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
These cookies are AMAZING! This is the fourth time making them and they turn out perfect EVERY SINGLE TIME! They are always so thick and chewy and soft and our nickname for them is ‘Chocolate Chip Puffballs’!
So far this is my favorite and the kiddos fav!! Love this recipe. So soft and chewie bit has a lil crisp in right spot just delish
Is it possible to use the same recipe for a cookie cake? If ever what changes odo i need to consider in terms of temperature? I’m gonna put it in a heart shaped pan for valentine’s day
Hi Darlyn! Here’s our chocolate chip cookie cake recipe.
i have been making this recipe for years, but i always „forget“ they basically are raw dough after only 8-9 minutes. so i have to always add at least 5 mins so they arent slimy- so i wouldnt exactly say that the baking time is very accurate for everyone.
Mine turned out perfectly exactly like in the pictures. My kids destroyed them. I made two full trays of them and they were gone in about 24 hours!
Amazing!!! I never knew how much the structure of the dough ball makes such a huge difference. I have made many of your recipes and my family has always been pleased with them (especially my hubby). These are no different- so tasty and the extra egg yolk and corn starch really do kick them up a notch. This is now my go to recipe for choc chip cookies.
I made the cookies and they look nothing like the picture, they’re good, but the pictures are misleading
Hi Niki, how do they look different? We’re happy to help troubleshoot!
The cookies came out amazing! But myne also didn’t look like in your picture. They didn’t thin out as much and looked pale in color. But my kids never batted an eye and eat them up lol thanks for the recipe!
Hi Sally! First time writing. I own a home bakery, and your recipes are my #1 Go To Recipes, whenever I’m looking for something new. My question today is: i got a LARGE order for Chocolate Chip Cookies. You say that the cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months and you also say that dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months. Have you ever frozen the balls for 3 months, then baked the cookies, and then frozen the baked cookies? I was asked to bake 20,000 cookies. It will take me awhile.
Hi Laurel, we haven’t tried that, but we’d recommend sticking with 3 months total between making the batter and serving the final baked cookies. Good luck!
Hands down the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever made! Huge nostalgia if you went to a high school that made the soft cookies you could buy at lunch. This is my new go-to and replaced my old recipe.
I need to double the recipe are there any special adjustments I should make other than the obvious multiplying by 2?! Thank you!
Hi Jeannie, you can double this recipe without any changes. Enjoy!
My cookies have come out perfect. Thanks for a wonderful recipe
These are the best chocolate chip cookies ever. Not much else to say except they are absolutely perfect.
This is by far the best CC cookie I have ever baked! The fact that you give these very helpful tips to your recipe is awesome! This will def be my go to for CC cookies. Thank you!
Hi there, Quick question! Will the quality of the cookies be impacted if I roll the cookie dough into balls AND THEN refrigerate overnight? Just thinking of prepping them into ball ahead of time and then allowing to sit for 10 minutes before baking. Also – do you need to spoon and level if i am measuring flour with a scale (sorry if this is a silly question, I am a novice baker):)
Hi Anita, the dough will be quite soft and messy to roll into balls first, but if you don’t mind getting your hands a little messy then you can certainly roll them into balls and then chill. No need to spoon and level if you’re measuring with a scale. Hope you love the cookies!
I followed this recipe and mine did not turn out how your did they tasted kinda dry and like flour they didn’t really have a flavor and weren’t sweet enough I don’t know if there was something I did wrong or if it was the recipe
Hi Gretchen, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to make sure the flour is not over measured. It sounds like that could be the culprit here if the cookies tasted dry and floury. Be sure not to over bake, either, as that can dry the cookie out and cause it lose some of its chewiness. Thank you for giving these cookies a try!
I waited til the next day and these cookies tasted amazing I don’t know why but they tasted so much better than they were right after I baked them thank you for this recipe I will be making these again
Hi sally! I love this recipe, I have been doing for a year now, and I am selling the cookies at my school. Just a quick question, in the last couple times I baked them, they came out very different each time. Sometimes they are just perfect, and sometimes they are super raw now chewy, and thi, I don’t like them thin :(. Do you have any clue why this is happening. I am doing them the same exact way, sometimes I stopped the timer and change the cookies racks and bake them again, is that the factor?
Thank you so much for having this amazing internet page I love it <3
Hi Julia, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. How are you measuring your ingredients? Be sure to spoon and level your flour (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure it is not over or under measured, as that could be causing the different thickness of your cookies. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time in the middle of your oven. Moving the sheets around or baking more than one at a time can cause them to bake up unevenly. This post on cookie baking tips will also be helpful to review. Thank you for giving this one a try!
I love this recipe! I use mini chips but otherwise followed the recipe exactly.
I have made this recipe as my “go-to”… Never disappointed. Thank you Sally for sharing this recipe!
Hi there! Your recipe looks amazing! I am planning on making next week! Just a quick question- do you melt your butter in the microwave? Stove top? Have you found that makes a difference? Also- just confirming that the butter just needs to be melted (NOT browned) and then let sit for 5 minutes before adding to the recipe ?
Thanks so much:)
Hi Anita, you can melt butter either way with no noticeable difference. And correct, just melted and sit for 5 minutes! Enjoy.
Is there anyway to half to half this recipe?
Hi Beverlee, No adjustments needed to halve this cookie recipe, besides halving each ingredient amount. To halve an egg, you can crack it in a bowl, whisk to combine the yolk and white, measure it, then use half. Should be a couple Tbsp. You can also mix up the one yolk separately and then only use half.
Ty so much! I can’t wait to try!
I loved this so much. I used semi sweet, dark, and white chocolate (350g all together) and added toasted walnuts. Then I hit them with flakey salt right when they came out of the oven they were so good!
Finally, I found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe ! Mine came out exactly as pictured. I did use mini chocolate chips, but otherwise followed recipe exactly.
Next up … trying more of Sally’s recipes !
These turned out pretty good! I weighed all of my ingredients and the first tray was a little overspread so my last two trays I was sure to use Sally’s spoon trick. After that they were thicker. I was kind of in a mood of ‘yay I made thick cc cookies!’ And then I took a bite and was in awe lol. Immediately reminded that it’s a CHEWY cc cookie recipe 🙂 very yummy, very chewy. Thanks! (Also I’m at 4000 ft altitude so that may have effected the original spread.)
This recipe has become my go to recipe for chocolate chip cookies and I’ve tried a LOT of recipes. Everyone loves them!
Hi Sally! I just finished making these cookies and played around with some of the ingredients and the really didn’t spread at all (Can I attach a picture here or send it differently?). I substituted swerve brown & granulated sugars (plus a little reg. Brown & white sugars. I also added some cocoa and espresso powder and 2 blocks of melted bakers chocolate (you can imagine the color is slightly different than yours !) But I kept the dry ingredients the same (King Arthur flour, salt, corn starch & melted unsalted butter). Do you think it was the sugar subs that kept them from spreading? They taste fine and not too sweet.
Hi Matthew! We’re happy to help troubleshoot. The sugar substituted could be the trouble. We are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes, so 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. Cocoa powder is also a very dry ingredient so adding it the dough will make the cookies drier and will cause them to spread less. Adding melted chocolate will also change the makeup, too, so with all those changes you’ll likely need to tweak the dry ingredients as well. If you’re looking for a chocolate based cookie, we recommend these double chocolate chip cookies. Hope this is helpful!
I just made these just as you did….cookies turned out flatter than a pancake! Yes it was chilled, yes I towered them, think it was the melted butter
I’m trying this recipe and before chilling it doesn’t look like cookie dough like you said but it also doesn’t look like your picture. It looks too thin. Will the chilling help fix this? I’d hate to wait two hours and they’re still not right 🙁 they smell delicious and I’ll eat raw cookie dough so I’ll say they taste good so far lol
Yes, the dough will thicken as it chills!
Can you use room temperature butter instead of melted butter? If so, would that change the amount of flour needed?
Hi Michelle, this recipe was specifically formulated to use melted butter (part of what makes them extra chewy!), but you can use our soft chocolate chip cookies recipe instead which calls for room temperature butter.
These were the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I carefully weighed and measured all the ingredients. I had some salted caramel chips that I added with the chocolate chips. Soft and chewy and so delicious. My family loved them!
I reduced the amount of sugar by half and leave everything else as per the recipe. Tried the recipe many times and they’ve become everyone’s favorite. Delicious! Thank you.
Yes, …. maybe I will try that. I just made these for the first time. I made them bc of all the positive reviews and normally I like anything I make from Sally’s but they are just too sweet as is. Painfully so. It’s all I can taste, over powers the dark chocolate chips even.