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
The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have finally found the perfect recipe!
Can I use cake/pastry flour instead of all-purpose?
Hi Cathy, best to stick with all purpose flour for these cookies.
Is it bad to use salted butter?
Hi Zoe, if you have salted butter you can use it and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. Enjoy!
Hi Sally
Can I use oil instead of melted butter?
Hi Lulu, we do not recommend substituting liquid oil for melted butter, because you need something that is a solid at room temperature. You could substitute coconut oil, but the flavor will be very different.
Can you help me calculating the ratio for smaller batch?
I did try with an excel file and everything, using the measurements in gr but not successfully.
Hi Tania! It can be tricky to reduce recipes. We recommend making the whole batch and freezing the extras for later.
my son make these cookies but the dough did not spread but got hard on the outside and not cooked well inside. What do you recommend?
Hi HRP, if you find the cookies are not spreading enough, you can take them out of the oven and lightly tap the baking sheet on the counter to help initiate spread. Or, you can use the back of a spoon to gently press them down. How are you measuring your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over-measured, which can prevent spread, too. Hope this helps for your next batch!
yummy and soft but a bit sweet for my liking otherwise pretty good
I’ve made this before and had great luck. However, I doubled the recipe and THINK I doubled everything correctly, but it was soooo thin and runny that it didn’t look right. I added a cup of flour. This is in the fridge chilling now – I hope I didn’t ruin it!
I realized I didn’t just double the butter, I quadrupled it! I ended up throwing away the batch and starting over. Oops!
These are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. Thank you so much for this recipe!
what is your recommended oven setting for baking these cookies?
Hi Thea, we recommend that your oven rack is adjusted to the lower third of your oven. If you have the choice, we always recommend using conventional (not convection) oven settings. 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.
This is THE BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe if you like soft, chewy, gooey cookies like I do. I usually do a triple chocolate chip mix(white, dark, semi). Every single person who has tried one absolutely LOVED it!
I like my cookies flat so can I skip the cooling or will the melted butter cause them to be oily ?
Hi Jana! The cookies would probably spread more than you’re looking for, but you can certainly try.
HEY SALLY ! BEST RECIPE YOUVE POSTED BYFAR!!! I MAKE IT ALL THE TIME!!!! MY FAVE!!!!
LIKE AVESOME. I DONT HAVE ANY CORNSTARCH THO. CAN I SKIP???
Hi Aysima, you can leave out the cornstarch if you don’t have any.
Great, easy-to-follow recipe! And so soft and chewy too! To make it look as pretty as it is delicious, gently press a thin layer (one to two centimeters thick) of this dough onto the tops of the cookies before baking. Then you can press chocolate chips at the top when it’s right out of the oven. This ensures a cleaner-looking cookie!
P.S: If you make these cookies, never do it alone. If you are, you’d have finished the entire batch before it even cools!
Can I make these into bite size? If so how?
Hi Lisa, you can make these smaller! Or here is our recipe for mini cookies.
Can I use pastry flour for this? Or bread dlour?
Hi Terry, all purpose is best for these cookies. Results will vary with different flours.
I am not a baker. Despite being a pretty good cook, this has not successfully translated to the world of cookies, cakes, and pastries. My attempts are in turn mushy, rock-hard, flat, grainy, flavorless, or otherwise unappetizing.
Except for these cookies. Somehow these cookies turn out perfectly, every time. After years of wasted ingredients trying to find the perfect chocolate cookie recipe that can withstand my baking incompetence, the search is over. I follow the metric version of the recipe to a T – no subsititutions or deviations – and these truly are chewy, soft and delicious. Everything a chocolate chip cookie aspires to be.
These are just perfect! Tried both versions of this recipe (baking them after 2 hours in the fridge and baking them after leaving them overnight) and they came out beautifully on both cases. I did find the cookies I baked after leaving the dough chilling overnight way chewer and with a much butter-forward taste (not sure if i’m making that up). Either way they’re perfect.
I tried this recipe because I thot it might help my buttery chocolate chip cookies not spread out on the cookie sheet. I was really disappointed. The cookies looked beautiful but inside were much drier and less sweet. I will simply go back to the original recipe, using 2 sticks of butter and adding 2 or 3 extra tablespoons of flour.
I have used many of your recipes with great success, however.
If I melt the butter my cookies spread very thin and become crunchy. I have much better success just softening the butter and not melting it. I follow the recipe exactly otherwise.
Hi Deb, here are our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading. Hope it helps for next time!
Why are mine still so dry and puffy? I just can’t get a good chocolate chip cookie. All measurements and temps are correct. What am I doing?
Hi Donna, That is usually caused by too much flour in the dough. 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. Hope this helps for next time!
Can I add Expresso powder to this recipe for a coffee flavor? If so, how much would you recommend! Thanks!
Hi Leslie, you can add 1 tsp of espresso powder to these cookies without any other changes. Let us know if you try it!
Can I substitute the baking soda with baking powder?
Hi Crysti, no, they are very different baking ingredients! You can read more about that in this post.
I made these cookies for Easter swapping out 1/2 of the chocolate chip for smashed Cadbury Mini Eggs. They looked beautiful and tasted delicious.
These cookies taste great! I followed the recipe, though, and found that they still baked rather flat (though still nice and chewy, not crispy). Any advice?
Hi RJ, the cookies will deflate a bit when cooling, this is normal, but if they deflate quite a bit, they may have been under-baked. For next time, you can try extending your bake time just a minute or two. Hope this helps!
That makes sense – they seemed barely done but I didn’t want to overtake them. I’ll add a couple minutes next time. Thanks!
Hello! First of all I’m obsessed with this recipe, everyone who has tried them LOVES the cookies. Thank you! I’m wondering, if I want to sub for white chocolate chips or other types of sweeter chocolate, do I need to make any adjustments with the sugar since the current recipe uses semi sweet? Will it be too sweet if I make no adjustments?
Thank you!
Hi Sandy, no other changes necessary. Enjoy!
Hi
First of all, I love your site and all your wonderful instructions.
I have a question about these CC cookies. Can I easily double or triple the receipt
Hi Karen, yes, you can double or triple this recipe.
these are basic chocolate chip cookies – there is nothing magical about the taste but nevertheless, they are the most moist cookies i have ever made!
i dont have cornstarch! do i need?
Hi Kiersten, if you don’t have it, you can just leave it out. The cookies will still be plenty soft. Enjoy!
Is this temperature for a fan oven? 🙂
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.
Hi Sally,
Having trouble finding natural cocoa powder here in New Zealand. It’s all alkalised. Can the recipe be made using the Dutch cocoa powder and leave it the baking soda, will it have the same result? Or how can I adjust to use the Dutch powder?
Thankyou!
Hi Jonny, this recipe does not call for cocoa powder. Are you thinking of another recipe by chance? Perhaps these double chocolate chip cookies? It’s best to use the specified type of cocoa powder—here’s more on the difference between natural and Dutch process cocoa powder. Hope this helps!