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
I don’t know if anyone is still checking out this old post, but I must say that this cookie was fantastic! I just made them, literally, the first batch just came out of the oven. I am chewing one as I type. They are moist, and chewy, and absolutely perfect! Thank you thank you! No more Nestle recipe for me!
Am making these now – first visit to your site, was in need (!) of a new c.c. cookie recipe. Mine came out more golden looking than yours and seemed to spread more but the taste is superb. Such a flavorful cookie and mixed up so easily. Will try these again soon with other add-ins. And I’ll be stopping back for more yummy recipes.
I was so excited about these…maybe too excited because I “read” 1 1/2 c. butter… not sticks… double butter…BAD COOKIES. Will attempt again.
Second attempt was WONDERFUL… I was a little worried because I doubled it and didn’t have enough eggs, but 2 eggs and 1 yolk worked fine. delicious 🙂
Just made these today…. My hubby said they were the best cookies Ive ever made! (Not that that says much ;)) But I am glad to find a cookie recipes I dont ruin! yay!
Tried these today! I made the base recipe as instructed, then split the dough in half (one half used semi-sweet chips and the other milk choc chips). Then each half, I baked 2 different ways. The first was the tear and bake as given in the recipe. The second way was 1/4 scoop, place on parchment tray and refrigerate for 20 mins, then bake. Although in the end these were not my favorite CC cookie (blander outside, inside like a blondie and too much vanilla), I would recommend the milk chocolate, scoop and refrigeration method. The cookies are much prettier and more uniform. I had no trouble with recipe as written and couldn’t begin to tell you my elevation ;). Btw, even though these are not my favorites, I had no problem eating them! Thank you for your site!!
I was afraid the cookies wouldn’t turn out because of melting the butter. They turned out perfect. The cookies were gone before the day was over. Another great recipe! We have chickens and so I was able to use fresh eggs as well! The colored eggs are pretty neat.
Ok I admit I was skeptical. Every Choc. Chip cookie recipe I have ever made with butter they are flat, hideous cookies (like tollhouse). Even while mixing it wasn’t looking like it was going to work. Then…the timer went off and voila! The cookies were NOT flat they were beautiful little chocolate chip cookies sent from heaven. Ok maybe not sent from heaven but you know what I mean! They turned out PERFECTLY! Thank you!
I just made these, sooooo yum! My whole family including the little girl growing in my belly agree!
I usually have difficulties making perfect CC cookies because the altitude is so high in Idaho! But these cookies turned out amazing!
Best cookies ever! I have made them several times, but today they were better than ever. They might just be the death of me.
Wow I made these last night and 6 of them got gobbled up by my boyfriend before I even got to put them on the cooling rack. This is amazing as my boyfriend doesnt usually eat sweet things so I could not beleive my eyes. Oh and the tip about splitting them in half and leaving the rough side up worked perfectly 🙂
I live in New Zealand and tried these cookies and they didn’t work out (because of sea level and humidity, I think). So after 4 attempts I finally figured out how to make them chewy and gooey at sea level. I took different suggestions from your different recipes and here is what worked for me. So I did 10T melted butter and 2T shortening and mixed really well with the sugars. I also added 1/4-1/2 cup more flour to this. When I used the recipe amount for flour it didn’t work where I live. Maybe this will help those that live at sea level. Thanks for the yummy recipe! 🙂
I have never made chocolate chip cookies before by myself and I saw these and thought I would give it a try… My friend from home makes cookies and they’re okay but these were AMAZING. I am in college and am on a very tight budget being out of state and everything but all your recipes look perfect, so I spend my money on food instead of anything else. I cannot wait to try everything. Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing this tasty recipe! I was so excited to try it and it lived up to all the hype! 🙂 I am definitely going to make these again and again. I used half wheat flour and white. They turned out perfect! Thanks again! 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made these for my husband last night and he LOVED them! He also felt like this recipe was THE CC cookie recipe. I also have purchased your cook book and I absolutely love it! Thanks for sharing your talents and tasty recipes!
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. The whole batch lasted only 2 days at our house!
SO GOOD!!!!! I can’t wait for my husband to try them. GREAT flavor and texture! You gals are the best!
The kids really like it. I’ve been making this type of chocolate chip cookies for months now and they still asked me to make it every week.
My husband is a cookie monster and I have tried many chocolate chip cookie recipes. He’ll eat any cookie but I haven’t always been happy with the recipes I’ve tried. In search of a new chocolate chip cookie recipe I searched your site and tired this one. It’s perfect! I love the flavor – the strong vanilla taste, the perfect amount of salt, the carmel-y taste from all the brown sugar. I love the texture. I have made this recipe twice already – which has allowed us to have fresh-baked cookies every night! They’re addictive!
I honestly don't know why I tried this recipe because I love my recipe. But I was curious about the melted butter, I didn't love the dough (which is good because it means there are cookies to eat) but the cookies are scrumptious! Truly.
So I made these today for dessert and I think I've made myself sick <eatting the batter, plus 3 nice and gorgeous and warm lovely cookies. A bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and an enormous amout of chocolate chip cookies/batter, do not go together!! My goodness I think I'm going to pop!!!
YUM! I just made these.. infact the last batch is in the oven. I've already had two! I'm very picky about my cookies and rarely bake. I have an amazing oatmeal chocolate chip recipe but we're out of oatmeal! We're snowed in here in OK today and these are perfect to add to the day! Thank you so much!
Oh, goodness. This is quite possibly the best CC cookie recipe EVER! The dough was odd to work with…I'm used to using softened butter and having the dough be more, well, dough-like. But holy cow, were they delicious! I made one addition…added a little bit of decaf instant coffee granules. Weird, yes, but they add a great richness to the cookies! Well done, the perfect chewy cookie!
I have been searching for the perfect CC cookie recipe from the time I started baking thirty years ago with my grandmother. This one has become the ONLY one I use since I found it on the Sur La Table website a few years ago. I do one thing differently, though. Extensive taste "research" led me to refrigerating my dough for 36-48 hours instead of baking it right away. After chilling, I let it sit at room temp until scoopable and then bake away. Letting the dough rest allows the flavor to develop fully and gives the cookies a richer taste. Try it and you'll never bake immediately again!
Amazing! This is "the one" for me!
Thanks Sara! I've never baked 2 sheets of cookies at a time, successfully. They were a hit last night, and are nearly gone now! Chewy yumminess! I learned to trust that even if they aren't browning by the 13 minutes maximum, take them out anyway if you want them chewy! Your recipe IS 'the one' for us!
Lor, that just means if you bake 2 sheets at a time, put them both in the center of your oven. You just don't want to use the very top, or the very bottom rack. Does that make sense?
What do you mean by moving the racks to upper and lower middle positions? Which of those two do you suggest baking the cookies… both? Two trays at the same time? I'm sure the recipe would work with one tray at a time on either, but I was just wondering.
LOVE this recipe!! I live in Maryland sea level and I didn't have to make any alterations at all. They were perfect. I've actually made quite a few of your recipes and I've loved them all!! Thanks for the wonderful recipes.
I have been on this never ending search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and vioa-la. I found it! i should've known it wouldn't disappoint, i made the mint frosted brownies on here and those were terrific too! I added 1 c pecans bc my friend ordered them that way. These were insane! i dont there's any left and i just made them last night too!