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 don’t know where I went wrong….I mixed everything and realized I didn’t use enough butter because it was so dry so I melted and cooled more and added it in. The dough was still dry and gritty. I chilled it and when I took it out the next afternoon it was worse! Nothing held together and it was hard and dry!
Hi Renee! Sound like something went wrong with the ratio of dry and wet ingredients. 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.
This was the best chocolate recipe that I have used! Do you lay the extra chocolate chips on top or push them in? I’ve never been able to use butter to make them because they would always spread out! Thanks for this recipe!!!!
Hi Lori, push them in. Glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I bake many batches of cookies for the holidays and freeze them. Can I double this recipe or triple it so I make more at one time. Is there a way to do that-divide the dough before chilling?
You can double/triple this recipe as long as your mixer (we would use a mixer for the larger volume) can handle it. You can roll out the dough before freezing, then bake the cookies straight from frozen.
Best cookies I’ve ever had
Hi Sally, I forgot to give your chewy choc chip recipe a rating. Sorry. It is definitely 5 stars
Hi Sally I made these cookies yesterday. I always put my cookie dough in the refrig for at least 3 hours as they don’t spread as much. However, I did, as you said you do, left the dough in overnight. This morning the dough had to sit for about 30 min to get soft enough to use my 3 tbs. cookie scoop. I had to use a off set spatula to break up the dough. I did as you said, made them into little pillars. This recipe made 16 large cookies. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used salted butter and cut back on the salt. These cookies are absolutely delicious. They will be my new go to when making choc. chip cookies. Also put 3 teeny little reeses cups on top when out of the oven. They melted and stuck to the cookie. I will make again soon. But, I love to substitute different kinds of chip etc. Thanks for the great recipe!!!!!
I just made these cookies and followed every instruction to a T, except I used Lily’s Salted Caramel dark chocolate chips. THEY ARE AMAZING!!! I will be keeping this recipe. They are sweet, soft, chewy and not FLAT! Thank you!!!
Great recipe! I didn’t melt the butter. Just brought it to room temp and used 2 cups of flour instead of 2 1/4 cups. They taste amazing. Didn’t spread too much and are the perfect consistency.
these were amazing chewy tasty chocolate chip cookies my all time favorite recipe
Hii Sally, these cookies turned out amazing. chewy in the inside and the edges are so yummy literally the best recipe. However, while mixing everything together, no cookie dough was done so i added abit of milk and oil and it turned out good. So I recommend adding any liquid.
Craving some (chewy) cookies, going to give this recipe a shot! I vaguely remember parts of a lost “chewy cookie” recipe that featured shortening because it spreads less than butter… I like the flavor of butter, but is there merit in using Crisco/Vegetable Shortening? How would you do it?
Hi Everett, this wouldn’t be a great choice for that swap because this recipe requires melted butter. Shortening can usually be swapped out for recipes that call for softened butter that you cream with sugar.
My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe….but I tried doubling it and they weren’t as good…I give them a five star!
I made this recipe once and I messed up and they didn’t turn out well but I tried again and they were so good! And didn’t harden In a container like 2 weeks later they were still soft… I love this recipe so much its the best I’ve ever seen
I have made these a couple of times for large groups of people. So many people said they were the best cookies they have ever had. I have a bunch of dough balls in the freezer so I can surprise friends at a moment’s notice!
This recipe is so good!!!!! I didn’t use cornstarch because I didn’t have any but the cookies turned out so soft and buttery.
i love baking, and i just haven’t been able to find that “perfect chocolate chip cookie” recipe yet, and I’m telling you…THIS IS IT!
Hi KP, we’re sorry to hear you had troubles with this recipe. How hot was your butter? Make sure to not use scalding hot butter – let it cool a bit after melting. Chilling the dough is imperative for preventing spread, too. Here’s more tips for preventing cookies from spreading, if you’re interested. Thank you for trying our recipe!
My daughter & I love this recipe, I’ve been making cookies using your recipe for my whole family now & we all love them! Thank you so much for sharing. I did want to ask would it be ok to use salted butter instead of unsalted?
If using salted butter, reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. So glad these cookies are a favorite for your family!
This is always my go-to recipe!
I have been on a decades-long quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. This is it! Everywhere I take these, people say, “These are the best cookies I’ve ever had!”
I followed the recipe and the instructions exactly (including weighing each scoop of dough) and they turned out amazing! Thank you for this wonderful recipe and the detailed instructions! This will definitely be my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies!
I’ll have to try because mine always end up crispy when cooled. I did once accidentally leave the baking soda out of some molasses crinkle cookies and they were amazingly chewy instead of getting hard. I learned later that baking soda adds to browning but trying a smaller amount of baking soda than recipe calls fort hasn’t accomplished what I want.
I love, love , love these cookies! I make them all the time for my friends and family. A friend of mine has requested a batch for their birthday, but they are a vegetarian and don’t eat eggs. Is there anything that I could use as a successful substitute for the the 1 egg + yolk?
Hi Isha, we haven’t tested an egg-free version of these cookies, but let us know if you do!
You can get vegan egg power, or use 2 flaxseed eggs. But no promises
I tried this recipe for the first time and the cookies taste amazing but I had to flatten them because they were not going down from the little towers I made. Did I forget to do something?
Hi Harry, happy to help! 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.
It’s delicious…the best chocolate chip ever!!! I made it for the church everyone was asking me for the recipe
I loved the taste, but the cookies were raw in the middle. Chilled dough for 3 hours. Made the smaller size and the number of cookies came out as expected. They did not spread. Baked 14 minutes because they didn’t look done at 12 minutes. I have a new range so have been checking accuracy with an oven thermometer. Temp was spot on. The cookies were very lightly brown on edges, but raw in the middle. I like chewy cookies, but not raw cookies. Can’t figure it out. Would it be better to lengthen time or raise the temp 25 degrees?
Hi Louann, 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. You can also take the pan out towards the end of baking time and gently tap it on the counter to help flatten the cookies and initiate spread. Should you decide to try these again, these 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies will also be a helpful resource.
Fantastic, never made cookies so perfect. Think it’s the cornflour and the chilling time.
I’ve made this a few times and it’s perfect every time! I make them smaller (12 cookies each batch) and they are gone within a day or two. I will never make them any other way!!
This recipe is FANTASTIC! Thanks so much for all the tips and tricks that made me feel like a professional baker! :). I’ll be sure to share this recipe!
Worth every bite!