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’m really excited to try this recipe, I was wondering if you would recommend to use browned butter for this recipe??
Hi Leyla, you can use brown butter here, 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 instead.
These came out so perfect! Couldn’t get my husband to wait even 5 minutes for them to cool before he had already ate 4 of them. Making another batch right now because the last batch didn’t last 2 days this is now 100% my go to cookie recipe.
I followed your chocolate chip cookie recipe and baked my best cookies ever! Everyone loves them. Thank you so much
Hi Sally, is it possible to use 2 eggs instead of the egg plus egg yolk?
Hi Stella, 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.
Hi I just wanted to come on here and say that I have now made this recipe 3 times in about 2ish weeks and it’s absolutely divine and my go to from now on for any sweet treat. Leaving the dough in the fridge even for 2 nights made the cookies so yum!
Hi Sally,
I have another question… if the egg yolks are on the smaller side, would you recommend adding one more yolk (so 3 small yolks) ? Thank you!
Hi Michelle! That shouldn’t be necessary, unless they are very small yolks.
they look so amazing I cant wait to bake them!!! but I have a problem last time I baked cookies they turned into a flat mess what do I do
I made a few minor modifications to the recipe: changed the sugars for monkfruit (for the white), and Splenda Brown mix (for the brown sugar).
Instead of chocolate chips, I soaked sultanas, yellow raisins and dried cranberries in some whisky for a few days, and added about a half cup of real white chocolate chips.
my oven MIGHT be a bit off so I had to raise the temperature closer to 350°.
cooked the full 12 minutes, they come out mo9ist, tender, chewy and incredibly luscious.
Hi Sally, I’m wondering how I can tell if the cookies were undercooked? The tops were crispy but I felt like the center was a little underdone. Is it supposed to be a little dough like still? I took them out and tried it and got a little worried so popped them back in for another 5 minutes in the residual heat, but still a similar texture. I don’t mind the texture but am worried to give out underdone cookies to friends.
Hi Sophia, these are a chewier cookie and will continue to bake as they cool on the cookie sheet. Did they firm up once completely cooled? We hope they’re a hit with your friends!
I loved this recipe! The only inconsistent thing about the directions is the baking time. I ended up needing 20 minutes in the oven at 325 degrees for them to be fully cooked and just slightly golden at the bottom. Perhaps this was because of a few reasons: 1) I froze my cookie dough balls, 2) I made larger cookies (60 grams each, rolled into balls and then frozen), and 3) I used softened room temperature butter instead of melted butter. Other than that, I followed this recipe to the T by weighing each ingredient in grams! With all of this said these cookies turned out amazing! This recipe is such a perfect standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. They didn’t flatten completely but are not super big; just perfectly in the middle. The dough is yummy and vanilla-y without being overly sweet. Overall, I really enjoyed this recipe!
These are the best and now my only go- to recipe. Thanks.
Question can i omit cornstarch i dont have any
Yes, you can omit the cornstarch.
I love the recipe, but mine are almost rock hard. Where did I go wrong? There isn’t too much flavor either. Help!
Hi Denise, 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 and baked cookies harder as you mention. This post with 5 cookie baking tips to improve your next batch will also be helpful to review. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
Can I double this recipe and do any of the measurmentschange
Hi Kim, yes, you can double this recipe by doubling all ingredients.
Hi!! Can I use brown butter for this recipe?
Hi Lucy, you can use brown butter here, 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 instead.
Best recipe ever! I forgot to melt the butter and I used Cream Cheese chips rather than chocolate chips, but these turned out amazing so I’ll probably keep doing it this way. Definitely using this recipe forever now.
Question:) I know you mentioned you can add in extras up to 1.25 cup. I was thinking of adding in walnuts. Is there an amount you would recommend that would work best for this cookie? Thank you:)
Hi Jill, We recommend keeping the total amount of add ins (so chocolate chips plus walnuts) to 1.25 cups. Enjoy!
I love these cookies!!!! Mine were too soft that they broke apart after cooling on rack; why would this be?
This is a good chocolate chip cookie
The cookies taste delicious. But first time when I bake them, even though I followed the recipe step by step, it took 16 minutes to bake them. They were not ready at 11-14 min as the recipe suggests. Second time around I bake them at 350 and they were ready around 12 minutes. Success!
Baked these by weight at 8500 feet. Came out fantastic. Solid and easy recipe. Thanks!
Best chip recipe ever!!! Great advice on the columns…I do not know why they bake so evenly…but they do!
I love this recipe!! However, they come out nice and fluffy but deflate while on the cookie sheet. Is there a reason why? Am I doing something wrong ?
Hi Stacy! Could they be a little underbaked? Otherwise, some deflating is normal – giving the cookies their chewy texture.
Just finished making these and they are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve made and tasted! All I have to say is BRAVO to you, Sally!!!! This recipe you created is pure greatness!
Hi! Ty for this recipe! I’m going to make tonight. Question, I o ly have baking powder no baking soda. What do I do? Ty!
Hello! Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable. It would be best to wait to make this recipe until you have the ingredients listed. Here’s more on the difference between baking powder and soda if you’re interested!
These were the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever made in my 67 years of life! Thank you for the recipe I will always use for the rest of my years.
this recipe is so delicious, I do need to say I live 5600 ft up and it took 20 to 23 minutes to cook fully, these cookies were worth waiting for.
Put dough together yesterday and put it in the fridge…took them out 15 minutes ago and dough is still very stiff and hard. Can’t scoop yet. I think it’s going to be at least 30 minutes before they’re even close to being scoopable.
I recently abandoned my oldest recipe for a King Arthur recipe. I loved the taste of those, but for smaller/typical cookies, the texture was too flat. I was hopeful and switched to these this Christmas and was so happy with the texture…except they don’t taste like much. I followed the recipe exactly. I weighed everything like I always do (I have been baking for many years.) They are just “meh” in the flavor department. The chips are about all you taste, chips and sweetness. No depth of flavor. The one on the back of the bag tastes better. Maybe they need more salt…I don’t know. Maybe in a few days they will mature or something, but they should be great right out of the oven. They aren’t. I don’t necessarily feel like I wasted my ingredients making these, but they’re just not great. I am still searching for the perfect cookie. Bummer.
I tried a new chocolate chip recipe (which was yours) because mine always got too hard. This are perfect…soft and chewy!
I love this recipe. It works literally every time
Today i am trying out a sheet of this cookie dough. I doubled the recipe so I’d have leftover for regular dough balls too of course! I wonder if the chill time matters as much if it’s going to just be filling the sheet pan? We’re going to cut out Christmas shapes then make cookie cake pops with the leftover!!! Cute right?!
So cute! No need to chill if baking as bars. You may also enjoy our cookie bars recipe.