had to use Muscavado brown sugar (its all I can find here) thats really dark which I am not a huge fan of at all, but they were still delicious. I just ate one for breakfast (Shhh!) and I thought for sure since it was the day after and I had just left them sitting on the counter all night that they would be all crispy, but no…it was AMAZING! Still so chewy and moist. I couldn’t believe it. Thanks for a fantastic recipe once again.
I find it interesting that this recipe was taken from the Cook’s Illustrated one, because there’s one appreciable different; this one contains nearly a cup more flour than the Cook’s one, and that turns out to be the difference between a moist, delicious cookie, and a cookie that leaves globs of grease on your fingers when you touch it and might clog all your major arteries. I followed that Cook’s recipe to the letter and the cookies were gross! 1 3/4 stick butter to 1/34 cup flour??? Never again. Thank God I found this recipe and turned it all around. I made them exactly as suggested and they came out perfect. Thanks so much!!!
Finally got around to trying these and they are my new favorite! Yummy!
I have always been really bad at making CC cookies, but this recipe made me look like a pro! Very delicious, even my picky hubby loved them. Thank you so much!
I tried it… and YUM! The only thing is, I think that there’s too much butter. Yeah, I know… how can there ever be too much butter… but I think 1 stick was enough. They were soooo soft though. YUM! Absolutely loved, and so did the fam.
Is there any way you have this recipe in some metric form? I’m from the states, but I’m currently in Austria. 🙁 I miss American food so badly, but using a coffee cup and soup spoon aren’t cutting it as measuring tools. (As evidenced by my chewy pancakes.)
And they don’t have cookies here. At least not this delicious kind.
OK, so I made the cookies yesterday, and they are AMAZING! YUM! I wrote at the top of this recipe, “it’s a great one!” The kids were impressed and my husband even wanted to take some to work! YEAH!
I heard from Gabe’s that you have great recipes. I am trying to make Starbuckish almond toffee bars do you have any tips? Do you love them too and already have a toffee bar creation, could I be so lucky?
I made these cookies and didn’t tell my family it was a new recipe and my husband commented that these were the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made, needless to say there weren’t any leftover for the next day 🙁 Thanks for the recipe!!
Mmmm. These are perfect. PERFECT.
I didn’t use all the batter that night so I just tried them today after it was refrigerated and they are still perfect. Even after a few hours in an air-tight dish, still soft and chewy!
Okay, so I just tried this recipe and my dough looks nothing like yours. It turned out very gooey looking. I think because my “warm” butter may not have been warm at all, but a little more than warm. I am putting it in the freezer to harden. Always second chances!
I love using fresh eggs! I am copying and printing your recipe to use right now. Will let you know how they turn out.
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 🙂