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
I love it
I will try it a third time, I have know idea what I am doing wrong. I watched the video after my last failure, I think I am needing to just stir it like it says, I am so used to using a mixture, after refriderating, it comes out like a rock. No reflection on Sally!
Hi Sandra Ann! Is the dough too hard to scoop? Let it sit at room temperature for half an hour or so before rolling the dough balls if that is the case. Or, you can roll the dough balls before chilling if you prefer. Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try!
I am super picky about my homemade cookies. I like them to be just a little brown and tiny bit crunchy on the outside and a bit gooey and soft on the inside. This recipe gave me exactly that! I am so exited to have finally find the perfect recipe for my own taste! One of my daughters loves to pop a choc chip cookie or two in the oven before bedtime. Now, she can do that. I froze some of them.
Hello, I followed your recipe but the dough was sticky after 3 hours in the fridge. After making them, they came out flat. Any ideas as to what I did wrong!
Hi Aleem! Make sure to not use scalding hot butter – let it cool a bit after melting. Here’s more tips for preventing cookies from spreading for your next batch. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I think these are toooo dry
So delicious!! Highly recommend browning the butter instead of just melting it. Adds depth and a toffee note.
These cookies are absolutely amazing!! They were a hit over here. Thank you for sharing!
These tasted ok but they didn’t really flatten out. I had to “smush” them down when they were done cooking. I’ll probably look for another receipt next time I make chocolate chip cookies.
The texture was great, but the cookies have an odd aftertaste, almost soapy. Is a teaspoon of baking soda the correct amount?
Hi Audrey! 1 tsp baking soda is correct. Oftentimes when you can taste that soapy aftertaste, that means your baking soda is getting old.
Love this chocolate chip recipe! My only problem I had was the dough wouldn’t spread! They came out of the oven as small, thick cookies. How do I get them to spread like in your video?! (I’ve followed the recipe exactly how it’s shown)
Hi Mary, When cookies don’t spread, there’s usually too much flour in the dough, how do 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.
This cookie recipe is one of my favorite recipes! The cookies are SOOO good. They’re moist and flavorful with just the right amount of chocolate chips. These are my go-to for whenever I make cookies. Delicious!
These cookies are so delicious! I added smarties to give them a pop of colour and a little crunch.
I’ve been looking for 15 years for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and even though many of them say “The Best…” it is not true because Sally’s is bar far the best chocolate chip recipe. I appreciated all the little details because they do make a difference. Make these…don’t go to the next link!
First time trying this recipe, and turned out great! I love that it includes melting the butter, it’s always so much harder (by hand) to combine softened butter with the sugar. Very delicious!! And they do freeze perfectly.
These are the best cookies!!
Overall great recipe! I would add half the amount of granulated sugar if your not a person with a sweet tooth.
I was told by not one but TWO people today that this was the best chocolate chip cookie they’d ever tasted!!!
I adore this recipe, and even with my kids on gluten free diets, using plain supermarket gluten free flour still yields the most amazing cookie!!! Thank you so much, this is our favourite cookie recipe!!!
My family loved this recipe so much, that my cousin at 3 cookies. There is nothing I would change about this recipe. It was perfect, but I do advise do not add mini chocolate chips.
Amazing way better than my grandmas recipe that is 70 years old
Best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. I’m not sure what makes them so good because the ingredients are pretty much the same as other chocolate chip cookies, so it’s got to be the dissolved baking soda or because Sally has the best recipes ever!
These chocolate chip cookies are the best I’ve ever had . I will never use another recipe.
These are so good. The melted butter makes them easy, the cornstarch improves the texture, and the tip to make them extra tall gives them the right shape! I was an exchange student in a European high school 15 years ago and every time I visit, CCCs are THE thing my host family wants me to make. I’ve made them many different recipes over the years and they’re never bad, but these ones were perfect and I was proud to share them. I won’t stray from this method whenever I want classic CCCs.
These are outstanding cookies. I have been searching for the best chocolate chip recipe for a while and I have found it. I follow the recipe exactly. They are my go to with the family!
I did not like this recipe, it was in truthful with the results, instead of soft and fluffy, the cookies that came out of the oven where fat and cakey, I do not recommend this recipe, and the only thing it was truthful about was how many choc chips to put in the batter.
Really good delicious cookie! Lots of flavour and fabulous texture,I love the harder edges and the softer middle, I also love how it browns more on the bottom. I chilled mine for 2 and a half hours and they were perfect just one tip I have I have if you are not going to keep them in the fridge for longer then 3 hours then instead of you making them into a regular ball shape make them more of a tower cylinder shape it is really the key otherwise mine would have spread way to much if I didn’t do that.
Wow! I am blown away by how good these are! They remind me of Nestle toll house! 5 stars definitely!
Would I have to make any adjustments if I’m using European butter (Kerrygold), which has a higher fat content? Also, do you recommend using my oven’s convection setting and if yes, do I make any adjustments? (I usually use the same temperature when using convection, although some people suggest turning the temperature down by 25 degrees.)
Hi Diane, European style butter, like Kerry Gold, is wonderful in cooking but we find it’s difficult to use in baking recipes. Its higher fat percentage, while making the butter tasty, creates too much grease in doughs. We haven’t tested it in this specific recipe, so we’re unsure just how much it would be impacted/what other tweaks might be necessary. 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!
Thanks, Lexi, for your response.
Do you have a favorite chocolate chip brand?
Hi Michelle! We usually use Nestle.
Made a lot of cookies in my life & Sally’s are always the best. Her recipes & baking tips have taught me so much about baking. My cookies are the talk of the town now! Wondering if since this butter is melted, can I also brown it? Will I need to add more or make any adjustments? Maybe cool it a bit longer?
Hi Jillian! You can, yes, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter — we suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.