Perfect Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies {Melted Butter + No Chilling!}
Believe me when I say, these chocolate chip cookies are truly the best of the best! Soft and chewy, they start with melted butter and can be mixed by hand!
There are so many recipes out there for “the perfect chocolate chip cookie” but this one wins by a mile.
Not only are the cookies soft and chewy and everything a chocolate chip cookie should be, but they start with melted butter and don’t require any chilling. Easy and simple!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
The dough for these chocolate chip cookies can be made in a bowl (no stand mixer needed) and stirred by hand.
The ingredients are simple and pretty much what you’d expect for chocolate chip cookie dough.
- melted butter (brown the butter for even more delicious flavor!)
- granulated + brown sugar
- salt + baking soda
- egg + egg yolk
- vanilla
- flour + chocolate chips
Don’t be tempted to add the full egg for the egg yolk called for in the recipe. It will make the cookies cakey instead of chewy.
Scoop and Bake
The cookie dough can be baked right away. No chilling! (HOORRRAAAAYYYY!)
I use a #40 medium cookie scoop {aff. link} to plop the cookie dough onto baking sheets.
However, this cookie dough can be baked as smaller OR larger cookies. It’s pretty much a no-fail recipe, so scoop the cookies in whatever size you want!
A Classic Cookie
For a classic soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie, this recipe can’t be beat.
The cookies literally always turn out amazing, and are met with rave reviews every single time I make them.
Feel free to sub in different kinds of chocolate chips (I’m a semisweet girl myself)!
A Tried-and-True Recipe
I’ve been making this cookie recipe for over ten years, and it never gets old. That’s the sign of a good recipe!
With over 200 five-star reviews, these cookies are a fan favorite!
Rachel says: I’ve made this recipe a million times and it’s the BEST! I use a silicone mat on my baking sheet and they come out perfect. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Loana says: This is the best freaking chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever tried. The cookies look like bakery cookies and my entire family demolished all (52!!!) cookies this recipe made in a few days. Soooo good!
Jen says: OMG. I am converted! Melted butter IS key! These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made (and I have made a ton in my 50+ years). Thanks for sharing your recipe – now it is just our little secret!
FAQs for Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yes! They freeze great.
Increase the salt by 1/4 teaspoon.
It needs to be completely melted then slightly cooled.
Shape the dough into balls, place in a covered container and put them in the freezer. I take them straight out of the freezer, place on a cookie sheet, and bake as directed, adding another 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons (170 g) (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 cup (212 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (106 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 ¼ cups (320 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups (340 g) semisweet or milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Make sure an oven rack is in the center of the oven. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until well-combined.
- Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix well until the batter has lightened slightly in color, about 2 minutes.
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until a few dry streaks remain. Add the chocolate chips and mix until evenly combined (don't over mix).
- Scoop the dough into heaping tablespoons (I use a #40 cookie scoop) and place a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Optional: roll the cookie dough into smooth balls.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: slightly adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Recipe posted May 2008; updated September 2022 with new photos, recipe notes, etc.
422 Comments on “Perfect Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies {Melted Butter + No Chilling!}”
These cookies are amazing! Although, recently I’ve been struggling with them. 🙁 I can’t get the cookies to melt. They stay in the little mound i shape them into and are slightly cakey. I follow the recipe almost to a tee. Any tips?
Try reducing your oven temperature by 25 degrees and/or cutting back on the flour by 1/4 cup or so.
I use this recipe whenever I’m making chocolate chip cookies. It’s yummy, comes together quick, and I love melting the butter instead of waiting for it to soften. Thank you so much!
This has been a game-changer for me!! Finally, an amazingly delicious AND easy cookie recipe! So I feel like a Supermom for making something totally yummy for my kiddos even though I am a terrible baker (usually, not for any of Mel’s fool-proof recipes though ). Thank you Mel!
I normally make your super soft chocolate chip cookies, but today I needed to make some cookies and didn’t have softened butter. These are delicious!
I am slightly confused by the cookie scoop size and recipe yield. I have a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. Your cookie scoop post says the #40 is about 1.5 tablespoons of dough (so maybe your scoop mounded is more like 2T?). But in order to get 24 cookies from this recipe, I abandoned mounding my scoop and just took what seemed like 2+ tablespoons of dough. I’ve had this issue with a cook’s illustrated oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. They said to use 2T of dough. But when I actually did that, I ended up with twice the recipe yield. Their dough amounts had to be more like 1/4 cup to yield the correct amount of cookies. I weigh my flour, I know the size of my scoop is accurate, and the cookies baked up fine. It’s all a little strange!
Hi Monica, it’s likely I mound the cookie dough into my cookie scoop and use more than what the cookie scoop technically holds…I’m not super exact about it but I hear what you’re saying about yield and how confusing it can be (especially when results differ even after weighing ingredients).
Hi Mel! I’ve been making this recipe since the early 2000s thanks to America’s Test Kitchen, and have tried your tweaks too! So yummy. I am making them today and thought after all these years, I might actually try measuring the flour. Yours says 320 grams, but every I lime co version calculator I’ve found says 2 1/4 cups of flour is 281 grams. Do you still follow a measurement of 320 grams for these?
Hi Shaynee, I use 142 grams of flour per cup to test all my recipes (I believe America’s Test Kitchen uses the same amount of flour per cup).
I have made this chocolate chip recipe my go to I love it so much and it doesn’t take very long even my grandma asked me for the recipe.
A friend brought these to a party and I couldn’t quit eating therm
They really are the Perfect ,Chocolate Chip Cookie!
These have become a family favorite. I always always double the recipe and make it with half milk chocolate chips half dark chocolate or all dark chocolate. I get asked to make them all the time. I bake to show my love and fill requests all the time, everyone gets their own homemade cake for birthdays.
A family friend was moving and requested a batch of these for his drive across a few states. My brothers new girlfriend loves them and she isn’t a big sweets fan, I always use straight dark chocolate chips for her to help cut through the sweetness.
These always get rave reviews no matter who tries them. My years long search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe is now over. They are great still warm or even the day after (if not overcooked) they are still soft inside and crispy on the outside. I am a big soft &/or chewy cookie fan while others in the family like crispy so this is the perfect middle ground! Thanks so much for sharing!
Made this for my daughters sweet 16 and she loved them #best cookies
This is our go to recipe! Just made two batches today for Christmas. We make larger cookies – so good!
The best