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
This has probably been asked, but I can’t find the answer. Can you double or triple this recipe?
Hi Mary Ann, this recipe doubles well. Tripling gets a little difficult to mix, but it can be done with a bit of arm muscle!
Loved this recipe! I’ve tried so many chocolate chip cookie recipes but the biggest critic (my boyfriend) was never impressed until these, it got rave reviews and that never happens! I don’t use parchment but spray the cookie sheet instead. The bottoms are crispy so it has a nice crunch but the center stays soft and chewy. I would definitely recommend!
My family loves this recipe but we want to turn it into chocolate chocolate chip. How much cocoa powder should we add?
Hi Jacquie, we’d recommend using our double chocolate chip cookies recipe instead—same great chewy texture but with a chocolate dough!
Loved them but came out like muffin tops not sure what happened
I might have done something wrong I followed recipe but the dough looks as though it needs more liquid it’s really dry what do I do
I use this recipe as a base for other cookies I make, I use room temp butter instead of melted and I add 2 tsp cornstarch instead. I add chocolate chips, caramel bits and pretzels, then once cookies are done but still hot I sprinkle a little bit of kosher salt on top. I omit the salt all together when mixing because of the extra salt at the end. They always come out awesome and stay soft for days even after they have cooled.
Why did my cookies flattened as they cooled? They taste great and are chewy but look nothing like the photo: what could I have done wrong? Thank you.
Hi Pat, I’m sorry to hear that! Take a look at this article on how to prevent cookies from spreading; maybe some of those tips could improve the next batch. Hope this helps!
Anytime I make these they come out a really golden brown colour, not sure if it’s because the brown sugar here maybe be different or not. I am using light brown soft sugar.
Hi Kate! Try baking them for a bit less time next time, or trying a different rack position in your oven.
In my experience, the color of brown sugar does effect the color of the cookie.
Yes! It affects me too, I don’t why, but I tried the recipe with no brown sugar and it turned it as a completely different colored cookie! Tasted 90% the same, but looked so different haha!
what can I use as a substitution for corn starch?.
Hi Sophie, arrowroot powder can be a good substitute for cornstarch. Otherwise, you can just leave it out without any other changes.
The best recipe for cookies make it always
I loved making these cookies! They are one of the best cookies I’ve ever made. I will share them with more people. God bless you and he wants you to turn to him.
If I want to freeze the cookie dough balls, do I need to chill first? Or just make balls and freeze immediately? Thank you for all of your fab recipes!
Hi Michelle, the dough can be a bit too soft to work with before chilling, so we’d recommend chilling, rolling into balls, and then freezing.
The chewy chocolate chip cookies, while delicious did not spread like in your video. However, after chilling the dough for 2 hours, it was rock hard. I let the dough sit on the counter for 30ish mins, but I had to work with it a bit to make it plyable. I welcome your advice for the next batch. Many thanks
Hi Sharon, it sounds like your flour may have been over measured if the dough and cookies were hard. Before leveling, did you scoop or spoon the flour? Scooping will pack in the flour, so we recommend spooning instead. This post on 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies will also be a helpful resource. Thank you for giving these cookies a try!
Not like this recipe needs another review saying how amazing they are….but! These are hands down, the best cookies I’ve ever made and I have made a lot of cookies in my life. Every single person I gave one to at the BBQ I attended yesterday, said either “wow” or “oh my God” after the first bite.
They turned out PERFECT!! (i used coconut oil instead of better)
Omg! This recipe is def Thank you!
Could you use two whole eggs instead of one whole egg plus one egg yolk? Or would that be too much extra liquid? I hate wasting things and if I’m just making one batch, I don’t know what to do with one single extra egg white ha ha.
Hi Kristal, the additional egg yolk helps give these cookies their signature chewy texture, so we don’t recommend adding the whole second egg. We often save the egg white and use it for breakfast! Or, here is our soft chocolate chip cookies recipe, which uses just one whole egg.
I love this recipe! Its delicious both cooked and uncooked (one time I made it I used apple sauce for an egg replacement and it actually turned out so good)
I love this recipe so much!! Yum chewy cookies, easy to bake!!
Holy cow. This is it. I’m an avid baker and chocolate chip cookies are my absolute favorite desert. I’ve tried literally dozens of recipes over the years. I tried recipes from the days of RecipeZaar and UseNet, recipes from the back of the chocolate chips abs sugar bags, recipes from cookbooks put out by the wives of electricians in Goliad, Texas in 1966. I’ve had a few favorites. But nothing ever really hit all the marks. Some that said they were soft and chewy would turn hard by the second day. Or worse, become mealy and crumbly. But these. These are perfect.
I actually forgot to add the cornstarch and they’re still amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It is my new forever go to!
I have never reviewed a recipe before in my whole entire life. I must admit, I was skeptical a couple of times throughout the process of making these cookies. I was nervous when the dry ingredients wouldn’t necessarily blend very quickly with the wet ingredients, and that took quite a bit of stirring. Then, when I pulled the dough out of the refrigerator after cooling and noted how hard it was, I was extremely unsure. However, since the recipe assured me that that was normal, I still had hope. I just finished baking these cookies and I did test them, although not a chocolate fan, before offering to my kids and husband. We all agreed that these are some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever tasted!
Followed this recipe exactly and the cookies didn’t spread. We ended up with undercooked chocolate chip cakes.
Hi Rich, thank you for giving these cookies a try. It sounds like you may have over measured the flour a bit. Did you spoon and level or use a food scale? Those two methods are preferred to make sure the flour isn’t over measured, which can prevent cookies from spreading. Should you decide to try these again, these 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies will also be a helpful resource.
I always failed with baking chocolate chips cookies, this is the very 1st time they came out perfect!!!! Wow, truly the best
I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a recipe before but I just had to because I have tried so many cookie recipes looking for that perfect chewy texture almost like the cookies you would get at the mall and I’ve never been able to do it and while everyone has always enjoyed my cookies I’ve never truly been happy with them but THESE COOKIES ARE IT!!! this is the only cookie recipe i’ll be using from now on and it’s so easy. i was highly skeptical because it uses melted butter but sally has never failed me before so i placed my trust in her again and she did not fail me. i’m so excited to make more of these. and the cookies come out looking so good as well where i was never happy presentation wise with my old recipes either. if you’ve been looking for the perfect soft and chewy cookie, this is it.
Thank you for your recipe and hints for making chewy cookies. You have made my granddaugher one very happy girl!
This recipe is great! I liked it and so did my family members! Can you plz recommend other recipes for me thx!!
So glad you enjoyed these cookies, Sydeny! Here are all of our other cookie recipes, if you’re interested in browsing.
I loved it soooooooooooo much
Do you suggest only using semi-sweet chocolate chips?
Hi Gregory, we typically reach for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but feel free to use milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate—whatever you like best!
Hey! I was baking this with kids so obviously we didn’t get all the measurements exact! I think my batch needs more flour, but I’ve let it cool in the fridge already. Is it too late to bring to room temp and add more flour?
Hi George, it would be quite difficult to mix in more flour at this point, even in room temperature batter. You can try baking the cookies as is, and if they appear to spread too much in the oven, use a spoon to gently re-shape the cookies a few times throughout bake time to prevent them from spreading too much. Hope they’re a hit!