The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

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This classic chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe features slightly crisp edges that lead to a soft and chewy interior, and there’s no mixer required! With dozens of 5-star reviews and folks who have adopted this recipe as their standard go-to chocolate chip cookie, you are sure to find something to love about it, too! You can also find this recipe on page 15 of my cookbook.

Originally published on my site in 2014, this recipe has had a bit of a glow-up over the years. It now includes updated notes (which I’ve curated from the feedback of thousands of bakers), step-by-step visuals, and a video to guide you from “hopeful home baker” to “cookie hero in your group chat.” It’s the most viral recipe I’ve ever created– millions of views, thousands of repeat bakers, and yes, people literally Googling “Fresh April Flours chocolate chip cookies” because once they try it, they’re totally hooked.

It’s the kind of recipe that turns skeptics into believers. The kind people thank you for in Instagram comments, DMs, emails, and Facebook cookie groups. The kind that gets shouted out in reviews that say some form of “I’ve finally found my chocolate chip cookie recipe.”

Listen, I know a chocolate chip cookie can seem basic. But let’s not pretend that finding the one isn’t basically the baking equivalent of striking gold. This recipe is soft, chewy, perfectly balanced with sweetness and chocolate flavor, and hits every nostalgic note you didn’t even know you were missing. I’ve made it more times than I can count (seriously, I’ve definitely lost count), and it never lets me, or anyone else, down.

So grab your spatula and your mixing bowl (no electric mixer needed!), and maybe hide a few cookies for later. Because these? These disappear fast. You’ve officially been warned.

What fascinates me is how nearly every chocolate chip cookie recipe starts with the same basic ingredients, but subtle shifts in ratios, mixing methods, ingredient and oven temperatures, and even rest time can completely transform the end result. Whatever it is you love about your favorite chocolate chip cookie is all (delicious).

My personal gold standard? A cookie with slightly crisp edges and a soft, chewy center. That preference was almost quite literally baked into me early. In high school, I ended every lunch with two cookies from the cafeteria: one soft sugar cookie and one slightly crisp, chewy chocolate chip. That combo basically shaped my ideal cookie experience.

I’ve done a lot of research on what makes a chocolate chip cookie behave the way it does, and if you’re nerdy like me and want to dig deep into the science, I’ve compiled some of my favorite resources [link here, if you have one].

The ratios and temperatures of these ingredients will dictate the success of your chocolate chip cookies, so pay attention to the details and be sure to read all the notes before you begin the recipe.

For my cookies, I remove one egg white (we’ll add in more moisture in a second) and leave the yolk. Doing so brings a large source of fat to the cookie and helps keep the cookies fudgy (like brownies) and dense (fewer pockets of air).

Denser cookies will cook from the outside faster (think flatter) creating crunchy edges and leaving the inside chewy.

You would do this if you wanted your result to be a puffier cookie (classic Nestlé Tollhouse cookies require creaming of butter with the sugars).

I like to melt my butter because it helps keep the cookies chewy and dense, and we will refrigerate the cookie dough once it’s all mixed together to solidify the butter again, preventing greasy cookies.

Plus, it caramelizes faster, so the toffee/butterscotch flavors in the cookie are unparalleled vs a cookie made with all or mostly granulated sugar.

Chilled cookie dough > non-chilled cookie dough.

For one, since we are using melted butter in the dough, we need some time for the butter to solidify again so that our cookies don’t end up as cookie puddles (although I’m sure those are delicious).

Secondly, the longer your cookie dough sits, the longer the flour has to absorb moisture from the butter, eggs, and brown sugar which leads to chewiness.

Lastly… Marriage of flavors. You can’t argue with that one.

If you are looking for specific variations on a chocolate chip cookie theme, here are all of my chocolate chip cookie recipes.

It is as simple as combining the dry ingredients, setting them aside, combining the wet ingredients, then putting it all together. The chocolate chips go in last before you’ll chill the dough.

Over the years, I have discovered I prefer to scoop and roll the dough balls before I chill it. But if you’re low on space, you can chill it in the bowl. Allow it to sit out at room temperature for about 20 minutes before trying to scoop it– it will be super hard upon removal!

Leaving them in the oven until they just start to brown will ensure you have a bit of crispiness to your edges. Allowing them to cool on the sheet continues to bake the bottoms and parts of the edges, caramelizing the sugars further and bringing more toffee/butterscotch notes to the overall flavor.

I know it may seem like a lot to put into just simple chocolate chip cookies, but trust me, the work is worth the result.

And if you need another reason to make these cookies, taste testers have often related them to those cafeteria chocolate chip cookies I spoke about, so if that elicits any kind of nostalgic elementary/middle/high school memories for you and you’d like to recreate them in your own kitchen… This is your chocolate chip cookie recipe, my friend!

Fill them with chocolate chips, mini-m&m’s, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips… Whatever kind of chips you love! A classic chocolate chip cookie recipe is something every baker should have in their repertoire.

You can also freeze rolled dough for up to 2 months. Bake from frozen and add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.

Love chocolate chip cookies in different forms? Check out any of these chocolate chip cookie-based recipes next: chocolate chip cookie dough bites, chocolate chip cookie cake, cookie dough brownies, and edible chocolate chip cookie dough.