With 30 million page views and counting since 2013, these super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website. Melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, cornstarch, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the absolute chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. And you don’t even need a mixer!
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips. This recipe is such a fan (and personal) favorite that I included it in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
One reader, Adrienne, commented: “These are the best cookies I’ve ever had. Incredible. Don’t cut corners or you’ll miss out. Do everything she says and you’re in for the best cookies of your life. ★★★★★“
There are thousands of chocolate chip cookies recipes out there. Everyone has their favorite and this one is mine. Just a glance at the hundreds of reviews in the comments section tells me that this recipe is a favorite for many others too! In fact, if you asked me which recipe to keep in your apron pocket, my answer would be this one. (In addition to a classic cut-out sugar cookies and flaky pie crust, of course!) Just read the comments on a post in our Facebook group. These cookies are beloved… and, a warning: they disappear FAST.
Why Are These My BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- The chewiest of chewy and the softest of soft.
- Extra thick just like my favorite peanut butter cookies!
- Bakery-style BIG.
- Exploding with chocolate.
I’ve tested this cookie recipe over and over again to make sure they’re absolutely perfect. I still have a big space in my heart (and stomach) for these soft chocolate chip cookies. Today’s recipe is similar, but I increased the chewiness factor.
One reader, A.Phillips, commented: “Look no further. This is it. This is the perfect cookie recipe. Follow her instructions exactly and the cookies will be chewy and amazing. … These are the most perfect cookies I’ve made and I’ve tried at least 20 different recipes. ★★★★★“
You can make them with chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
Key Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
The cookie dough is made from your standard cookie ingredients: flour, leavener, salt, sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla. It’s the ratios and temperature of those ingredients that make this recipe stand out from the rest.
- Melted butter: Melted butter produces the chewiest cookies. It can, however, make your baked cookies greasy, so I made sure there is enough flour to counteract that. And using melted butter is also the reason you don’t need a mixer to make these cookies, just like these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin crumb cake cookies, and M&M cookie bars.
- More brown sugar than white sugar: More brown sugar than white sugar: The moisture in brown sugar promises an extra soft and chewy baked cookie. White granulated sugar is still necessary, though. It’s dry and helps the cookies spread. A little bit of spread is a good thing.
- Cornstarch: Why? Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick. We use the same trick when making shortbread cookies.
- Egg yolk: Another way to promise a super chewy chocolate chip cookie is to use an extra egg yolk. The extra egg yolk adds richness, soft tenderness, and binds the dough. You will need 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature, just like in these brown butter marshmallow crispy cookies. See the recipe Notes for how to bring your eggs to room temperature quickly.
The dough will be soft and the chocolate chips may not stick because of the melted butter. Just keep stirring it; I promise it will come together. Because of the melted butter and extra egg yolk, the slick dough doesn’t even look like normal cookie dough! Trust the process…
The most important step is next.
2 Major Success Tips
1. Chill the dough. Chilling the cookie dough is so important in this recipe! Unless you want the cookies to spread into a massive cookie puddle, chilling the dough is mandatory here. It allows the ingredients to settle together after the mixing stage but most importantly: cold dough results in thicker cookies. Cover the cookie dough and chill for at least 2–3 hours or up to 3 days. I usually chill it overnight.
(No time to chill? Make these soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie bars, giant chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookie cake, or crispy chocolate chip cookie bark instead!)
- Further reading: How to Prevent Cookies from Spreading
2. Roll the cookie dough balls extra tall. After the dough has chilled, scoop out a ball of dough that’s 3 Tablespoons for XL cookies or about 2 heaping Tablespoons (1.75 ounces or 50g) for medium-large cookies. I usually use this medium cookie scoop and make it a heaping scoop. But making the cookie dough balls tall and textured, rather than wide and smooth, is my tried-and-true trick that results in thick and textured-looking cookies. We’re talking thick bakery-style cookies with wrinkly, textured tops. Your cookie dough should look less like balls and more like, well, lumpy columns, LOL.
Watch the video below to see how I shape them. I also demonstrate how I use a spoon to reshape them during baking if I see they’re spreading too much.
Because of the melted butter in this dough, the dough is very soft and a little greasy before chilling, so it’s harder to shape the cookie dough balls. We recommend chilling first, then shaping. If after chilling the dough is very hard and difficult to scoop, let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes and then try again.
We typically do not recommend jumping right to the freezer without chilling the dough first. A quick freeze like that can cause the dough to chill unevenly and then spread unevenly during the baking process. For best results, we recommend following the recipe as written. If you don’t have time to wait for the dough to chill, try this recipe for 6 giant chocolate chip cookies instead, which doesn’t require dough chilling (see recipe Notes in that post for details on using the dough to make 24 regular-size cookies).
Tools I Recommend for This Recipe
I’ve tested many baking tools and these are the exact products I use, trust, and recommend to readers. You’ll need most of these tools when making sugar cookies and snickerdoodles, too!
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets
- Medium Cookie Scoop
- Cooling Racks
- See More: Best Cookie Baking Tools and 8 Best Baking Pans
Can I Freeze This Cookie Dough?
Yes, absolutely. After chilling, sometimes I roll the cookie dough into balls and freeze them in a large zipped-top bag. Then I bake them straight from the freezer, keeping them in the oven for an extra minute. This way you can bake just a couple of cookies whenever the craving hits. (The chewy chocolate chip cookie craving is a hard one to ignore.)
If you’re curious about freezing cookie dough, here’s my How to Freeze Cookie Dough page (with video tutorial).
Facebook member, Leigh, commented: “These are the only CC cookies I’ve made for years (and this recipe is how I came to be such a fan of SBA!) This recipe worked great when I lived in Denver and had issues with baking at altitude, and it’s still our favorite now that we’re back at sea level. I usually make 4x-6x batches and freeze tons of cookie balls to bake later.“
In Short, Here Are the Secrets to Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies.
- Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie.
- An extra egg yolk increases chewiness.
- Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness. It’s a trick we use for cake batter chocolate chip cookies, too.
- Using melted butter (and slightly more flour to counteract the liquid) increases chewiness.
- Chilling the dough results in a thicker cookie. Almost as thick as peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or their gluten-free counterparts, flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies 🙂
Q: Have you baked a batch before?
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 16 XL cookies or 20 medium/large cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website for good reason. Melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, cornstarch, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the absolute chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. The cookie dough is slick and requires chilling prior to shaping the cookies. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (170g/12 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted & cooled for 5 minutes
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups (225g) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk until combined, then whisk in the vanilla extract. The mixture will be thin. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or spatula. The dough will be very soft, thick, and shiny. Fold in the chocolate chips. The chocolate chips may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them.
- Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight to prevent overspreading.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. If the dough has chilled for longer than 2 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
- Using a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop the chilled cookie dough, about 3 scant Tablespoons (about 2 ounces, or 60g) of dough for XL cookies or 2 heaping Tablespoons (about 1.75 ounces, or 50g) of dough for medium-large cookies. Roll into a ball, then use your fingers to shape the cookie dough so that it’s taller rather than wide—almost like a cylinder. This helps the cookies bake up thicker. Repeat with remaining dough. Arrange the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 13–14 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. The centers will look very soft, but the cookies will continue to set as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is optional and only for looks!
- Store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Wooden Spoon or Rubber Spatula | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can leave it out. The cookies are still very soft.
- Egg & Egg Yolk: Room-temperature egg + egg yolk are best. Typically, if a recipe calls for room-temperature or melted butter, it’s good practice to use room-temperature eggs as well. To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, simply place the whole eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
- Can I add nuts or different add-ins? Yes, absolutely. As long as the total amount of add-ins is around 1 to 1 and 1/4 cups, you can add anything including chopped nuts, M&Ms, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chopped peanut butter cups, etc. I love them with 3/4 cup (135g) butterscotch morsels and 1/2 cup (100g) Reese’s Pieces. You could even add 1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles to make a sprinkle chocolate chip cookie.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I have never had this recipe spread out to be the one like in the picture. and it’s a bit too bread-y for me. any possible areas where i may have gotten it wrong?
Hi Mon, That is usually caused by too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. Hope this helps for next time!
Hi guys! Lovely recipe, it’s amazing! However your measurement for grams of flour is incorrect and was a bit confusing to figure out. I love the recipe but when I bake in my home I have measurements in cups and when I bake in my mom’s home it’s grams and mls and I’m not that skilled of a baker so I tend to just blindly follow recipes.
Hi Sadia! We consistently measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour at 125g, so the 2 and 1/4 cups of flour at 281g is correct. If the cookies are turning out differently, it could be that you’re packing your cups with more flour. This post on how to properly measure baking ingredients will be a helpful resource to review. We hope this helps for your next batch!
Can i make thia in 3 ounces of cookies instead of 2? And how much time it will take?
Hi Erika, yes, you can make the cookie dough balls a bit larger. Bake time should be just a minute or so longer, but keep a close eye on them.
These cookies were SUCH A HIT!!! The recipe made 16 medium sized cookies for me. I made them in the afternoon and they were all eaten by the next day. Everyone loved them! The only complaint was that they were too sweet, but I used normal, sweet chocolate chips instead.
– Is there any way to make them a little less sweet for those who prefer it so? While preserving their amazing texture?
Thank you so much. My baking has never been this successful and I was asked to make another batch straight after making the first one!
Hi Ramona, we’re so glad the cookies were a hit! Feel free to slightly reduce one or both of the sugars, but keep in mind that if you decrease the sugar the cookies will not have the same texture (it’s used for texture and moisture in addition to taste) and it can impact the spread of the cookies, too.
Hi, iff in a rush could the mixture be put in the freezer for say 15minutes instead of the +2 hours refrigeration? Thanks in advance.
Hi Melody, The freezer will not evenly chill the dough. We recommend sticking with chilling the dough in the fridge.
I actually did put these in the freezer because I was in a hurry and they came out beautifully. I froze them for about 30 minutes.
Absolutely delicious. I could eat this ALLLL the time. best recepie out there i swear.
So tasty!! Cookies are perfect
OMG. Just OMG.
I’ve tried so many recipes just for variation and experimentation. After finding this recipe, I have stopped looking.
This recipe is easy and “legit” beyond any chocolate chip cookie you will ever eat. I’m so glad that I found it!
I followed the recipe but the cookies ended up puffy and more cake-like. They didn’t spread at all and are not chewy.
Best cookies I’ve made in years! Although I’ve never chilled, they always come out nice and thick and chewy ❤️
I appreciate when Sally takes the time to write out her tips, I learn a lot. I have not been disappointed with any of Sally’s recipes. I have preordered her cookbook and will celebrate when it arrives. Hat’s off for Sally!
I love the recipe without melting the butter.
Hi! This is my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Would it be possible to use room-temp butter and creaming it, instead of melted butter to lessen the spread?
Hi Callie, Melted butter is the key to these cookies. If you’d rather use room temperature butter we would recommend this recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies. You might also find this post on our best tips for stopping cookies from spreading helpful.
How would I make these mini chocolate chip cookies?
Hi Maddie, You could definitely make mini cookies. You can use our mini cookies recipe as a guide for size and bake time.
hello ! what adjustment do i need to do if I’ll make this with less granulated sugar ?
Hi Jassy, Feel free to slightly reduce one or both of the sugars, but keep in mind that if you decrease the sugar the cookies will not have the same texture (it’s used for texture and moisture in addition to taste) and it can impact the spread of the cookies, too.
Is there a way to do this recipe with brown butter and achieve the same results
You can certainly use brown butter here, and the flavor is outstanding. But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter – we suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.
Since two days I have been craving to bake my first ever chocolate chip cookies, and right now they are in the oven, the home smells heavenly and I can’t wait to have them with some milk!❤️so far everything looks awesome! Thanks for the recipe!❤️❤️
I have followed every advice, my final though is that they’re a little too sweet. Also their texture is not great, they’re too airy for me. Appart from that they’re good, but definitely not the best I’ve ever made or tasted.
Hi, I wanted to ask if I dont have much time to leave the dough overnight, can I put it in the freezer section for like half an hour or an hour ?
Hi Aatia, The freezer will not evenly chill the dough. We recommend sticking with chilling the dough in the fridge.
Can I substitute gluten-free one-to-one flour?
Hi Sharon, we haven’t tested that here, but let us know if you do.
Yes I’ve made them many times using one to one gluten free flour! I’ve tried many recipes and this is the best I’ve made using gluten free flour.
Hey there! I just accidentally used sorghum flour instead of normal flour and they still turned out amazing. I used the same measurements and everything. Hope this helps!
Hi, I made these and they were good flavor-wise, but flattened out instead of being thick and chewy. I chilled the dough for long enough (overnight), so I think it might have something to do with living at a higher altitude—do you have any tips?
Hi Norah, we wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
I live at 9,000 feet elevation and these turn out perfectly every time! I typically leave the dough in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours, but 2 days seems to be perfect. I omit the cornstarch, but do not make any other changes. These are the best!
I accidentally added baking powder before I realized it said baking soda. Hopefully that won’t be a problem. Seems to be ok so far.
Hi – could you add fresh sweet cherries to this recipe?
Hi Sheri, adding fresh fruit to cookies is tricky since it adds so much moisture, which changes cookie texture. We recommend adding dried cherries for best results.
Could I substitute the butter with olive oil?
Hi Kyle, you need melted butter here for the fat because it is a solid at room temperature. For best results, we recommend sticking with butter, although some readers have reported success with melted coconut oil. The taste will be different with that substitution.
Can I replace part or the whole amount of the granulated sugar with Stevia? Thanks.
Hi Maria, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
I’m looking forward to making these. May I use European style butter? If so do I need to adjust the recipe in any way?
Thanks for letting me know.
Hi Nancy, European style butters often aren’t ideal for baking smaller items with short bake times such as cookies and cupcakes. Larger items like quick breads are usually fine, but these higher fat butters create excess spread in cookies. It, of course, depends on the brand and recipe you are using but that’s our general experience.
Excellent, soft, chewy, perfect
i recently moved to a whole new continent where ingredients are a teensy bit different and my usual chocolate chip recipe was giving me really flat, hard, and brittle cookies. SO glad i found this one, which resulted in beautiful, soft, and fluffy cookies, exactly what i was looking for!!!! thank you so much youve literally brought back joy into my life it’s been four years since ive had a proper cookies (unfortunately it does seem that even bakery chocolate chip cookies here are of the flat and brittle variety) and it was starting to drive me a little crazy youve literally saved me thank you so much i cant wait to share this recipe with all my friends here and share the gospel of the american soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie <3 <3 <3
Turned out way too sweet, but really soft and chewy. Pretty nice, but I have to go easy on the sugar next time. Cheers.
will not be using this recipe again due to the fact that it was a disaster. The dough was so runny and spread throughout the entire pan.
Hi Sheila, we’re sorry to hear that. There are a few key steps in this recipe to yielding chewy cookies that spread just the right amount. It’s important to sufficiently chill the cookie dough, otherwise the cookies will overspread. We also recommend forming the cookie dough into columns/towers rather than balls, which also helps them to bake up thicker. If you find the cookies are spreading a bit too much while baking, you can take out the pan and gently reform the cookies by pushing the sides in with a spoon. If you haven’t already, the video in this post is helpful to watch, too. We hope this helps for your next batch!