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
This is my family’s favorite cookie recipe. Please tell me me how i could add oats to this recipe. Thank you
Hi M. Powell, adding oats will throw off this recipe, but here’s our favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe.
Hello my dearest lovely friend Sally. How are you this fine day? I always make your recipes for my grandchildren. My name is Linda. I have a question. Do i have to use cornstarch or can i leVe it out? i was also wondering if i could leave out the choco,ate chips. thank you and have a wonderful amazing day sally
Hi Linda! You can leave out the cornstarch if needed. The cookies will be more flat without the chocolate chips, but you can leave them out if you would like for a plain cookie.
Olá, Sally, tenho uma pergunta.
Preciso de amido de milho? Por favor, responda logo! Tchau.
Hi Andre, you can omit the cornstarch if needed. Enjoy!
Enjoy your, site but this cookie dough came out awfully! Dry; could not scoop. I used all organic ingredients as most people do today. Organic cane sugar. Please give your thoughts. Thank you!
Hi Gail, did you wait too long for the butter to cool? Perhaps it began to solidify, and then the dough was too crumbly and dry. Also, did you by chance scoop the flour? I recommend weighing it, or spooning and leveling it. Sorry you had trouble with this one.
Have you made them gluten free before? If so did you have to alter anything?
Hi Alicia, 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!
hi…so i love the recipe, i had succeed it but can i use oil-free fryer instead?
Hi Elowen, we haven’t tested baking these cookies that way, but let us know if you do.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe (chocolate cookies) I’m doing it every week for my grandchildren
We added raisins to our cookies and they were the best cookies I’ve ever eaten!
Hi….could I put this dough in a 12 inch round pan and bake it as one giant round cookie?
Hi Carol, here’s our cookie pizza recipe, exactly what you’re looking for – happy baking!
Can I use salted butter?
Hi Anna, if you have salted butter you can use it and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. Enjoy!
Would you use this recipe for like a kitchen sink cookie? If so, how would you split the measurements if I wanted to do semi and milk chocolate, caramel pieces, and pretzels?
Hi Amber! You certainly could use those add-ins here. We would split them evenly, with a total of 1 and 1/4 cups add-ins.
I dislike when recipes say measured by cups I’m no cook I don’t know if it’s a universal size but my cups is probably different from your cups I’ve got some cups that hold and litre of liquid different sizes is it like a coffee cup size but even then I’ve got different size coffee cups why can’t exist the measured in ground that would be so much more approximate, but then I am an idiot
Hi Harry, in baking, a cup is a standard measurement, but we do include weight measurements with most of our recipes, including this one (see the gram measurements after the cup measurements). Weight measurements are the most accurate. You can read more about measuring baking ingredients in this post!
Made as written, everyone loved. wondering if I can sub butter for browned butter? Will it change taste and consistency? thanks
Hi Deborah, 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.
Great recipe! Thank you
Oh my gosh! These cookies were absolutely delicious. I can’t believe how soft and chewy they are. I messed up my first batch because I overmixed the dough and I let the butter cool down completely. But I tried it again this time, and the cookies turned out perfectly! I’m keeping this recipe.
This is a phenomenal cookie recipe!! So soft and airy. They allow for that slight crisp on the outside and fluffy texture on the inside. This may be my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!!!
I made this with brown butter (instead of just melting it I let it brown a bit) and it was absolutely the most delicious batch of cookies ive ever made!
Do you have nutrion fact for this recipe?
Hi lu, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Hi Sally! I love these cookies but I’m allergic to dairy and chocolate. How would I go about using plant based butter and carob chips instead of regular butter and chocolate chips? Is it a possible substitute?
Hi Trinity! We haven’t tested those swaps, but let us know if you do.
We enjoyed the cookies but I may have made a mistake. When mixing the melted butter and sugars, I was interrupted and when I got back to it about 10 minutes later, it had solidified a bit. I kept going but the mixture wasn’t lose as described. The cookies came were good but I’m wondering, should I aim to keep that melty butter consistency?
Hi Lizzy! Yes, it is best to keep working with the dough when the butter is in its melted state for this recipe.
It tastes decisous! me and my younger sister made it it was great. It was also a great experience and it was fun to make together.
Thank you! Finally found the ideal chocolate cookie recipe. Followed the recipe exactly, chilling overnight. Even though I’m at higher elevation and have had trouble with other cookie recipes spreading, these came out perfect!
Can this be turned into a cookie cake using a 13×18 cookie tray?
Hi Kayla, this wouldn’t be enough dough. We use this exact dough to make our cookie bars, baked in a 9×9 pan. Here’s our 9×13 cookie bars recipe, or our cookie pizza recipe as well.
Tastes really good but the cookies turned dark brown and melted together and were waffer thin. It was a disaster
Hi why my dough become brownies after insert choc chips?
Hi Hana, did you allow your melted butter to cool for 5 minutes before whisking it with the other ingredients? It sounds like your chocolate chips may have melted.
Yup actually more than 5 mins. I use choc chips and couverture choc. I saw other videos they use couverture choc as well but their dough doesn’t turn brown
Would like to know how to infuse coffee into this recipe
Hi Linda, you can add 1 tsp of espresso powder to these cookies without any other changes. Let us know if you try it!
Plump, doughy cookie that is super easy to make and is always a crowd pleaser! I like mixing white and milk chocolate chops into the dough.
Hi Sally. I love your recipes. Can I make these cookies with oat flour instead of wheat flour? Thank you!!
Hi Lilly, we don’t recommend it, as oat flour has different baking properties than all-purpose flour and isn’t necessarily a 1:1 swap.
These are thee best cookies I’ve ever made. I’ll never ever make them any other way. Thanks Sally!
If I wanted to make smaller cookies for the kids birthday party, roughly 1 tbsp to 1 1/2 tbsp, how long would the bake time be?
Hi Alicia! We’re unsure of the exact bake time, so keep an eye on them in the oven!
Hi Alicia,
I made smaller bite size ones to go in my Christmas cookie bags ….i cooked them for 5-7mins but keep an eye on them baking !!..Happy baking
I made a super batch of these over the weekend to freeze and wow they are next level. I call them “crack cookies” haha. I left them on the middle of the table, left for 10 minutes and when I came back, they were completely gone. Soooo good. I did 2/3 milk choc and 1/3 white choc. Insane