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
Made these with my kids today and they are the best. Perfect mix of ingredients. Soft in the centre and slightly crispy on the outer edges. Just perfect!! Will definitely be keeping this recipe.
That’s great, Natalie!
Hey Natasha, thanks for the recipe. I’m wondering if these can be stuffed with Nutella or Peanut butter? I want to try this recipe for a stuffed cookie but I’m not sure if the cookie dough base would differ for stuffing. Can you please help? Thanks!
Hi Faryal! I wish I could be more help, but I haven’t tested that to advise. I think it could work but you’ll have to experiment with it. Let us know how it turns out.
The ratio of sugar, baking soda and flour is all off! I made this to the exact recipe and my cookies were tasteless, not spreading and just all around terrible. Couldn’t eat them!
HI Molls, did you change anything in the recipe? Not spreading could be due to too much flour. Our article on how to measure ingredients for baking may help.
Well….your recipe states baking soda but your video states baking powder. We made them with baking soda and they turned out like muffin tops. So which one are we to use for cookies?
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.
I made these today with my boys, what a hit! We did one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and one cup of mini M&M’s. Quick, easy and delicious! Definitely going to be the family go-to recipe. Thank you!
That’s great, Caroline! I’m so glad you found a new go-to recipe!
My family and friends LOVE these cookies Thank you for sharing
Great to hear, Lisa! You’re very welcome.
Very powdery, not very chewy. Made thick cookies that didn’t melt.
Hi Gerald. It sounds like there is too much flour. Be sure to measure correctly. I have a tutorial on How to measure ingredients to help.
It sounds like you used baking soda like I did but her video says to use baking powder.
These are good if you like crazy dry cookies. Will stick with my original recipe
Hi Tamara, I haven’t had these come out dry. Did you measure the ingredients correctly and make sure not to reduce butter. Also, it’s important to measure flour correctly or you can get up to 25% too much flour which could make the dough dry.
Your video recipe says 2tsp baking powder while the recipe is written 1 tsp baking soda, which is it?
HI Edna, the recipe card is the most current and best version. The written recipe is correct.
Hi natasha, i made chocolate cookies according to your recipe, and its so delicious. The only problem is that the cookies after taste is very bad. I don’t know how to explain it. Kindly help me with it as i followed your recipe step by step.
Hi Ambreen. It’s hard to tell what went wrong without being there. I would look over the ingredients that you used to see if anything is expired or maybe you used something incorrectly? Sorry I can’t be more help.
We’ve been making this recipe non stop. They’re so yummy 😋 I made a batch for Christmas and they were hit. My go to recipe for now on. Thank you!
You’re so welcome, Lauren. Nice to know that these cookies were a huge hit!
My family never turns down chocolate chip cookies and these disappeared almost as soon as putting them out! I love that they were soft and chewy and not crunchy. I froze them and brought out as needed but they last very long in a cookie tin. A repeater!
Great to hear that you enjoyed these cookies!
I made these and used white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Turned out perfect after I raised the time to 375 because I live at 5000 feet above sea level. After increasing the temp, they baked in 12 minutes. At 300 degrees, it took 18 minutes.
Hi William! Thank you for sharing that with us. So glad you loved the recipe!
In your video you said 2 tsp baking powder but the recipe calls for baking soda. Which one is correct? I have tried several of your recipes and they are so wonderful. My 15 year old grandson makes your dutch apple pie for every holiday. He put it in an auction and got $50 dollars for it. You have helped make a baker for life.
Hi Marilyn! That’s wonderful to hear!
-I included a note in the blog post above that this recipe was updated since we had better results. The written recipe is the most up to date.
I made these for Christmas brunch with my family…..specifically my two young grandsons. CC cookies are their favorite. They LOVED them. I sent a take-home bag with them. I must admit I had one with my coffee for breakfast today! they were soft as you said and I made them without any adjustments. Thanks for your predictably good recipes!
Lovely! I’m glad that your family especially the kids loved them!
Hello Mrs. Natasha, today I made the last of the cookie dough for your chocolate chip recipe and they were delicious! At first I scooped them into 2 tbsps cause I was worried that if they were as big as the ice cream scoop they would be too raw in the middle but today I realized I just had to put them in the second rack in our oven so that they don’t brown too quickly👍 I did bake for an additional 2 minutes with the 12 minutes mark just to be safe, they came out looking very nice and tasted great, only thing I noticed was that the bottoms were a little crispy so next time I will take them out at 12 minutes exactly so that they cook enough and don’t get too crispy on bottom. My family loved the cookies and I’m gonna make another batch of cookie dough tomorrow to share with our relatives we are visiting this week. Thank you again for the notes and recipe and hope you and your family have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Wonderful! Thanks a lot for sharing that with us, Elias. I’m so glad that you loved the chocolate chip cookies!
Excellent recipe and I love that I don’t have to refrigerate the dough. Delicious with just the right amount of chocolate chips. My old recipe went in the trash and this one was printed and put into my recipe book.
Hi Shelley, thank you so much for your good comments! We appreciate this review.
Super easy and super delish! This is a keeper. I’ve only tried three of your recipes so far and they’ve all turned out delish. I’ll definately will be trying more.
So glad you love it!
I just made them and I have made them before. But this time they were dry and Crumbley I followed all directions except i did substitute 1/2 cup of butter with a 1/2 cup of peanutbutter
Hi Tammy! I’m not sure how that substitution would affect the recipe.
Used this recipe for my first cookies ever and they came out absolutely delicious, thank you so much Natasha!
That’s wonderful to hear, Shagha!
Hi Natasha,
I made this recipe today. It was awesome. I changed it up just a little; instead of two cups of chocolate morsels I used 1 cup of chocolate morsels and 1 cup of Heath Bar morsels. I followed everything else just as you had written. I don’t know why you only got 26 cookies! I got 40 and they were all big as I used an ice cream scoop like you suggested! Wonderful recipe, thank you.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Maureen!