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
Chips just fall out, dough is greasy, and I think we have very different definitions of a large cookie. Weiged in dough balls at 50g as instructed made slightly taller than wide again as described and cookies are 1.5″ diameter and almost an inch tall. Not impressed.
As someone who is new to baking, having failed a lot in the past, these recipes are easy to follow and informative to help me learn.
I’m so so proud of the results from your recipes, the delicious baked make my family “hmmmm” and “yumm” so much it makes me feel like a really good mum and wife! Thank you so much.
These cookies were amazing and simple to prep. I only used half to make 6 for dessert saving the rest for another day (another benefit).
These are a must bake!
I love this recipe! Now I want to make 3” cookies for ice cream chipwiches. How much dough should I use?
Hi Erin, you can use about 1.25 Tablespoons for a 3″ cookie.
Hi! I don’t have granulated/or white sugar, is it okay to replace it with brown sugar instead?
Hi Kit, The white sugar helps the cookies spread. The cookies will be a little different if using all brown sugar.
I have used this recipe many times. The cornstarch really adds a lot.p to make them a little chewy. I use Crisco instead of butter and the cookies come out great.
These are the absolute best cookies! These are the BEST! You must follow directions, and if you do … THE BEST!
Just baked these today and this is now my go to recipe for chocolate chip cookies! I did 1/2c milk chocolate chips, 1/2 semisweet chunks, and 1/4 white chocolate chips and they turned out fantastic
i love it but if i remove the brown sugar wouldnt it still be ok?
Hi Abigail! We don’t recommend leaving out the brown sugar. It provides flavor and texture to these cookies.
By far the best cookie recipe I’ve ever used.
This time around I’ve experimented with the sugar and used a mixture of light brown soft sugar and some dark muscovado.
I also put a small ball of chocolate ganache in the centre (rather than chips) for a gooey, chocolate filled cookie. Absolutely gorgeous.
This recipe didn’t work for us even though we followed instructions perfectly. Disappointed overall
Hi Rachel, we’re happy to help troubleshoot if you can elaborate on how the cookies didn’t turn out for you. Thank you for giving them a try!
Finally, finally, finally, I have found a great recipe to consistently bake wonderful soft chocolate chip cookies. Thank you so much for this great recipe. I have made it several times now and as I stated earlier always turn out moist and chewy.
So happy to read this, Susan!
LOVE this recipe been using it for years. Not sure why but my cookies NEVER ends up spreading nicely. They ALWAYS ended up baking into dome shaped cookies. I’ve always refrigerated them for more than 3 hrs and left the dough balls come to room temperature before baking. But they don’t ever spread nicely as shown in pictures. But sure what I’m doing wrong….
Hi Jamie! Usually when cookies don’t spread, it’s because there is 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.
Super chewy cookies! Absolutely loved!
Thank you so much! My family loves it. I’ve tried so many recipes, this one is the best.
Can I use brown butter in this recipe?
Hi Laura! 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.
This truly is the best chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve ever made. I did leave them in the freezer overnight and that kept them from spreading. Leaving them soft in the center and crisp around the edges.
Best homemade cookies ! Similar to Felix and Norton cookies!
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! I have spent the last while scouring the internet for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. Many have been disappointing but this one was not!!! Rivals my moms chocolate chip cookies, maybe even better…
P.S. love your recipes in general Sally, I used your carrot cake recipe for when I baked my wedding cake last summer! Also I’ve grown to love measuring my ingredients by weight, it is excellent for consistency each time I make the recipe.
Thank you so much for making and trusting our recipes, Liz!
Would it be okay to substitute olive oil for butter?
Hi Sam, you need melted butter here for the fat because it is a solid at room temperature. For best results, we recommend sticking with butter, although some readers have reported success with melted coconut oil. The taste will be different with that substitution.
Hey Sally! I’ve liked your recipes for a long time. I started using your recipes largely because you have grams on the recipes as well as imperial measurements. Also because even with European ingredients (which can be very different at times) your recipes always turn out well.
But… this recipe did it. I’ve looked for a chewy cookie recipe for years and never found a good one. And yet these… these were perfect.
Your recipes have always been a god-send, but this one takes the proverbial cake. If you told me that swan diving into the Mariana’s Trench covered in peanut butter would result in a creamier chocolate frosting, I would do it without hesitation. You are awesome.
Thank you so much.
We’re thrilled to read this, A.K.! Thank you so much for making and trusting our recipes. This one is definitely a favorite.
Made these today and oh my god these are the best cookies I’ve tasted. Your recipes never fail me! One question, I find them slightly too sweet but I know sometimes sugar is important for structural integrity. Do you think I can reduce the sugar by, say, 25% or so and still have the same texture?
Hi Smoothie, we don’t recommend reducing the sugar for that exact reason. Perhaps you could try a dark chocolate chip to reduce the sweetness?
This is my absolute favourite cookie recipe but I recently learned I am allergic to gluten/wheat. Could this be made with a GF flour?
We haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flours, but many readers have reported success using 1:1 flour substitutes (like Cup4Cup). If you try it, let us know how it goes!
are we able to make these cookies with protein powder?
Hi Melissa, we have not tested adding protein powder to these cookies. We would try searching for a recipe developed with protein powder as an ingredient!
Putting the dough on the trays in tall lumpy towers truly makes a difference.
Is the cornstarch 100% needed or could i use something else.
Hi Isabella, if you do not have cornstarch, you can simply omit it. The cookies will still be quite chewy.
Hi. Can these be made into lactation cookies?
Hi R, we haven’t made a lactation version of these cookies, but let us know if you do any experimenting!
Do you know if I could just use all granulated sugar instead of the brown sugar?
Hi Hadley, brown sugar is part of what makes these cookies extra chewy. We recommend following the recipe as written—using all white sugar instead would result in different taste and texture for the final cookies.
I absolutely ADORED this cookie recipe, the cookie dough was good to eat aswell. And I was able to watch Peppa pig while making it which was great for the little kiddies.
I made these for a chocolate chip cookie competition at work. I WON the competition with these even with 11 other entries! Sally has never steered me wrong in any of her recipes, but this one is a true winner!
Can I use self raising flour instead?
Love the recipe by the way
Hi Hannah, we do not recommend self raising flour for this recipe. They have different amounts of leavening, so it’s best to stick with all-purpose flour and the added leavening + salt.
Just weighing in with an anecdotal experience; I made these cookies last night with self raising flour as we did not have enough plain flour – we just left out the baking soda and they turned out so amazing! By far the best choc chip cookie recipe I’ve made.