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 want to say thank you for posting so many recipes. I made a few of the recipes from you and every one of them have been great! ~Michelle~
Why didn’t my cookie spread? They ended out coming pretty round and very thick but they definetely were cooked all the way through…
Hi Emma! When cookies don’t spread, there’s often 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.
I used a scale & found mine didn’t spread either – it’s rare for me that a Sally’s recipe doesn’t work as it should – maybe over mixed?
Absolutely delicious! Like a professionally made cookie.
So glad you loved these cookies, Emily!
These are, as everyone else says, the best cookies ever!! Mine looked exactly like Sally’s photos, which doesn’t always happen for me 🙂
I made one change, I browned the butter. OMG, they are very hard to resist, soft, chewy, chocolatey deliciousness!
Hi,
Is there a way to substitute the butter with margarine or oil?
Looking to make these dairy free.
Thanks
Hi Judy, we don’t recommend margarine, but some readers have reported success using solid coconut oil. The outcome will be different than intended. Let us know if you give it a try.
Can you double or triple the batch? Or is it better to make each batch of dough separately? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, yes, you can double or triple this recipe.
I made these this afternoon and I didn’t have time to chill the dough as long as the recipe stated, so I used softened butter instead and creamed everything together with the paddle attachment on my stand mixer. I put the dough in the fridge for about half an hour, made the cookies closer to 2 tbsp instead of 3, and baked them for 13 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. They came out great! Nice and chewy but not underdone. I would definitely make these again.
These were really good! Not chewy like the title says but they were tender, almost “too” tender. I may cut the corn starch in half next time because I found them to be a little crumbly and I like my cookies to be a little chewier. I wonder if I need to mix a little longer after incorporating the flour to build up a tad more gluten structure?
Hi Blake, thank you for giving these a try! Were they falling apart easily when picked up? It could be that they just need an extra minute or two in the oven. Extending the chill time could help, too.
OMG the best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies I ever tasted!!
They are tasty and soft. But 15 minutes out of the fridge was not enough. I had to dig it out of the bowl.
I hate scooping cold dough so I scoop before chilling, then after chilling for two hours I roll them and form them into cylinders, then freeze.
Hi! I really want to make these cookies and I was wondering if I can brown my butter for this recipe? The brown butter makes cookies taste richer
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.
Hi… I dont have a time to find pure vanilla extract here. We usually only have vanilla powder (called ‘vanilin’). Do you think it would change the taste of your recipe a lot if I use that instead of vanilla extract?
Shouldn’t be a problem!
will this recipe still work for mini cookies about (1 tsp dough balls) and can I just adjust the bake time, or should I follow another recipe?
Here’s our recipe for mini cookies, Sara!
So good people told to me sell these cookies as a side hustle. thankyou from New Zealand!
My GO TO cookie for the WOW factor!!!
I like to put the dough in the fridge on a cold quarter sheet pan, cover it with plastic wrap, then lay a bag of ice on top. I can have cookies in the oven within an hour!
I read somewhere that chilling dough isn’t really about getting the dough cold, it’s about letting the flour and sugar fully hydrate and dissolve and meld with everything else.
Is there a way to make this recipe but without eggs or peanuts? I know the original recipe does not call for peanuts, I have a daughter with allergies.
Hi Aysha, we haven’t tested this recipe with any egg substitutes, let us know what you try. Make sure to check all the packaging of your ingredients for allergen information.
THESE COOKIES TURNED OUT AMAZING!!! The recipe was simple but efficent, the cookies were so soft and don’t even get me started when the chocolate melts in your mouth. so thank you so much for this amazing recipe you are an angel for not gatekeeping!!!!!!
The recipe says the dough will be soft, thick and shiny… Mine was EXACTLY that. I have my dough chilling for now, but consistency and all looks so perfect. Thank you!
These are really great cookies. Everyone loves them. I just am making another batch but accidentally bought mini chocolate chips. Hope they turn out ok!
Hey, I’ve been having this issue lately where my cookies are seemingly raw on the outside but crispy on the inside. My family complains about it a lot, but I follow all the instructions in the recipe. Would you know what’s wrong?
Hi Tina, could your oven be running hot? This would cause the edges to crisp up without baking the middles through. We always recommend using an in-oven thermometer since most ovens are not the exact temperature they say they are!
Is it possible for me to add peanut butter to this recipe?? If so, how much should I add and should I change anything else about the recipe when making it?
Hi Krystan! We recommend using our peanut butter chocolate chip cookies recipe instead, since adding peanut butter to cookie dough takes some other adjustments.
Could I use self rising flour in this recipe if I don’t have all purpose?
Hi Brianna, we don’t recommend using self rising flour in this recipe. It would take additional recipe testing to ensure accurate results.
These are so good. Everyone loves it when I bake these cookies. Thanks for a great recipe
These are the best, hands down! I couldn’t tell you how many times I have googled a thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe and got flat cookies. This one is the real deal. And I only refrigerated them for about an hour and they were perfect.
No baking powder correct ?
Correct!
Hi,
This is my third or fourth time making these and while I love them, I always need way more time in the oven (1.5 to 2x as much time). I measured the ingredients and dough balls out using a scale (50 g) and am really unsure where I’m going wrong. Have used multiple ovens as well.
Hi Sarah, I wonder if your oven runs a little cooler? Have you ever used an oven thermometer? It’s normal to need extra time with cookies, but 2x as much time (over 20 minutes) is quite a lot for 50g of dough per cookie. I don’t think you are doing anything wrong. Is your oven fully preheated before baking them?
If you opt to brown the butter, add 2 tbsp water back in to the dough. The dough becomes unmanagably stiff and crumbly with the water cooked off!
Does this recipe work at high elevation?
Hi Tam, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Made these this weekend and loved the suggestion to roll into a cylinder. The cookies have a great height. In my second batch, I put chocolate chips on the tops after they came out of the oven and I’m in love! I did an experiment with measuring… First I measured properly via volume, but then took the mass. It was 30 g less flour than it was supposed to be! I’m a chemist, so I know mass is more accurate, but it was interesting to see how much more accurate! If you think the recipe isn’t working or you don’t feel you are a good baker … Measure using mass!
I just made my dough and used a cup to scoop my flour into my scale. I found the same thing!
Hi Sally, can I cut back on the sugar, maybe have 3/4 of the amount of sugar recommended? Or just cut out the white sugar? Tying not to have so much sugar for my little grandsons.
Hi Lynn! Sugar is used for moisture and texture in baked goods as well as taste. You can certainly try reducing the sugar, but the resulting texture will be different than intended.
Olá, Sally, sou eu outra vez, o teu maior fã, o André! Esta receita é incrível e maravilhosa, e a minha preferida! Continuem com o bom trabalho. A minha avó Linda adora fazer. Mas podemos usar manteiga com sal?
Muito obrigada, tenha um excelente resto de ano!
André
Hi Andrè, thank you so much for making our recipes! You can use salted butter and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. Enjoy!
You could taste the corn starch.