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
It was good but kept falling apart and the dough never stuck together but stuck to my hands.
Hi Sally
My dough keeps coming out sticky and doesn’t come out the way shown in the pictures HELP
Hi Kay! Are your cookies spreading too much? Here’s our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading!
Still my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe of all time !!!
I’ve made them over 30 times by this point, usually baking a batch twice a week for personal addiction but also because they make such fabulous gifts!
They’re so easy to make and perfect for when me and my daughter “just feel like baking”.
I’ve made these personal adjustments over time to perfect them:
I brown the butter until fragrant to get deep caramel notes and let it cool.
Game changer to the depth of cookie flavour.
I use salted butter, as well as adding the suggested salt into the mixture- makes for the perfect salt ratio. It balances out the sweetness of the dough.
I reduce the amount of chocolate chips to 1 cup, it’s a lot. Adding a few white Belgium chocolate chips takes it over the edge for me.
This is a great recipe. I use it often and everyone loves the cookies. One question I have about the recipe is the instruction to refrigerate for at least two hours with the recommendation to refrigerate overnight to prevent spreading. I always refrigerate over night so are you implying that less than overnight the cookies will spread too much and not be as good? Is two hours of refrigeration really not adequate?
Hi Don, 2 hours is totally fine here!
First, this is a really good chewy cookie. I feel like it needs something though, a touch of flaky salt before baking or some nuttiness from brown butter or something.
If I wanted to do brown butter in this, would you keep the butter weight the same or increase it since some of the weight would cook off when browning the butter?
Hi Amanda, we usually suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead. Let us know if you give them a try!
Im confused it says 3/4 butter, but then in parenthesis it says 12 tblspns. Which is it???
Hi Norma, 3/4 C of butter is 12 tablespoons.
I made this recipe, and the dough was very dry and crumbly. HELP!
Hi Suzanne, sorry these didn’t turn out for you. The most common reason dough feels dry is too much flour, especially if it’s scooped directly from the bag instead of spooned and leveled (or, even better, weighed). Just a few extra tablespoons of flour can throw off the balance and make the dough crumbly. The dough should be soft, slick, and slightly thick before chilling.
I made these and they are incredible! May I ask why in this recipe you whisk melted butter with the sugars rather than using softened butter and creaming the butter and sugars? I know that creates more air. If I use this recipe and add m&ms will it alter the texture? Thank you!!
Hi Lyndsea, melted butter is key for these cookies. To use softened butter, we’d recommend these soft chocolate chip cookies. You can swap the chocolate chips with M&Ms or use half of each!
Would it be ok to use salted butter as that’s all we have on hand?
Hi Amy, You can use salted butter and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon.
These are the best and I’m not kidding the best cookies I have ever made The first bite was heaven I felt like I could eat ten of them, definitely my go to recipe!!
How come you don’t post the nutritional value for your baked items. There are many of your followers who have health issues.
Hi Joseph, 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
Hi, if I were to transport the cookies for ~<1 hour, how long will I have to rechill the cookie dough again? Thanks!
Hi Sally
Would it be possible to swap out some of the flour for cocoa powder to make these double chocolate chip cookies?
Thanks so much (your recipes are my go-to, so when my daughter just asked for chewy chocolate chip cookies, it was the first place I looked!).
Hi Caroline, here is our recipe for double chocolate chip cookies instead. Same great chewy texture as these!
Hi sally 🙂 please can you confirm if it is 163 degrees Celsius in a fan oven or regular oven? Writing from the UK! Thanks!
Hi Simran, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake. Hope this helps!
Tasted too much of bicarbonate :(( also came out cakey and I weighed the flour exactly
Hi Maya, I wonder if your baking soda could be getting old. When you can taste it, that’s usually the case!
Delicious cookies with many compliments! Is it possible to use softened butter instead of melted butter in this recipe? My cookies spread just a little more than I wanted them to even after chilling dough for 3 hours.
Hi Lanita, melted butter is key for these cookies. To use softened butter, we’d recommend these soft chocolate chip cookies.
I’ve made these cookies many , many times and they’ve always turned out wonderful… Although one time I was in a hurry and I did not let my butter cool for five minutes like Sally suggested… And unfortunately, they did spread and they were a little greasy looking… The butter was too hot for the sugar. Maybe that’s what happened with your cookies.
Hi I was wondering, if the melted butter can be browned? Would that make a difference when it bakes? I been doing your recipe the way listed all the time and I love it.
Hi Gabby, we usually suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead. Let us know if you give them a try!
delicious
These cookies are delicious! I had the same problem as many other commenters, my butter-sugar-egg mixture wasn’t as liquid as it is in the video. The dough was dryer and a bit crumbly. I measured everything by weight, I used a stand mixer for the liquids but mixed only long enough to incorporate. My butter was liquid, but maybe it was colder than intended – I melted it just until it became liquid and then chilled for 5 min as per recipe. I made 60g balls, pushed them down a bit because I just knew that they wouldn’t spread that much. They did spread just a little bit, but basically kept their shape. I baked them for 15 minutes, they were very soft on the inside, fully baked and very tasty. I have no regrets about this at all, but next time I’ll try to achive the liquid state closer to this recipe. This makes a ton of cookies, by the way, easily three batches.
Hey Sally! This is such an amazing recipe, one of my favorites of yours! I am so grateful for your website and all the hard work you have put into it to make it so successful! I do wonder, would you be able to make a section or post on your website of some simple, quick, and easy dessert recipes? Sometimes I’m craving something sweet, but don’t really feel in the mood to pull out a ton of ingredients and bake for a long time. I’m sure you get that! Maybe no-bake recipes, cookies that don’t need to have the dough chill, and some other simpler recipes? They are just not super accessible search wise, unless you know exactly what you want. Hope this makes sense. Thanks again, Sally!
Hi Addie, so glad you love these cookies! You may enjoy this collection of Quick Dessert Recipes 🙂
Sorry, my bad. I really thought I looked everywhere before I asked… I guess not! Thanks for that link!!
Happy to help, Addie!
I want to bake these for someone who’s allergic to butter. Would dairy-free margarine or some other kind of plant-based butter work?
Hi Dee, we haven’t tested vegan butter here, so can’t promise what the result would be, but some readers have reported success with using nondairy butter. Let us know if you give it a try!
I’m making these again! One of the few recipes I don’t dare tweak. Thank you so much for providing these recipes.
I made these cookies yesterday and now this recipe is my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookie. No more flat cookies!! I chilled my dough for 1 hr and baked. They came out exactly like the photos. Another excellent recipe from Sally!
Hi, my dough ended up not shiny and gooey. I weighted the ingredients so too much flour not an issue. I think my mistake was that I did not just whisk the sugar/eggs/vainilla. I beat them. So the wet ingredients thickened. Does this theory seem plausible?
Hi Alexa, that could be the case. If the wet ingredients thicken too much, it could prevent them from properly soaking up the flour. You’ll want to mix/whisk until just combined. Hope this helps for your next batch!
I made them today. Chilled the dough for one hour. I added chopped pecans and a handful of dried cranberries. They turned out delicious. I followed all the directions to a “T” and did not change anything else. Now I have two big covered glass containers with lids filled to the top. Yum. I used semi sweet dark chocolate chips.
The taste is great, but these turned out super cakey for me :/ after mixing the butter wet ingredients it says the mixture should be thin, but mine was definitely not thin.
Hi Alexis, sorry these didn’t turn out for you. The most common reason dough feels dry is too much flour, especially if it’s scooped directly from the bag instead of spooned and leveled (or, even better, weighed). Just a few extra tablespoons of flour can throw off the balance and make the dough crumbly. The dough should be soft, slick, and slightly thick before chilling.
I came here to find out this! Mine was not soft and shiny. It is more like dough. Wonder why.
I accidentally put 2 1/2 cups of flour in.
I baked them anyway and they were still delicious. Probably not as soft as of if I had put the correct amount is flour in. Next time….
These are awesome!! I’ve been looking for a super soft chocolate chip cookie and this is perfect. I did put a combination of semi sweet and dark chocolate chips and that combo was delicious!
Thank you!!
Did I miss antwhere that gives the calories per cookie?
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 these cookies would benefit from dark chocolate. They were delicious, for sure, but also a bit sweet. I made another recipe that used dark chocolate, and they were amazing. I’d like to try that here. Plus I read that the best chocolate for chocolate chip cookies is dark. The contrast between the sweet dough and the more intense chocolate creates a more dynamic flavour profile.
Is the oven temp wrong? I followed everything perfectly, weighted the cookies, theyve been in the over for over 20 minutes and theyre still raw. No its not my oven, I bake multiple times a week and dont have this issue with any other recipe.
Hi Hailey, the oven temperature is correct. We would continue to bake the cookies until the edges are very lightly browned. The centers will look very soft, but the cookies will continue to set as they cool.
Same issue here
YESSS!!!These cookies were delicious! I used it and it was perfect for my 80 people party!
I hate rating this because I’m guessing it’s something about the ingredients I have here in Germany. These turned out really cakey. No crispy edges, and I wouldn’t call them soft but more like mini cakes. Any ideas? I use grassfed european butter so i have to use a little less because otherwise everything is greasy. and for the flour I mix 405 (pastry flour) with 550 (tougher than all purpose) at a ratio of 8-1. any ideas?
I’m in Germany too, and usually haven’t been able to make a good cookie 🙁 But I tried this recipe today and it turned out great! I used about 20g less flour (405) then called for in the recipe, and I made sure to “stack” the cookie dough instead of making it into little balls. The key is taking them out of the oven way before they look done. In the past I’ve waited too long and that’s what made them cake-like. This time I took them out at exactly 13 minutes and the cookies looked way underdone, but they firmed up after cooling and were the perfect mixture of soft and chewy.
I loved this recipe!! I’ve always had issues with my chocolate chip cookies being flat and spreading too much. I made these for a neighbor, and they turned out perfect! I followed the recipe exactly and chilled the dough overnight.
What kind of bowl did you chill the dough in? I’m planning to chill overnight, in my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl. I’m just wary, because I don’t know how long it will take, for the dough to come up to room temp. How’d you do it?
I chill mine in a glass mixing bowl. It takes 15 minutes once taken out of the fridge 🙂