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
The best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever come across (and I’ve baked a lot of cookies)!
Not sure what I did wrong. Cookies tuned out dry and puffed up. They didn’t flatten out. Used an oven thermometer to maintain 325°. Also took 25 mins to cook. Maybe need higher temp? Should I use convection? Not really sure what happened.
Hi Albert, 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 measured it with a 1 cup two times because it says 2 1/4 and I scraped off the top of it. Then I used a 1/4 cup and scraped off the extras there.
Hey Sally! These cookies were SO good!!! I needed to make a dessert for a school project because In the future me and my friends would love to have a in home bakery! Your recipe’s are so delicious and these are spot on! Thank you! 🙂
These taste wonderful.
But my cookies were domed not flat like in the picture. I am trying it again to see if they turn out flat.
They do taste wonderful!
What can I use for scooping the dough? Because I don’t have a scoop for the dough.
Hi Damon, you can just use a spoon to scoop the dough if you don’t have a cookie scoop.
Is it ok if I use gluten free cornstarch?
Hi Damon, most cornstarch is gluten free. Do you mean gluten free flour?
No, but thanks! I also wanna be a Baker just like you guys! I love baking. Thank you for these absolute amazing recipes!
Best cookie recipe I’ve used. Though (based in the UK) we have found that self raising flour rather than plain produces the best results
These are perfect!
Made these for my family – they are extremely delicious. Chilling overnight and the cylinder mound shape for baking produces a perfect cookie. I sprinkled with a tiny bit of sea salt for some sweet/ salty excitement. Thanks for an amazing recipe!!
This has been my go to recipe for years. Best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! Do you have a weight measurement and time for smaller bite-sized cookies? Thank you!!!
Hi Diana, you can make these smaller! Or here is our recipe for mini cookies.
Taste was excellent. Had to leave them in the oven a good 8 minutes longer than the recipe suggested-might be an altitude issue-but they’re delicious!
Has anyone tried making these with GF flour?
Hi Alex, We haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flours, but many readers have reported success using 1:1 flour substitutes (like Cup4Cup). If you try it, let us know how it goes!
Can I use milk chocolate or dark chocolate, instead of semi-sweet?
Hi Damon, Absolutely. You can use milk chocolate, but they will be sweeter! Dark chocolate would be great too!
Ok thanks! I’ll use dark chocolate because I don’t want them to become to sweet. Thanks!
I’ve made these dozens of times, been using this recipe for a few years now. I personally don’t like them after chilling the dough. They’re much better if baked immediately after preparing the dough! Other than that, these are the best cookies ever!!
I’m an avid baker, and I used this recipe for my first time to make this cookies. My husband complimented it and loved it so much. I did today 2 more batches to freeze and have it ready for the school season. I added pecans today and cant wait to see the final result!
Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Hello Sally,
Good afternoon
Beenfollowing you for a while. But im still struggling on how to get this perfect looking cookie. Hoping you can help me with this.
Hi Aiza, we’re happy to help! How would you say yours aren’t perfect? Are they spreading too much? You can shape cookies that spread strangely with a spoon while they are still warm out of the oven.
Hi, I really enjoy baking your recipes. I do have one question, whenever I bake these chocolate chip cookies they deflate out of the oven and are greasy, what can I do to make them better?
Hi Cin! Sounds like they may need to bake for a bit longer – and easy fix!
Never left a review before because I never love the original recipe! I change nothing the first time I cook a recipe, I have made these 5-6 times, have changed only one thing. I use vanilla paste when I bake, it’s delicious!
Thank you grandkids devour these and so does my husband if any left.
These cookies were good but I didn’t think they were anything special. Flavor was good but in spite of the fact that I followed all of the chilling and baking instructions exactly, these were really flat. May just be personal preference, but I like chocolate chip cookies to have some height. They definitely did not look like the pictures. Not sure if I will make again.
Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe! I can’t wait to make it for the upcoming holiday. One question though, I don’t have an oven so can I use an air fryer for this recipe instead?
Hi June, we haven’t tested these cookies in an air fryer, but let us know if you do!
This was such an amazing recipe, and i’ll be sure to make it again. I was wondering though, do you happen to have the nutrition information for the cookies?
Hi Beth, so glad you enjoyed them! We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
I tried this for a school prescription and I loved doing it thank you for sharing this this with the world I am such a big fan.
You are my go to for all my baking!! These are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies. Made them today and sandwiched ice cream between them, kids loved them!
What would happen if I put about 2 teaspoons of bourbon into this recipe?
Hi Amy, we haven’t tested anything, but we fear the cookies could spread more with the added liquid. It may take some tinkering with the other ingredients as well. Let us know if you do any experimenting.
I’ve tried a variation of this recipe. I never go exactly by anyone’s recipe because I like to take something and experiment with it and make it my own version so it works for me. A few of my ingredients are different. For example, I don’t use any eggs, I use more butter, more chocolate chips, and a bit more brown sugar. I don’t usually chill my cookie dough and my cookies still turn out soft and delicious. Of course, I don’t use commercial brown sugar, I make my own. If any of your other subscribers are interested, you take 1 cup of white sugar and 1 Tablespoon of molasses, put it into your food processor until it’s fine and the molasses is incorporated for light brown sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of molasses if you want dark brown sugar but the process is the same.
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever baked, they are an all round family and friends favourite ☺️
I used so many recipes from this site me and my family love it so much ~rawan~
Will elevation change this recipe at all?
Hi Cali, 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
How many calories per one cookie!?
Hi Rae, we don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
I think my search for perfect chocolate chip cookies is over. Holy cow!
We’re so happy to read this, Stacey!