My best chocolate chip cookie recipe! It's easy to make with simple ingredients, and the cookies come out soft, chewy, and delicious every time.
Meet my best chocolate chip cookie recipe! These cookies are everything that I think chocolate chip cookies should be. They have a perfect soft and chewy texture. They’re PACKED with melty, gooey chocolate chips. And they’re easy to make with basic ingredients and equipment. No stand mixer required!
In all my years of blogging and writing cookbooks, I’ve shared nearly 50 cookie recipes. But I recently realized that none of them has been for classic, chewy chocolate chip cookies.
I’m FINALLY changing that today, because everyone needs a good chocolate chip cookie recipe in their back pocket. If you don’t have one yet, this could be the one for you. It’s simple and delicious—everyone I share these cookies with loves them. I hope you love them too!
Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe:
- All-purpose flour – Spoon and level it to avoid packing too much into your measuring cup.
- Baking soda – It helps the cookies rise.
- Brown sugar and granulated sugar – The granulated sugar helps the cookies spread, while the brown sugar keeps them moist and soft. Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar both work here, but I prefer dark brown. It gives the cookie dough a richer caramel-like flavor.
- Melted butter –Â Many cookie recipes call for softened butter, which you then cream with the sugar before mixing in the flour and other dry ingredients. This process adds air to the cookie dough, yielding lighter, cakier cookies. I prefer my chocolate chip cookies to be chewy and dense, so I use melted butter in this recipe instead. Allow the melted butter to cool slightly before adding it to the cookie dough.
- An egg + an egg yolk –Â The extra egg yolk is another secret ingredient that makes these cookies soft and chewy.
- Vanilla extract – For warm depth of flavor.
- Chocolate chips – I love dark chocolate chips here, but feel free to use semi-sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips if you prefer.
- And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
You can find the complete chocolate chip cookie recipe with measurements at the bottom of this post, but for now, here’s a step-by-step overview of how it goes:
Start by making the cookie dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar.
Add the egg and egg yolk to the bowl with the butter mixture and whisk until well combined. Then, whisk in the vanilla.
Add the dry ingredient to the wet ingredients.
Use a spatula to mix until mostly combined…
..then add the chocolate chips and mix until well combined. The cookie dough will be soft. That’s ok!
Next, chill the dough. Cover and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.
Then, shape the cookies. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the dough onto the baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between cookies. (If the dough is too firm to scoop right away, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften.)
Finally, bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, at 350°F for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
Tips for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chill the cookie dough. I’m usually all for not chilling cookie dough, but in this recipe, it makes a HUGE difference. The cookies come out thicker and chewier, and they have a deeper flavor. I recommend chilling the dough for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, but in a pinch, even 30 minutes of chilling will improve your cookies.
- Bake one sheet at a time. Temperatures can vary throughout an oven. If you bake multiple sheets at once, cookies on a lower rack might bake at a faster rate than ones on a higher rack, and vice versa. For the most even bake, work in batches, baking one sheet at a time in the center of the oven.
- They’ll look underdone when you take them out. Another secret for soft and chewy cookies is to take them out of the oven when they look underdone. They’ll be golden brown around the edges but very pale in the middle. That’s ok! They’ll set up fully as they cool on the baking sheet and then a wire rack.
- You don’t have to use chocolate chips. Chocolate chunks or a chopped chocolate bar would work perfectly too!
Recommended Tools
You don’t need much special equipment to make this recipe, but there are two tools that I think are essential for cookie success:
- A 2-tablespoon cookie scoop – A cookie scoop is by far the fastest and easiest way to portion out these chocolate chip cookies. It also guarantees that each one is the same size, which helps them bake evenly.
- Parchment paper – I always line my baking sheets with parchment paper when I make cookies. They come out beautifully golden brown on the bottom, and cleanup is a breeze. Baking cookies directly on the baking sheet can cause the bottoms to burn.
How to Store Chocolate Chip Cookies
To help the cookies stay soft and chewy, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They keep well for up to 4 days.
You can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. Let frozen cookies sit at room temp for an hour to thaw, or zap them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to reheat.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
Another option is to freeze the chocolate chip cookie dough and bake it later. Here’s how:
- Prepare the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 3o minutes and up to 2 days.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a cookie scoop to portion the cookie dough onto the baking sheet.
- Freeze for at least 1 hour, or until the cookie dough balls are firm.
- Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Baking Frozen Dough
Let frozen dough balls defrost at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking according to the recipe.
I love keeping dough in the freezer so that I can bake off a few chocolate chip cookies whenever I’m craving something sweet!
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
If you love these homemade chocolate chip cookies, try one of these easy cookie recipes next:
- Perfect Oatmeal Cookies
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, 1½ sticks, melted and cooled slightly
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add the egg and egg yolk and whisk until well combined and no streaks of egg white remain. Whisk in the vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula. When the dry and wet ingredients are mostly combined, add the chocolate chips and mix until a soft cookie dough forms and no dry flour remains.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days. Cookie dough chilled for just 30 minutes will yield flatter cookies that spread more as they bake. Cookie dough chilled for 2 hours or more will yield thicker cookies that spread less.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between cookies. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown but the tops are still pale. They will look underdone when you take them out of the oven, but they will set up as they cool.
- Let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
I love chocolate chip cookies and I had to try! They are delicious, I love how they aren’t flat! I left in fridge four hours after making cookie dough before I baked them and they are perfect! Thanks for a yummy recipe.
Hi Liz, I’m so glad you loved the cookies!
SOOO Easy. I ate the whole batch 🙂
So glad you loved them, Marian!
Can this be made as bar cookies?
Hi, we haven’t tried that with this recipe, but here’s a link to our chocolate chip cookie bars: https://www.loveandlemons.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-bars/
yes it can just put it in a bar mold and bake and enjoy