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
Great cookies! However, I weighed every ingredient, including my cookie dough balls, which were 51 g a piece, and I only got 10 cookies. According the recipe, I should have gotten closer to 20.
Would this work for a giant cookie?
Hi Ivy! How large are you thinking? Here’s our giant chocolate chip cookies recipe, our cookie cake recipe (baked in a pie dish) and our cookie pizza recipe.
Hi Sally can I use salted butter in this case and reduce the salt?
Hi Dee, You can use salted butter and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon.
How many cookies does 1 batch make ?
Hi Aimen, about 16 XL cookies or 20 medium/large cookies.
This was such a bad cookie recipe it came out so dry and the tops of the cookies burnt strangely. Flavor is fine. I followed the recipe exactly and they were not right at all when it comes to shape and cook. Maybe its the use of cornstarch in a cookie recipe which I found to be strange but I def would not recommend.
Do I scoop the cookies out immediately once the dough is ready and then chill in the fridge? Or do I put the dough in the fridge for a few hours and then let them come to room temp to make it easier to scoop? I know the dough can get hard once it’s chilled and it sometimes makes it hard to scoop out/roll.
Hi Bryanne, we usually scoop after chilling since the dough is so loose, but you can scoop before if you prefer.
I put it in the fridge over night and it came out hard, is that supposed to happen?
You can let it sit at room temperature for a while and it should soften up enough to shape. Hope this helps!
so good I love these and the dough too lol
My search is over for the ultimate chewy cc cookie! These are incredible! I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly!
I stored my dough in my glass kitchenaid bowl, covered overnight in the fridge and after taking them out of the fridge and waiting the recommended 15 minutes my dough was still rock hard. I actually put it in a warmer area for about an hour and the dough was still quite hard but I could eventually break it up enough to use it. Has this happened to anyone else?
Any tips would really be appreciated.
Thanks so much!
Hi Lori, just let it sit until it warms up just enough to scoop. The dough can get pretty hard after chilling for overnight. So glad you enjoyed these cookies!
Thank you!
Yeah it happened to me, I came to the comments for help, haven’t finished the cookies yet tho.
I portion out the dough balls before chilling and it works much better for me!
The BEST recipe of all time! I have made this x10 and always turns out perfect. Recently I’ve tried using gluten free flour and coconut oil to make them GF and DF, and still they turn out PERFECT!
These cookies are simple to make and absolutely delicious. They are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made!
This is the second time I followed your recipe, and it is amazing. This time I substituted the extract for paste, and added a tsp of espresso powder to the dry, and it really made a richer flavor and rounded out the sweetness of the chocolate
The best cookies I have ever made! These are so delicious I ate two after they got done and had to send the rest to work!!!
Thank you for the recipe!
Cindy
I followed the recipe and after 14 minutes, the center was still raw (med size cookie), so I had to return to the oven for a few more minutes. The cookies smelled wonderful and were soft, but not chewy. I was looking for a chewy texture, so was disappointed.
I tried these a couple of times and they taste delicious but for some reason, my cookies don’t flatten when they bake. I thought the melted butter would do the trick but they don’t “melt down” as they bake. I used quality ingredients and follow the directions exactly. Should I try using a tad less flour? What am I doing wrong, please?
Hi Lynn, happy to help! It sounds like there may be too much flour in your 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.
My mix was dry after I put everything together. Im not sure if that’s the result or I did something wrong.
Hi Lewis! It sounds like there may have been too much flour in your 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 have never baked cookies in my life before these. I have also never left a comment on a recipe before.
Let these two things tell you – these are some damn good cookies.
Added 30g of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients because I wanted to make double choc cookies. Only baked this morning, and we’re already halfway through because they are so good.
Recommend!
Followed the recipe exactly except I used both light/dark brown sugar (did 75g each). Also used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips (these are more larger flat chips than the standard). Because of this, I’d probably use a little less chocolate chips but to each their own! I baked these in air fryer convection oven at 315F for about 13-14 minutes. Since it’s a smaller oven, I took the temp down so it didn’t burn. Kept an eye on them and turned out great. Froze the rest of the dough so I’m hoping they will turn out great from the freezer!
Stuck inside during this blizzard and realized I only have cake flour!! Can that be used instead of all purpose?
Hi Lisa! We don’t recommend cake flour in these; it’s too light. All-purpose is perfect.
Made these GF by swapping the flour with a 1 to 1 GF flour mix. Best GF cookies I’ve made!
The most classic and perfect chocolate chip cookie. Chewy with a touch of crunch! The cookie I’ve looked for my whole life!
I made these! They turned out soooo GOOD! My mom loves them too! I used dark chocolate chips for mine.
Sally always gets it right … followed the instructions (always measure my ingredients by weight too), and they turned out phenomenal. Easily the best Chocolate Chip Cookie I’ve ever made. This will be my new go to recipe, plus it was SO quick and easy. I let it chill in the fridge overnight. Thanks, Sally!
Hi Sally! Two questions: would it affect the texture if I sifted the dry ingredients into the wet, instead of the other way around? Also, if I were to cut the recipe in half, could I just use a whole egg?
Hi Wren, you can mix them either way. To halve the recipe, you would have to use half of one egg and half of one egg yolk. We would recommend making the whole recipe, freezing any extra dough balls, and then just baking as many as you want at a time.
I’ve made these cookies a couple times and they’ve always turned out amazing nice big and chunky but soft and gooey in the middle. I’ve never made such a good cookie in my life that I’m saving this recipe forever.
Can you brown the butter with these cookies? Or is that a bad idea?
Hi HT! Here’s our brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe!
Well I’ve made 3 times and followed directions and every time they are flat
Good flavour but terrible outcome I use Sally’s baking recipes all the time and always good but won’t do these again
Hi Sue, we’re so sorry you’re having troubles with these cookies. Are you allowing the butter to cool just slightly after it’s melted? This helps prevent any overly greasy texture and any excess spread. Here are even more tips to help prevent cookies from spreading. Thank you for giving these a try!
Can I use spreadable butter?
Hi Irene, no, spreadable butter will cause the cookies to overspread. You’ll want to use unsalted sticks of butter.
These cookies are great and are my family’s favorite, but I have a question– my melted butter mixture isn’t what I would call ‘thin’. When I’m done incorporating all the liquids and sugars using my hand mixer, I would say that it has the consistency of a cold cream like noxema if you whipped it. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi Justine, that’s pretty thin for cookie dough! If your cookies are turning out well we wouldn’t worry about it 🙂
Hi Trina! This is the butter mixture before it’s added to the flour mixture. The cookies are great but I wouldn’t mind if they were thicker
How would you suggest making these with whole wheat flour? Don’t do it, or use a specific type?
Hi Jack, whole wheat flour would yield a very dry, crumbly cookie. We recommend sticking with all purpose for best results.
Third time making these cookies this month and they always come out great! I recommend chilling for 2 hours- when I did an overnight chill, they came out slightly drier even after warming the dough to room temp. I sprinkle large flake sea salt when they come out and it adds so much flavor! Any suggestions on how to make the salt stick better? It only sticks to the chocolate pieces and not to the cookie itself (so not a uniform spread). Thanks!