With 11 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!
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 loved… and, warning: they disappear FAST.
The recipe is also included in two of my published cookbooks (in Sally’s Baking Addiction, I swap chocolate chips for M&Ms/chocolate chips combo).
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.
Back in 2013, I 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.
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 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. 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 and even up to 3–4 days.
After chilling, the dough is quite solid, so let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes (to soften it up slightly) before shaping. (No time to chill? Make these soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie bars 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.
Another Success Tip: When you remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator, the dough may be slightly crumbly. Scooping and then shaping it with warm hands keeps it intact.
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 Must-Have 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.
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.
Q: Have you baked a batch before?
Print
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 22 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. Review recipe notes before beginning.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (280g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, melted & cooled 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
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla extract. The mixture will be thin. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, thick, and appear greasy. 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 chill in the refrigerator for at least 2–3 hours or up to 3 days. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight for less spreading.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Using a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measuring spoon, measure 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, making sure the shape is taller rather than wide—almost like a cylinder. This helps the cookies bake up thicker. Repeat with remaining dough. Place 8–9 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 12–13 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. (XL cookies can take closer to 14 minutes.) The centers will look very soft, but the cookies will continue to set as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, press a few extra chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. This is optional and only for looks. After 10 minutes of cooling on the baking sheets, transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh 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 2–3 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.
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can leave it out. The cookies are still very soft.
- Butter: Avoid letting the melted butter cool for too long otherwise your dough will be crumbly instead of soft (and your cookies will end up too puffy). You want it still a little warm. Salted butter can be used instead. Reduce salt in the cookie dough to 1/4 teaspoon.
- 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 into a glass 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 – 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 tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: chocolate chip cookies
Love these cookies and the recipe is just fine! My dough was perfect and cookies spread as they baked. My only issue is that I have to bake 2min longer but that’s my oven.
★★★★★
Do I need to adjust the recipe for higher altitude? I have always had to add additional flour to my chocolate chip cookie recipes otherwise they are greasy…so when you said it’s greasy at the stirring part, I was concerned id have a greasy mess.
Hi Debs, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Followed the directions exactly and they came out perfectly! So chewy!
★★★★★
I’ve heard browning the butter provides the cookies with a tremendous burst of flavor, and I was wondering if I would have to make any alternations to the recipe if I were to include brown butter in the recipe.
Hi Kris, You can use brown butter, yes, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter — we suggest using our recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.
We can’t get these to spread AT ALL. We tried silicon mats, parchment, and greased pan. They stay little hockey pucks. Tried varying levels of warm dough. We ALWAYS weigh ingredients. Have an oven thermometer. Stand mixer. Hand mixed. Nope. Out of ideas 🙂
★★
Followed your recipe to the letter. After mixing all of the ingredients, the dough did not stay together resulting in dry consistency with chunks falling apart but thought meh, thought I would chill it overnight and hopeful your advice would pay off. Sadly, it was even worse. I Let it stand 20 minutes out of the fridge and the dough remained rock hard.
I bake dozens upon dozens of several variety of cookies over the Christmas holidays for many years so it isn’t as though I am an amateur at baking. I would give this recipe 1 star for the soft texture. Very disappointing
Hi Heather, if the dough was quite dry, we wonder if there was too much flour soaking up moisture. 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.
Hi Heather,
I can assure you that the issue isn’t the recipe. This recipe is very good and turns out wonderfully. Have you tried a kitchen scale? It takes so much guess work out of measuring and saves you both time and dirty dishes in the end.
Sounds like you used too much flour.
★★★★★
This. Is. The. Best. Cookie. Ever. When I follow your instructions exactly they turn out perfect, every time. I’m curious if you can give me some insight though – I substituted some ingredients due to allergies. I used cassava flour and ghee instead of all purpose flour and butter. They didn’t spread out much and we’re a bit dry and crumbly. Do you think it was the difference in the flour? Or perhaps the ghee? Maybe both? Wondering if I could tweak it a bit and improve the allergy-safe version. Thanks for sharing your recipes as always!! They are truly perfection.
Hi Brittani, so glad you enjoy these cookies! It could certainly be both ingredients causing the different outcome. For the most part, any time you substitute ingredients, you can expect different outcomes than intended. Especially when swapping flours, which have different absorption rates. For best taste and texture, it may be best to find a recipe specifically formulated for those ingredients, but let us know if you decide to do any experimenting!
You can stop looking! This truly is the BEST recipe. My family loved them. Make sure to make them a little taller than they are wide as instructed. They will have the perfect shape and soft texture.
★★★★★
Tried this recipe and it’s a winner. I went all the way and used chocolate chips and chocolate chunks and walnuts. Then when they came out of the oven I put a couple of nestles chocolate truffles on top. Yum and they definitely were soft and chewey. I also tried the recipe with the crispy edges but this will be the one to go to.
★★★★★
I love this recipe! The only thing i must say is when i put the cookies in the oven it stays in the form of a ball and not a cookie.
★★★★★
I made this but it seemed like I didn’t have enough butter. I followed the recipe. Even when I compare your video of that portion, mine was much thicker. When I chilled the dough for 3 hours and let it sit for 10min before shaping the cookies, the dough was still stiff. What could have gone wrong? I followed the measurements. Could it have been my dark brown sugar? Help!
Hi Roni, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured. Too much flour can soak up too much of the butter and make the dough harder as you mention. An easy fix for next time!
Can I use m&m’s instead of choc chips?
Yes, sure can!
Great one
★★★★★
I wanted these to work out. My batches were too flat. It made me sad. I love Sally’s recipes but this one was a fail. I will try the overnight chill.
Hi Michele, our 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading will be a helpful resource to review, too — thank you for giving this recipe a try!
Worst cookies I’ve ever had dry crumbly very bland and I fallowed recipe exactly and very difficult to form balls with
★
Hi Justine, it sounds like you may have had too much flour in your 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.
Did this recipe always have to be put in the fridge? I swear I never had to before, so I’m a bit confused.
Hi Kaelyn, yes this recipe has always required chilling! Maybe you’re thinking of our no-chill chocolate chip cookie recipe instead?
These turned out amazing! Chewy and soft and the flavor is wonderful. Next time I will have to remember to double the recipe. I made mine with 40 grams of dough and they were still a nice serving size. Thanks, Sally, for making me feel like a pro!
★★★★★
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!
Instead of putting these in the fridge for 2-3 hours, can you put them in the freezer for a little while instead?
Hi Lydia, the dough won’t chill evenly in the freezer. The fridge works best!
The cookies are great, but I felt that they were a bit too sweet. How much should I reduce the amount of brown and white sugar without affecting the cookies too much?
★★★★
Hi Sky, 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.
I made these today with about 3/4 the amount of sugar called for (not because I wanted less sugar but because I realized I didn’t have enough) and they still turned out AMAZING! Just in case you were still wondering!
★★★★★
This is the absolute BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever made!! My cookies are always hard. I’m so grateful I found this and grateful it was shared. I’m so excited for my husband to try them. He’s avoiding them because he thinks it’s the regular hard cookies, he’s in for a treat Thank you for sharing, this is the only recipe I will be using now
★★★★★
This recipe is AMAZING!!
★★★★★
Best recipe!
★★★★★
I’ve made this recipe sooo many times now and everytime, everyone tells me how addicting they are.
★★★★★
Can I double this recipe? Or would it be better to make two separate batters?
Hi Brittani, this cookie recipe doubles well. Hope you enjoy it!
This recipe is different from the one you posted in 2012 that I have been using. Why is that, is this one better?
Hi Kiera, have you been using our recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies? They are two different recipes. Those cookies use room temperature butter and have thick, super soft centers with slightly crispy edges. These chewy cookies are thick, chewy, and have a denser texture. You can learn more about the differences between all our chocolate chip cookie recipes here.
What will happen if you don’t chill them? I don’t have time but I love this recipe so much!
★★★★★
Hi Emma! The cookies will spread too much if you skip the chilling. For a no-chill chocolate chip cookie recipe, we love this recipe for giant chocolate chips cookies, that can also be used for regular sized cookies (see recipe notes). Enjoy!
To labor intensive even with chilling this cookie dough cooking in the morning getting the dough and chocolate chips to mix in ridiculously hard.
★★
For your chocolate chip cookie recipe, how much more brown sugar do you recommend to put than white sugar?
Hi Erika! See recipe card for a full list of ingredients and amounts. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
and 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar.