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
Hey Sally! This is actually my second time using the recipe. I read it wrong the first time and ended up making scones:). I didn’t use enough butter. This time the dough formed just like I wanted to and I can’t wait to bake them!!
How did you make SCONES out of cookie dough?…?,
I followed this recipe to the letter, and they turned out awful. It was crumbly and dry, and the chocolate wouldn’t even melt. I went to two other sites that had completely different proportions for all the ingredients and cooking recommendations.
Hi Keith! Happy to help troubleshoot. Usually a dry cookie dough has too much flour in it. 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! Can I add shredded coconut and almonds to these cookies?
Hi Maggie! You can try reducing the chocolate chips and adding shredded coconut and chopped/sliced almonds. Yum!
Turned out Amazingly delicious, everyone who tried loved it. Thanks for your amazing effort and sharing your knowledge to the world.
I’ve made these cookies several times and they always turn out great! However, I recently made them and they are flat! I tried to make them two more times after that first flat batch, and they were both flat again. I cannot figure out what I’m doing wrong. The only thing I’ve done differently is use m&ms instead of chocolate chips. Can that make a difference? I’m so confused!
Hi Jamie! How strange, are you using any different ingredients or even different brands? The M&Ms shouldn’t make a difference. Here’s our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading!
Thank you, I made this last week and loved it. Your techniques were helpful (“coning” the cookies before going into the oven” is genius) and although I did “cheat” a bit – mostly butter, but also subbed 1/4 cup of butter flavoured shortening they came out great. This is my go to from now on. In fact, I only baked 1/2 the batch (gave me 12) and giving my niece the other
1/2 that I froze for her to bake with her kids this Christmas. THANK YOU! YUM!
I made these cookies for my dad’s birthday and they didn’t spread as much as the picture. They dough was also crumby. why did this happen?
Hi Sophie! Sounds like the ratio of dry to wet ingredients got a little off. 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.
My niece wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. Now, every time I’ve made cookies, they’ve failed, but I figured I’d give this recipe a shot. Mine came out flatter than in the picture even though I made them tall, but they were so good! They looked store bought and everyone enjoyed them. I didn’t want to wait too long for them to chill so I cheated a bit and chilled for an hour then froze for 30 mins. I had no problem scooping and forming the tall balls. I will be making these again!
Love this recipe! Just wondering if you could form the dough into balls & then chill the balls instead of chilling the dough & then forming the balls (like with the drop sprinkle sugar cookies)? I find the dough is very hard after chilling even if I let it sit out for a bit & takes some effort to scoop out to form the balls. Thanks!
Hi Jenn, you can, we just find the dough a bit tricky to work with without chilling first. But certainly do whichever you prefer!
Love this recipe. I did brown my butter first then allowed it to cool though my cookies did come out a tad fluffier than yours. Still very delicious maybe I’ll try again♡
What if I accidentally combined the sugar with the dry ingredients before mixing
You can continue with the recipe – the texture may be slightly different, but they should come together just fine.
I followed this recipe exactly. My dough was not easy to mix and the chocolate chips didn’t want to stick. I refrigerated over night (covered) and my dough was really hard. I let it sit out for an hour and it was still hard to form. I also had to bake them for 22 minutes before the edges browned. I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Hi Mandy! Did your dough seem more dry than our photos/video? 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.
These cookies are so good and came out perfectly! If I wanted to make these chocolate flavoured, how much cocoa powder should I add? Or would I need a whole different recipe?
Hi Syliva, here is our double chocolate chip cookie recipe instead. Enjoy!
i love soft chocolate chip cookies
I love your cookies recipes ( i actually add in any thing i want to it) so much i practically make it 3 times a week and share with my coworkers they absolutely enjoy it as well. My daughter like to eat vegan food and would rather that I use unbleached flour instead. If I sub the regular flour with unbleached flour will that make the cookies taste any different? I haven’t tried it yet..lol. I don’t want to ruin this recipe
i love them so good best cookies i have ever had
My husband has officially declared these “the best cookies he has EVER had”. So glad I found this recipe! Thank you!
Delicious!!!! I am always over-baking cookies in my little countertop oven, but these turned out perfectly. Bringing them in for an office Christmas party and I know they will be a hit!
I must say this recipe for chocolate chip cookies ROCKS!! It’s always been my favorite but I’ve been making them wrong for 45 years! Believe me this recipe is simple and sooo good! Follow it exactly and you won’t be disappointed. Thanks, Sally for sharing your expertise!
these are great except I think next time I will probably add another 1/4t of salt… not salty enough for me ! but that’s just my preference 🙂
This is the same ORIGINAL Toll House recipe I’ve been using for 40 years!
Hi Sharon, thank you for sharing. The recipes are different. The original recipe uses more butter, that is creamed, 2 whole eggs, and more sugar. I also use cornstarch and not quite as much chocolate chips. Many chocolate chip cookie recipes use the same ingredients, as you can’t stray too far from what works!
WOW this is THE BEST. I followed it exactly for ingredients. For the chips I did milk chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch (my usual 3). WOW. And I did a double batch. In fridge for 2 days on dough. WOW. We are going to store now for more vanilla, gonna make another double batch and doing same with add ingredients walnuts. All for family Christmas party. MY REP IS RESTORED. I burn or ruin a lot of things. Lol. Printed recipe for future and will pass share your recipe for pure YUMMAGE!!!
Please update your conversions, they are wrong. 1 cup is 240 grams so 2 1/4 cups flour would be 540 grams, not 280 as you listed
We measure all-purpose flour at just about 125g per cup, when properly measured (spooned and leveled, not packed). 1 cup is also 240ml in volume, so maybe that’s causing the confusion here?
I have been looking for the best chocolate chip cookies. I’ve tried the Toll House recipe, too thin. I tried another recipe and while they tasted good, it wasn’t what I wanted. These ARE the best. Soft and chewy and delicious. I didn’t have regular chips so I used mini chips. Excellent!
Would this recipe work as the chocolate chip part of brookies?
Hi Gina, we haven’t tested it, but we do have a brookie pie recipe, and a recipe for chocolate chip cookie bars, which are very similar.
I love this recipe so much!
Hi there! Can I add peppermint extract and crushed candy canes to this recipe. If so, what are your recommended amounts? Thank you.
Hi Gina, you could do that, or try my peppermint white chocolate chip cookies and swap the white chocolate chips for semi-sweet. For these, you can use 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and about 1/2 cup crushed candy canes (around 5 candy canes).
hi, I’m 14 years old. I made these yesterday and these are the softest and chewiest chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had.
Could I double this recipe and put it in a 12 inch cast iron skillet? I know you have other skilled recipes but this recipe is my favorite ! Would that be too much dough? We love a big thick cookie lol
Hi Jenny, I’m unsure exactly how much dough you’ll need for that, but you’ll definitely have enough. (Probably too much!)
Best chocolate chip cookies ever!
Can this be doubled, cookies are very good, but not enough
Hi Margie, yes, this recipe doubles very well. Enjoy!
Do you have high altitude instructions? I live at 9,500 ft. This is for the soft chewy chocolate chip cookiesrecipe
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
This was a really good recipe. I put it in the freezer for an hour and it was perfect.