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’ve never found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that had the right texture- mine always melt and end up crispy. This recipe was perfect, they stayed nice and thick and chewy!
Makes the perfect cookie!!
I made this recipe for my husband and his little brother and sister this weekend. I split the batch and did half semi-sweet chocolate chips and half semi-sweet mint chocolate chips. Both were very heartily enjoyed.
There is a pleasant, slight crunch to the edge of the cookie and the inside is perfectly chewy. On par with bakery cookies.
This recipe is an absolute keeper, they worked out perfectly the first time. All of the suggestions for how to make a spot on batch were very helpful and result in the recipe turning out perfectly on the first try.
This one is definitely going to be enjoyed for years to come. I have a feeling it is going to become my go to cookie recipe.
Thank-you so very much!!
I am in the minority, but I thought these cookies were boring. I followed the instructions and the cookies look like the ones in the photos, but they don’t have the depth of flavor I was expecting. I ended up sprinkling sea salt on the last batch to add some sort of interest. They are also a bit more time consuming than most cookies with the shaping step, and the recipe is just not worth any extra effort. I won’t be making them again.
Tasty recipe but my cookies turned out dry and not chewy. Any tips or advice?
Hi Jordan, 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 make the cookies dry. Should you decide to try these again, these 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies will also be a helpful resource.
The best chocolate chip cookie I have made.
Question on sugar. I used 3/4 of each brown & white sugar. How will the xtra quarter cup affect baking? TY
Hi Cherie, the cookies will obviously taste sweeter, and a little extra white sugar may cause them to spread a bit more.
I’m 70 years old and this is the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever made.. I added nuts and coconut. It was amazing thank you so much.
This is a wonderful recipe! I’ve been baking for years but struggled to master that thick, bakery-style cookie. Your ‘secret’ ingredients make this work!
fav recipe!! my family loves these cookies. Very easy to make, the instructions ensure that you get the perfect cookie. Make sure to follow instructions exactly, for best results first try btw! Anyways I did a batch that chilled an hour less, and I liked that consistency too, it spread a bit more which my family liked more than other cookies. So that’s preference wise.
When you say add-ins are okay but should not exceed 1-1 1/4 cup do you mean total including the 1 1/4 cup of chocolate chips? Or a separate 1 1/4 cup?
Hi Kara, we mean including. So if you wanted to use half chocolate chips and nuts, you’d reduce the amount of chips by half.
Made the dough as directed, refrigerated overnight, set out at room temp for an hour and made 45g lumpy columns as directed, baked at 325 for 16-17 min and they came out perfect!!
I have found the recipes from your site have been ones I could trust so I am thinking to try these chocolate chip cookies to see if they are better than my usual go-to. I can’t use dairy when I bake. Could oil be used as a substitute for the melted butter?
You can try solid coconut oil which seems to have been successful for some readers, or vegan butter such as the Earth Balance brand. We haven’t personally tested either so let us know what you try!
What about using an electric mixer?
Hi Annette, you can certainly use an electric mixer if you’d prefer.
Use this recipe a lot, roll it into balls and pop them into the freezer so can bake off fresh batches when I want
These cookies are the absolute best. Easy to make, no mixer required. Bake up like the title says. My go to chocolate chip recipe. Never disappoints. Thank you Sally.
Quick question….can I weigh and form the cookie balls before refrigerating? Thanks for your help!
Hi Susan, we find the dough to be a bit too slick to roll before chilling, but you can certainly try it and portion them out before refrigerating.
I think 325 is too low. Even after 17 minutes my cookies were still raw. I think I will try them again but bake at 350.
Have you tried browning the butter? If so, did you change the amount of butter or flour to account for water loss?
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.
Amazing recipe that always works, I’d never change it! I’m so glad that I fell upon your recipe when I first got the craving and the idea to try and bake cookies on my own. All the tips and tricks came so handy to me as a beginner in baking. Since then I’ve baked multiple cookies and shared them with friends and family, I’ve only gotten praised for them! Also I always put most of them in the freezer after I’m done baking them because otherwise half of them will gone by the next day hahah. The only thing that I’ve changed is putting half of the quantity of the sugar because I found them too sweet. Something that’s really important, as the recipe mentions, is to let the butter cool down after melting it because otherwise it will bake the eggs and then the cookies will come out of the oven a bit burned or crunchy (speaking from experience).
Hi Rafa, we’re so glad you gave these cookies a try! Happy baking!
Hi Sally! Do you use a fan oven? If not, how can I adapt cooking for fan? Thanks!!!
Hi Chiara, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
One of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve found so far! Made the XL cookies turned out perfect! Kids and hubby tore into them! Followed the directions exactly I let them chill for 3 hours in my stainless mixing bowl.
I tried this recipe twice, leveled the flour, meted the butter, then chilled everything. They didn’t melt out, the dough was crumbly and dry. Needs tweaking.
Something must be wrong…maybe expired cornstarch? or expired baking soda? I make these all the time…I mean at least 1 or 2 times per month. I freeze them like tall cookie balls and give them as “bake as you want” gifts with the temp and time written on the ziplock, and also to have at least 2 dozen in the freezer for times when we need a treat. Often I double or triple the batch. Not once has it been anything but excellent. I won’t make any other choco-chip cookie anymore! (I make a dozen without nuts, a dozen with pecans and a dozen with walnuts from each batch…press the nuts in the top so they can be identified).
An amazing recipe. Of all the past recipes I have used, this is definitely my favorite. I sprinkle a bit of Maldon salt at the end. It just adds another good dimension.
Try ‘burning’ the butter to caramelise it… makes the best cookies in the world even better 😉
The idea and concept of this recipe sounded really good to me…but when I tried to make it, my dough was extremely crumbly and wouldn’t stick together even though I followed the directions exactly. Made it hard to wrap in order to chill, and even harder to portion onto the tray. I think I probabaly made a mistake.
Hi Kat Jep, were you sure to spoon and level the flour or weigh it? It sounds like either too much flour or the 12 Tbsp of melted butter became too cool/solid.
These are the absolute best cookies ever! I’m not a huge fan of thin, crispy cookies, so if you can relate, try these as soon as possible! 15 out of 10!
I have never been able to get these kind of results with other “chewy” cc cookie recipes…this recipe is spot on and so easy and delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
The cookies turned out amazing and with a super gooey Center and crunchy edges. Everything was just like the recipe said and it was quite easy to follow. The only problem I faced was after leaving the dough in the fridge overnight it became rock solid and I had to leave it in room temperature for about 1 and a half hour in order to be able to scoop it out. Otherwise it was incredible
do i have to put it in the refrigerator?, I made it before it was delicious.
Hi KH, yes, chilling in mandatory for this recipe. The cookies will spread without that step.
Followed directions and put in refrigerator overnight for 9 hours. I got flat cookies.
Hi Rita, there are a few different factors that can cause cookies to overspread. Our post with 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading will be helpful to review for next time.
They were sooooo good. Mines didn’t become that chewy, but still very good:)
Best cookies ever!!