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
These really are the ideal choc chip cookies, so chewy and yummy!
Question, if I’d like to try them less sweet, could I just use less sugar or will that mess with the perfect texture?
Hi Milla, so glad you enjoy them. You can try reducing the sugar, but keep in mind that sugar plays an important role in the taste, texture, and structure of a recipe, so we’re unsure of the results when using less sugar. We’d recommend starting small, and then you can reduce further in future batches as needed. Let us know what you try!
This could very well be my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe! One suggestion that I learned from a sugar cookie recipe of mine~ instead of chilling the dough for several hours, you can form the cookies first and freeze them for 7 to 10 minutes and they will bake up perfectly! I’ve tried it several times and it works every time. Sally thank you for another great recipe.
Thank you this is very helpful. I’m very impatient when it comes to chilling 🙂
This is the first chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have ever made successfully. They are soft and gooey and delicious and perfect. I’ve tried chilling for 2 hours and left the rest to chill overnight and both batches turned out great. I love this recipe it’s the only one I will ever use. I look forward to experimenting with different add ins. Thank you!
This recipe is now my favorite! The gooey and crunchy texture makes it taste amazing!
I was really skeptical about this recipe because the dough texture was unlike any cc cookie I’ve made. However, they turned out great! They are thick and chewy. In addition to melting the butter I also browned, didn’t use cornstarch because I was out, and only chilled for 6 hours, not overnight. Will definitley make again!
hi i’m confused about the eggs are u supposed to put one full egg or more?
Hi Saachii, you will use 1 full large egg + 1 egg yolk.
So the melted butter has to be cooled for 5 minutes. That means it should still be fairly warm when adding the sugar. Does this mean the sugar should be dissolved in the butter, or should it be a grainy mixture before adding the eggs? I was unsure about this while making the recipe.
Hi Tony, once mixed together, the melted butter and sugar will be smooth without the grainy look from the sugar. Hope this helps!
These cookies were tasty. If I made them again, I will chill them overnight versus a few hours.
One of my favs! I have a request to make chocolate chip cookies without the chips, do you think anything needs to be changed for this? Besides taking out the chips of course
Hi Ana, That should be fine with no other changes.
Amazing cookies!! Followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfect.
Fantastic Recipe! I used King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free flour and these turned out beautifully
I have tried at least 20 recipes and this is by far the best!! I do dbl the salt and I get rave reviews everywhere I bring them.
I’m one of those rare people who don’t consider chocolate chip cookies one of my favorites. I like them fresh out of the oven, but not after that. BUT THESE are good even the next day. I don’t understand why, but I love that about them.
LOVE this recipe, but I’m wondering if I can take this recipe and put it in a 9×13 and make bars out of it. I may try this soon! Also, have you tried to brown the butter in this recipe to see the taste difference?
Hi Cami, This recipe is great for a 9×9 inch square baking pan or try this chocolate chip cookie bars recipe.
They didn’t rise or spread at all. More like scones, still tasted amazing though. I would recommend baking powder not soda
I might’ve messed up, i put all the dry ingredients together first, mixed it and broke up all the brown sugar, THEN i added the eggs, melted butter and vanilla.. is that going to make a difference?
Hi Sera, the cookies may end up a bit crumbly and/or overworked from too much mixing, but you can certainly go ahead and bake them.
Help’. I made the chewy chocolate chip cookies and when I put it in to chill overnight, it pretty much froze. I’m assuming I just leave it alone and let it thaw out? I must have a really cold refrigerator.
Deserves more than 5 stars!! Winner, winnner!!
Wow. These are, without a doubt, the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. I’m beyond impressed. They blow the previous recipe I was making out of the water. Whenever I made that recipe, the first batch of cookies always came out as big, thin puddles of dough, and the following batches were better and thicker, and I was struggling to understand why. Probably because the dough wasn’t rolled into balls before baking like here. When I first took these out of the oven, I was amazed. They were wonderfully round, thick, and perfectly spread. They looked professional. No dough puddles in sight! That’s probably because I chilled the dough columns in the fridge for an hour before baking because I was worried about overspreading. Yes, I really prepared before making these.
And of course, they were delicious. They taste better than the previous recipe. I’d even go so far as to say that even if there was no chocolate, they would still be excellent. I used salted butter while keeping the amount of salt in the recipe. Still delicious. I really want that sweet and salty flavour, which is paradise for the taste buds.
The only hiccup I had was when I took out the second batch, some of the cookies had run into each other for some reason. That wasn’t a pretty sight, especially after the first batch came out so well. It was probably because some of the dough columns toppled while baking. I think I made them a little too tall. I recall a few of them toppling on the sheet as I was shaping them. I wonder how tall they should really be. Based on the photo here, not very. I’ll be more mindful of that next time because I certainly don’t want them toppling.
Looks like these are now the chocolate chip cookies I’ll be making for the foreseeable future. Thank you. Oh, and I just love that there’s no creaming of butter and sugar. I’ve found that a pretty frustrating step, not sure how long to beat and at what speed.
Can I scoop the dough into balls before I chill the dough for several hours?
Hi Mickie, the dough can be quite soft and thick before chilling, so we recommend chilling first and then rolling—but certainly feel free to give it a try if you wish!
This is the perfect classic chocolate chip cookie! Friends who came over ate almost all of them, with one friend saying “I don’t even like chocolate chip cookies and I’ve had two!”
These cookies are 100% awesome, the time and effort put into making this recipe perfect nis very much appreciated. I literally was just eating them warm fresh out the oven and its heaven. I was just wondering if it was possible to use margarine for this recipe without compromising the taste too much?
Hi TBaker, margarine does not have the same baking properties (or flavor!) as butter. We don’t recommend that swap.
love the recipe and cookies!! my batter came out kinda crumbly this time…what did i do?
Hi Melodykay, perhaps something was mis measured this time? 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.
Cant wait to try this recipe.
Amazing recipe. I made 3 batches until now, following the recipe word by word (3-12h chill time, 45-50gr cookies, 13 minutes at 165C), it is always perfect.
This is a good recipe! I made both these and Alton Brown’s Chewy and these were noticeably better. I prefer these without the corn starch though and needs a bit more salt (I use about 3/4 tsp.). I really like these with 1 1/4 cups of pecans or walnuts (leave in large pieces).
Hi Sally – Your recipes are the best! Do you recommend letting the melted butter cool first before mixing it with the sugars? How long? Thanks!
Hi Liz! Melt the butter and cool it for 5 minutes.
Second time making these cookies – followed directions exactly as written except I didn’t have that much time to chill the dough so it chilled for just under 2 hours. Not a problem. They came out perfect. 24 hours later still soft and chewy and absolutely delicious. And I LOVE not having to cream the butter – such as time saver. Thank you so much!
Love this recipe. I was wondering if it would work for the chocolate chip cookie cake?
Hi Bonny, our chocolate chip cookie cake recipe is adapted from this recipe and our soft chocolate chip cookies.
This recipe I’ve been doing over and over and it’s always a hit. Is it possible I double the batch?
Hi Dixie, we’re so glad to hear that! Yes, you can double this cookie dough.
These chocolate chip cookies did not disappoint! It will be my go-to recipe from now on!