Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies? Nope! These are Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, chocolate chip cookies’ more sophisticated cousin. Crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, and everything you want in a cookie—plus bourbon, for good measure.

Remember when every food blogger used to include the phrase, “I am obsessed with this recipe” in every blog post? Would it be a total cliché if I said it…
I am obsessed with this recipe.
We all need these Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies in our lives right now. I don’t even know you, but I know you need them. Times are stressful, friends, and stressful times call for boozy cookies studded with big chunks of dark chocolate. You might even need to take two of these cookies and sandwich a generous scoop of double chocolate brownie ice cream between them.
You’re the boss of you! Go for it!
I don’t know if there’s more anything to say about this recipe because the ingredients speak for themselves. Brown butter, the best butter of all. Two full teaspoons of vanilla extract to complement the two tablespoons of bourbon. And chocolate chunks to maximize your chocolate-to-cookie ratio.

What You’ll Need
Speaking of ingredients! Here’s what you’ll need to make Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies at home:
- Unsalted butter
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt – The recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the cookie dough, but you can also sprinkle some flaky sea salt over the tops.
- Brown sugar
- White sugar
- Eggs – Let them sit on the counter at room temperature for an hour or so before you start baking.
- Vanilla extract – I highly recommend investing in a quality one because it’s an important part of this recipe.
- Bourbon – If you were going to ask, yes, you can leave it out, but it’s kind of the whole point of this recipe?
- Chocolate chunks – I use dark chocolate, but semisweet or milk chocolate are fine if that’s what you prefer.
Recipe Variations
Here are some ideas for changing up these Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
- Add chopped walnuts, almonds, or macadamia nuts.
- Swap half the chocolate chunks for chopped Heath bar.
- Go wild and add crushed pretzels or potato chips.
- Go hog wild and add chopped, cooked bacon.
What Kind of Bourbon Should I Use?
Let’s talk a little bit about the bourbon. Bourbon can be expensive, and if you’re not an amateur mixologist, you might not have it on hand. Don’t feel like you have to buy a $100 bottle to make Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies! I suggest going to a liquor store and talking to someone who works there to ask for suggestions. Even the people who run the liquor department at most grocery stores are super knowledgeable when it comes to selecting the right bottle for the job at hand.

How to Make Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
This recipe is a cinch to make. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
Make the brown butter. Place the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and let it cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until it has a nutty aroma and you notice the milk solids starting to brown. You’ll need to swirl it occasionally to keep it cooking evenly, and keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove the skillet from heat and set aside.
Prepare. Preheat your oven to 375ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the dry and wet ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, then in a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), beat together the brown butter and brown sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then pour in the vanilla extract and bourbon.
Finish the dough. Reduce the mixer speed to low, then add the flour in slowly. Once the ingredients are juuuust combined (don’t overmix!), fold in the chocolate chunks.
Bake the cookies. Scoop and roll the dough into 1 1/2- to 2-inch balls, then place them on the prepared baking sheet, pressing any chocolate chunks that fall out back into the dough. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, then allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Tips for Success
These Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies are pretty straight-forward, but these tips will ensure they turn out perfect every time:
- Chill the cookie dough. If you have time, you can chill the cookie dough for a few hours before baking. This makes the cookies thicker and chewier. If you’re partial to cookies with thinner, crispier edges, stick to the recipe as-is.
- Err on the side of under-baked. Because the cookies cool on the baking sheet, they’ll continue baking a bit even after you remove them from the oven.
- Know your oven. Cookies bake for such a short time, even an oven that’s just a few degrees off can spell disaster. If your oven seems to cook hot, check your cookies after 10 minutes. If you think it’s cooler than it should be, you might need to leave your cookies in longer.
How to Store Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Store these Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll last up to a week on the counter, or you can freeze them before or after baking.


Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Nutty brown butter and smoky bourbon make these cookies extra delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ (10 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
- ¾ tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup White Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Bourbon
- 1 ½ cup Chocolate Chunks
Instructions
- To brown the butter, place it into a non-stick skillet over medium heat, swirling it for approximately 8-10 minutes, or until the milk solids start to lightly brown, and the butter starts to smell nutty. Watch carefully as this can happen very quickly. Set aside the brown butter to cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You can cool it in the fridge to speed this up.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, or stand mixer, beat together the cooled brown butter, and brown sugar, white sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla extract and bourbon.
- Reduce the speed to low on the mixer, and slowly add in the flour mixture until it is just combined. Mix in the chocolate chunks.
- Scoop and roll the dough into 1 ½”–2” balls. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. If any chocolate chunks fall out during the rolling, gently press them on top of the dough balls.
- Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely
Keywords: cookie recipe, chocolate chunk cookies
Your-ingredients call for 1/4 cup of white sugar but is not mentioned in the instructions.
Also the bourbon listed is not mentioned in the instructions. I am sorry but this is a poorly written recipe.
Thank you for catching those omissions – I must have been typing too fast for my fingers. The recipe has been updated. I’m a one-woman show here, so mistakes happen.
FYI.. glad I caught it before ruining a ton of cookie dough 😬 but the scale 3x has a user bug.. if you go by Tbls vs cups (weight is ideal for butter but that’s a different comment) the scaling doesn’t change it correctly! It triples everything but the (10 TBS) stays the same no matter which quantity! 🙂
Thank you for letting me know!! I will see if we can get that conversion bug fixed!!
Scratch my previous comment on just the recipe multiplier being off.. your entire measurement of butter is off 🤦🏼♀️ 1 1/4 c (assuming it’s cup because it doesn’t say….) isn’t 10 T it’s 11.
Next time I’ll stick with my solid choc chip recipe and just brown the butter!
But for anyone else making these please be careful! These measurements and typos will cost you a lot of time and ingredients if you’re not careful. I love the idea of these and wanted them to work so much! (Esp because I was making them in bulk for a party!) but if you triple the recipe 6T of Bourbon is a lot! And it will make your dough super soft. Even after chilling overnight. And 12m was over baked..
Kudos to the creativity by the blogger but a lot of editing is needed for this post..
★
I mistyped.
1c = 16 Tblsp. or 1#
1 1/4 c. is 20 Tblsp