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
Thank you for this recipe, I didn’t follow it very well, but it was a great inspiration 🙂
Hi! I love all the recipes I’ve tried from your blog. My cookies came out flat, I wanted them to look thicker like the ones in your photos. I weighed my ingredients and I followed the recipe to the T. Any ideas on why they were flat and more gooey? Thanks!
Hi Dana, our 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading post will be a helpful resource to review — thank you for giving this recipe a try!
This recipe is amazing! I sent them with my husband to a men’s Christian weekend, and they were the most popular cookie according to the man in charge of snacks! I shared it with my brother, and he and my sis-in-law also love them!!
I followed the recipe exactly. Cooked at 325° for 13 minutes and let sit on the baking pan for 10 minutes. They were undercooked on top. Is that intentional?
Hi Ashley! They should firm up as they cool. Did they edges look lightly browned when you pulled them out? They maybe could use another minute or two to bake, as all ovens are slightly different.
I loved this so much! Turned out perfect just a little too sweet. Would this work with a little less sugar?
Hi Tyla, so glad you enjoyed them! You can try reducing the sugar, but keep in mind that sugar plays an important role in the taste, texture, and structure of a recipe, so we’re unsure of the results when using less sugar. We’d recommend starting small, and then you can reduce further in future batches as needed.
This was a great recipe and my whole family loved it! It is also very easy for beginners to make. I have a friend who loves cookies and he absolutely loved my cookies. Loved this recipe!
Will these cookies freeze and thaw well when baked before hand?
Yes, absolutely! Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months.
Can you add peanut butter to this recipe?
Hi Sherry, we recommend using our peanut butter chocolate chip cookies recipe instead!
This is the BEST choc chip cookie recipe I’ve EVER FOUND. I LOVE IT AND SO DOES EVERY ONE THAT EATS THEM. THANK YOU FOR SHARING.
Love the taste but mine keep coming out thin. I use king auther flour, weigh on scale, froze batter in tall egg shape and baking on good sheet with parchment paper and cool on. What am I doing wrong.
Hi Hg, our 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading post will be a helpful resource to review — thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I followed the recipe exactly but had to put them back in the oven for an extra TEN minutes to be fully cooked. Cookies look nothing like pictures but followed recipe exactly.
These are some totally yummy cookies! Great recipe, glad I found it.
Love all of your recipes and these are the best chewy choc chip cookies I have made but they do have a bitter after taste I’m thinking it’s the baking soda is it possible to substitute with baking powder? Just wanted to know if you have tried this or I may have done something wrong otherwise I love your recipes
Hi Nicole! Usually when you can taste baking soda, it is an indication that your baking soda may be a little old. It’s not an even swap with baking powder (more on that here). We recommend trying again with fresh baking soda!
A keeper. I’ve looked for years for the perfect (to me) Chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is it. I break up or chop (with serrated knife so it doesn’t fly all over the kitchen) good quality chocolate bar because I think it has much more flavor than chocolate chips/chunks. These are perfect cookies!
I made these today as I was looking for a cookie that would be chewy and stay chewy during the week. That I will have to wait and see. They are delicious and definitely chewy cooled out of oven as should be. My cookies did not spread as much as expected. I used 30 gram balls and they came out about 1/2” thick and 2” round. I prefer thinner cookie so glad I did not use larger portions. Dough was still very chilled when I formed balls and using 325 degree oven, would cook slower. I actually just flatten each cookie with spatula when removed from oven and that worked well. I have one more batch to bake (fourth batch) so dough is warmer now, not as chilled. I flattened each ball with the back of teaspoon before baking. The last batch did spread a little further, I still just gave a little press with the spatula when removed from the oven. They are just fine and very tasty. Next time I will try making without chilling the dough. My dough was not runny at all, was soft and would have formed balls I believe now in hindsight. When I try again, if dough is a little to soft, I will just refrigerate for few minutes. Now to see if they stay chewy, that is the test.
Forgot to mention, the last batch, I pressed down with back of teaspoon before baking and used bake of spatula to flatten when taken out of oven before cooling and they spread to 3 inches round and a good thickness. Perfect size in my opinion. I also added my rating.
I used an electric mixer to cream my butter and sugar, eggs and vanilla.
The consistency going into the fridge is soft (not runny). Will fridge time harden it up or have I done this wrong? Maybe a spoon of flour if it’s still soft once refrigerated?
Are you using melted butter? Melted butter is key in these cookies—it’s not creamed together with the sugars like typical room temperature butter is, but rather is just whisked together. The dough is very soft, and the chill time will help it firm up just a bit before placing the cookie dough into the oven. (And if you’re looking for a recipe that uses softened butter rather than melted, you might like our soft chocolate chip cookies instead!)
Definitely melted, and yes the fridge time hardened the dough perfectly. I will whisk instead of beat the butter and sugars next time.
Thank you 🙂 absolutely delicious. My husband actually thought I’d bought Subway cookies and played a joke on him
Love these cookies and the recipe is just fine! My dough was perfect and cookies spread as they baked. My only issue is that I have to bake 2min longer but that’s my oven.
Do I need to adjust the recipe for higher altitude? I have always had to add additional flour to my chocolate chip cookie recipes otherwise they are greasy…so when you said it’s greasy at the stirring part, I was concerned id have a greasy mess.
Hi Debs, 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
Followed the directions exactly and they came out perfectly! So chewy!
I’ve heard browning the butter provides the cookies with a tremendous burst of flavor, and I was wondering if I would have to make any alternations to the recipe if I were to include brown butter in the recipe.
Hi Kris, You can use brown butter, yes, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter — we suggest using our recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.
Followed your recipe to the letter. After mixing all of the ingredients, the dough did not stay together resulting in dry consistency with chunks falling apart but thought meh, thought I would chill it overnight and hopeful your advice would pay off. Sadly, it was even worse. I Let it stand 20 minutes out of the fridge and the dough remained rock hard.
I bake dozens upon dozens of several variety of cookies over the Christmas holidays for many years so it isn’t as though I am an amateur at baking. I would give this recipe 1 star for the soft texture. Very disappointing
Hi Heather, if the dough was quite dry, we wonder if there was too much flour soaking up moisture. 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.
Hi Heather,
I can assure you that the issue isn’t the recipe. This recipe is very good and turns out wonderfully. Have you tried a kitchen scale? It takes so much guess work out of measuring and saves you both time and dirty dishes in the end.
Sounds like you used too much flour.
This. Is. The. Best. Cookie. Ever. When I follow your instructions exactly they turn out perfect, every time. I’m curious if you can give me some insight though – I substituted some ingredients due to allergies. I used cassava flour and ghee instead of all purpose flour and butter. They didn’t spread out much and we’re a bit dry and crumbly. Do you think it was the difference in the flour? Or perhaps the ghee? Maybe both? Wondering if I could tweak it a bit and improve the allergy-safe version. Thanks for sharing your recipes as always!! They are truly perfection.
Hi Brittani, so glad you enjoy these cookies! It could certainly be both ingredients causing the different outcome. For the most part, any time you substitute ingredients, you can expect different outcomes than intended. Especially when swapping flours, which have different absorption rates. For best taste and texture, it may be best to find a recipe specifically formulated for those ingredients, but let us know if you decide to do any experimenting!
You can stop looking! This truly is the BEST recipe. My family loved them. Make sure to make them a little taller than they are wide as instructed. They will have the perfect shape and soft texture.
Tried this recipe and it’s a winner. I went all the way and used chocolate chips and chocolate chunks and walnuts. Then when they came out of the oven I put a couple of nestles chocolate truffles on top. Yum and they definitely were soft and chewey. I also tried the recipe with the crispy edges but this will be the one to go to.
I love this recipe! The only thing i must say is when i put the cookies in the oven it stays in the form of a ball and not a cookie.
I made this but it seemed like I didn’t have enough butter. I followed the recipe. Even when I compare your video of that portion, mine was much thicker. When I chilled the dough for 3 hours and let it sit for 10min before shaping the cookies, the dough was still stiff. What could have gone wrong? I followed the measurements. Could it have been my dark brown sugar? Help!
Hi Roni, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured. Too much flour can soak up too much of the butter and make the dough harder as you mention. An easy fix for next time!
Can I use m&m’s instead of choc chips?
Yes, sure can!
Great one
I wanted these to work out. My batches were too flat. It made me sad. I love Sally’s recipes but this one was a fail. I will try the overnight chill.
Hi Michele, our 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading will be a helpful resource to review, too — thank you for giving this recipe a try!
Hi Justine, it sounds like you may have had 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.
Did this recipe always have to be put in the fridge? I swear I never had to before, so I’m a bit confused.
These turned out amazing! Chewy and soft and the flavor is wonderful. Next time I will have to remember to double the recipe. I made mine with 40 grams of dough and they were still a nice serving size. Thanks, Sally, for making me feel like a pro!