These chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies are the perfect cookie with a soft and moist center, melty morsels of chocolate, and crisp edges. It’s the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need because it’s classic—not fussy, complicated, or time-consuming.
There’s no need for refrigeration, special tricks, or complex cooking techniques to get the best chocolate cookie. Our foolproof, classic recipe tastes exactly how it should—insanely delicious. After all, it’s the incredible flavor and easy-to-make recipe that keeps traditional desserts like Gingerbread Cookies, Banana Bread, and Baklava so popular for ages!
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Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
My high school used to sell the best chocolate chip cookies at lunchtime. They were soft, thick and irresistible. With this cookie recipe, I sought to recreate that memorable texture and this recipe takes me back to the days when I saved up my quarters for the rare treat of the cafeteria cookie.
There is no match for homemade chocolate chip cookies with chewy and soft texture, gooey chocolate chips, and the sweetest aroma coming from your oven. As America’s most loved cookie, they are perfect for every occasion, whether you’re making Christmas cookies, comforting a neighbor, or surprising your kiddos with a sweet after-school treat.
Just like with Chocolate Crinkle Cookies or Christmas Sugar Cookies, everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, so here’s why this one is a keeper:
- The cookies stay soft for days
- Easy, straightforward recipe with tips to make it foolproof!
- No resting/refrigerating time—so you can satisfy your craving immediately
- Pantry staple ingredients
- True to the classic flavor everyone loves
- Stores and freezes well
- Make ahead option to always have dough on hand
Chocolate Chip Cookies Video
In this video, Natasha shows you how easy it is to whip up a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. *Note that we updated the recipe and now use 1 tsp of baking soda because we loved the results even more.
Ingredients:
The best chocolate chip cookie recipe is made with pantry and refrigerator staples—nothing fancy or hard to find here.
- Unsalted butter – room temperature butter creates the best consistency to trap air for a chewy, airy dough with the best texture and rise.
- Granulated sugar – white sugar adds sweetness without adding moisture for the perfect spread
- Brown sugar – molasses keeps the cookie moist, soft, and chewy. Be sure to press the sugar tightly into the cup when measuring
- Eggs – room temperature eggs mix more evenly to bind the dough
- Vanilla extract – store-bought or homemade vanilla extract gives that classic chocolate chip cookie flavor
- All-purpose flour – be sure to measure correctly to get the right amount: fluff with a spoon and then scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Finally, scrape off the top. Be sure not to pat the flour down
- Baking soda – sift to eliminate clumps
- Salt – balances the sweetness of the sugars
- Chocolate chips – we prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use milk chocolate or bittersweet chips for a slightly different taste. See our buying guide below – be sure to use the full amount because they add moisture and give good form to the cookies
Pro Tip:
If you don’t have time to let the butter come to room temperature, try this trick to soften the butter quickly, because it makes a big difference.
How to Buy Chocolate Chips
Chocolate chips come in different varieties. Here’s what to look for:
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips (46%-60% cocoa): the traditional chip for chocolate chip cookies. You can use full-size or mini chips, chunks, or even chopped chocolate. Nestle, Tollhouse, Ghirardelli, Guittard, Kirkland, Hershey’s….they all work!
- Milk chocolate chips (10% cocoa): these make very sweet cookies, so have your glass of milk ready. Try mixing with semi-sweet.
- Bittersweet chocolate chips (70% cocoa): less sweet and intensely chocolatey. These produce a more “adult” cookie.
Substitutions
It’s easy to make these cookies your own. You’ll need 2 cups of mix-ins, so if you’re feeling adventurous, try some of these fun alternatives to chocolate chips:
- Peanut butter chips
- Sprinkles
- Butterscotch chips
- M&M candies
- Macadamia nuts
- Chopped unsalted peanuts
- White vanilla baking chips
- Shredded coconut
- Pretzel pieces – the options are endless!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
It’s so simple to mix up this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe with pantry staples and no refrigeration is needed.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Cream the butter and sugars together for 5 minutes until light and fluffy—this is the most important step to get a chewy cookie. Be sure to beat for the full amount of time!
- Beat eggs into the butter mixture one at a time followed by the vanilla extract.
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sifted baking soda) in a separate bowl, and then add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in thirds. Finally, fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Be sure not to over-mix (this can cause the dough to become tough).
- Roll balls of dough or use a trigger release scoop to scoop 3 Tbsp balls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 minutes. The tops should still look a bit wet and not browned. We usually bake 1/3 of the cookies at a time and refrigerate or freeze the rest for later, so see our tips below.
- Rest the cookies on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Store cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 5 days. To warm the cookies, try toasting in a toaster oven or baking at 350 for 2-3 minutes.
Pro Tip:
For a prettier cookie, press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of each cookie dough ball just before baking.
Common Questions
Room temperature butter and eggs, beating the butter and sugars thoroughly, and not over-mixing create the best cookies! No need for fancy techniques, because the best chocolate chip cookies are easy to make!
These homemade chocolate chip cookies spread perfectly without flattening.
Over-baking is the #1 cause of hard cookies, so remove them before they brown, when the edges are just turning golden. The top should still look a bit raw.
Once baked, store the cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft. You can even place a piece of bread in the container to maintain moisture.
Usually, cookies go flat when a recipe doesn’t include enough flour. Be sure to measure the ingredients correctly. Also, check to be sure your baking soda is still fresh by placing 1 tsp baking soda into a cup with a splash of vinegar. It should fizz, but if it doesn’t, replace your baking soda.
This usually means you use too much flour. Be sure to fluff and spoon your flour into a dry ingredient measuring cup, and don’t pat it down. Also, be sure not to make the cookie dough balls too large, or they may take longer than the cooking time to spread in the oven.
Make-Ahead
Our homemade chocolate chip cookie dough is refrigerator and freezer-friendly, so you can always have dough on hand. To make a few days ahead, mix the dough as directed and store:
- To Refrigerate: put dough into an airtight container, or cover rolled dough balls on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, and then bake as usual. It may take 1-2 minutes longer if starting with chilled dough.
- To Freeze: Scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Then, once the dough balls are frozen, store them in a freezer zip-top bag until ready to bake.
- To Bake: thaw in the refrigerator and bake as directed. You can bake from frozen, but the cookies will take a few more minutes to bake.
You will love these homemade chocolate chips with melty chocolate, a chewy cookie center, and an irresistible aroma. Our easy recipe uses pantry staples without unnecessary techniques! Grab a glass of milk because this will soon become your go-to recipe!
More Cookie Recipes
If you love this chocolate chip cookie recipe, then you won’t want to miss these other delicious cookie recipes.
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Shell Cookies
- Cranberry Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, (16 Tbsp), softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 1 tsp baking soda, sifted
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, (12 oz), divided reserving 1/4 cup for the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat liner. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. Beat 5 minutes on medium/high speed until creamy and light, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition, scraping down the bowl as needed, then beat in 2 tsp of vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp of baking soda (sifted to eliminate lumps). Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter in thirds, mixing to incorporate with each addition. Fold in 2 cups of chocolate chips.
- Use an ice cream scoop to get even balls of dough (3 Tbsp each). Place scoops of dough onto lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Mine fit onto 3 cookie sheets and made 26 cookies. Roll balls lightly with your hands then stud tops of cookie balls with reserved chocolate chips. Bake right away or cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 min at 350˚F (we bake 12 minutes), until edges are just turning golden. The tops should still look under-baked. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet 5 min then transfer to a rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I made these and they didn’t turn out. They didn’t flatten. Then I read the recipe notes and realized I measured my flour wrong (scooped instead of spoon in). Will try again.
Would you consider sharing the amount of flour in weight? That way how you measure doesn’t matter because you can just measure the right weight for the flour 😊
Hi Mona, If you scroll down to our printable recipe card, most of our recipes have a metric conversion option on the printable recipe card. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes, but this is a great tool to see grams for weight.
That’s great. Thank you for the reply.
Hello,
I tried your cookies and they are great. The only problem is I used a 3 tbsp ice cream scoop and the cookies were very large. Is 3 tbsp correct?
Thank you
That is right! That’s the size we used.
I’ve made these cookies several times. They are the best! My friends love them! I really like your recipes also because you always have the “metrics” measurements for Europeans. It saves me so much time not having to convert “us customary” measurements. Many cooking bloggers don’t have this option. Greetings from Amsterdam! 🙂
Hey Ana, great to hear from you, and thank you for your great comments! I’m glad that you’re enjoying my recipes and you’re welcome on the conversion. I figured a lot can really benefit from adding that feature.
These cookies were perfectly soft and delicious! We added some chopped pecans, too. I always loved when my grandmother made them that way. 🙂
Pecans sound great! Thanks for your good feedback, Susan. I’m glad you loved these cookies!
I had my doubts that this would be the best chocolate chip cookie recipe because there were no “secret” ingredients, no fridge time, etc. Boy was I wrong! And so thankful because these can be whipped up in no time and they are perfectly chewy and soft. My search has ended! Thank you Natasha XOXO
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
Hi Natasha, i made this recipe twice, with exactly same ingredients and quantities. They were both great but one was chewy and the second more crumbly and not chewy. What makes them more chewy?
Hi Fash, it depends on how long they are baked. If they are baked too long, they can get dry and crumbly.
Can regular brown sugar be used or does it have to be light brown sugar?
Hi Amira, I have had readers report good results using only light brown sugar.
Love your recipes Natasha! This is the #1 most requested cookie recipe in our house. 😊🍪 Thank you for the great recipes and for your hard work! May God bless you and your family!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Oksana!
This is definitely my go to Chocolate Chip Cookie receive!
They are amazing and every time I make them and share with friends they tell me these are a bomb the most amazing cookie they have had. SoThank You! Kathy
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Hi, I saw somewhere you make your own Vanilla and sell it. If yes, how much is it and how do I buy it?
And thank you for this recipe everyone loves the cookies!!!
Hi Joanne, we don’t sell it, but we gift it 🙂 You can find the recipe HERE.
I’m planning on making these to day but i’m wondering, do you think using salted butter instead of unsalted butter would taste the same if i took out the 1 tsp of salt?
Hi Lillian, using salted butter should work fine. You might add a little less salt if using salted butter. Several of our readers have tested this and enjoyed it.
This would be my first time baking cookies. Will using granulated brown sugar work?
Hi Hiba, I haven’t tested that with granulated brown sugar to advise. I have had readers report good results using only light brown sugar.
I made these cookies today and they were excellent! Thanks for this recipe and sharing all your baking tips with us. However, I found a discrepancy I need you to clarify for me. In your FB video, you say to add 1 tsp of baking powder. In the printed recipe above, you say to add 1 tsp of baking soda. Which one is it?
Thank you for your awesome feedback! We first published this chocolate chip cookie recipe in 2012. We are always working on perfecting our recipes so we modified the recipe with a tad more salt and switched to 1 tsp baking soda. This resulted in a softer, chewier cookie that spread perfectly with or without chilling the dough.
Can I put less sugar?
Hello Lee, less sugar may work, but they may seem a little more cake-like.
I really appreciate your videos and recipes. I have a question about different flours. Myself, I don’t need other than the usual flours, but I have friends that must revise recipes to include almond flour. Could this recipe be altered to include almond flour, and should it be part almond/part All Purpose?
Hi Corrine, I haven’t tested that to advise but here is what one of our readers wrote “I used almond flour instead of multipurpose flour and all white sugar because my brown sugar was too old to use. They are soooooo yummy!!! Natasha’s recipes are soooo good! I love the video instructions too!!!” I hope that helps.
Superb! Soooo good!
I guestimated the measurements, and baked all in one go which meant I crowded the baking tray, so the result wasn’t as good as it could have been but was still the BEST my wife and son ever tasted :))))
I reduced the chocolate and added raisins which also worked well. Used all organic products.
Natasha, you’re amazing! My 8 year old wants you to adopt him :)))
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
The cookies look awesome. What can be used in place of eggs as I’m allergic to eggs.
Hi Alpana, I haven’t tried any substitutes so I can’t say for sure.
I’m currently making these cookies and just had to try one. They are sooo delicious!! They turned out perfectly! I accidentally used salted butter but it definitely didn’t ruin them. I’m making the rest a little smaller and adjusting the time they bake so that I can get more cookies out of them. Fantastic recipe! Definitely my go to from now on! Thanks, Natasha!🙂
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I always watched your videos here in Facebook. And your recipes are so easy to follow. I love to collect more recipes. By the way, I am a graduate of Physical Therapy here in the Philippines and I want to pursue my dream to have a bakeshop or small restaurant that’s why I loved to cook and bake. More videos from you to watch. Stay safe and God bless.
Thank you so much for watching our videos! I hope you try and enjoy our recipes soon!
can i just use light brown sugar? i dont have any white sugar.
Hi Joanna, I have had readers report good results using only light brown sugar.
I used only light brown sugar and they were the best cookies i have ever had!! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing that!
So excited to try this recipe! Can M&Ms be added and if so how much! Tried many of your recipes…always a hit! Thank you!!
Hi Gerbie, I think that would work. I would sub some of the chocolate chips with M&Ms.