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, salted butterscotch blondies, 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).
You can certainly use brown butter here, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little crumbly using brown butter. Instead, for best results, I suggest trying these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip 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 the 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.
- Can I Use Brown Butter Instead of Melted Butter? You can certainly use brown butter here, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little crumbly using brown butter. Instead, for best results, I suggest trying these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- 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 made the cookies they tasted good, but the dough didn’t stick together well and they were tough to roll out. I used Milk to try to solidify it better. I wonder if I used too much flour. I tried to go by the recipe you have on your website. I wanted them to be chewy. Not crumbly lol. Ill have to try again another time.
Hi Kimberly! The most common reason dough feels dry is too much flour, especially if it’s scooped directly from the bag instead of spooned and leveled (or, even better, weighed). Just a few extra tablespoons of flour can throw off the balance and make the dough crumbly. The dough should be soft, slick, and slightly thick before chilling. We hope this helps for your next batch!
People keep telling me a make the best chocolate chip cookies they have ever had. It’s this recipe! For ourselves, I make balls of dough and freeze them so we can control how many we eat at a time because otherwise we would eat a whole batch at once!
These cookies are delicious! Not only are they good but they have a sweet and salty taste along with being soft and chewy. My husband absolutely loves this recipe! ❤️ I baked them at 325 on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet for 13 minutes. I rolled them in a ball and was worried they wouldn’t flatten out but they do the last three minutes of cooking. I also sifted my flour. They turn out perfect every time. Saved this recipe in my grandma’s recipe box!
Hello
What’s the best oven setting
Up and down no fan or with fan ?
Hi Bee, We use and recommend conventional oven settings. If you use convection settings (fan-forced) for baking, the general rule is to lower your temperature by 25°F. Additionally, keep in mind that due to increased airflow in convection ovens, recipes usually take less time to bake.
Excellent recipe – we followed it and chilled the dough for 24 hours. The dough was still quite hard even after 15 minutes, but still manageable. Definitely better than your typical chocolate chip cookie recipe you find on the back of the package.
Hi I just tried making the chocolate chip cookies. I put them on a baking sheets in a ball form, in the oven they didn’t form flat but starts baking like a ball. Half way through had to press them down. I have a gas oven so not sure if it make a difference. I used half the amount of sugar all together and still found it very sweet
Hi Christiana, Could there be too much flour in your dough? That can cause cookies to not spread enough. 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 to weigh the ingredients. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. Beyond taste, sugar also plays an important role in initiating spread. Reducing the sugar is likely also the culprit here.
i made the dough, left it in the fridge over night and had a nightmare making them the following day. they were so cakey- not soft and doughy like in the photos. wouldn’t recommend.
Hi Maddie, If the cookies had a dry and cakey texture, it sounds like there may have been 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 to weigh the ingredients. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
These are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies! I have also used the dough for other add-ins, specifically dried cranberries and white chocolate. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!
The flavor in these is amazing! But mine turned out super greasy.. followed all the steps and amounts… any advice?
Hi Lauren, Are you allowing the butter to cool just slightly after it’s melted? This helps prevent any overly greasy texture and any excess spread. We hope this helps for your next batch!
Hi Sally, I love your chocolate chip cookie recipe. However, I bought milk chocolate by mistake. Can I substitute for the semi sweet?
Hi Carol Ann, absolutely! Milk chocolate chips will work just fine here. You may find the cookies to be a tad sweeter.
Fantastic recipe! I have a question…I’m making these as a gift for family. How long do you suggest these cookies can last at room temperature? I’m not sure whether to bake them 2 days or the day before I leave to visit my family. (2 days before would be less stressful for me lol) Thank you 🙂
Hi Louise, you can store these cookies tightly covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. So glad they’re a favorite for you!
Thank you so much! Such a great recipe, they really are the best cookies I’ve ever baked!
Thanks,these are delicious ! My new favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies!
Hey when I took it out the fridge it was hard as a rock , then I let it sit for 15 minutes still hard how long would you recommend then.
Hi Elidi, if it’s still too hard to scoop and roll, you may need to just give it a little more time. Hope this helps!
Another question do I have to refrigerate the dough ,because most recipes don’t ,and I wasn’t sure .
Hi Juisa, yes, chilling the dough for at least 2 hours is essential for this particular cookie recipe. I promise these cookies are worth the wait!
These are amazing! New favorite recipe!!
What oven temp do I do
Hi Charlotte, bake at 325°F (163°C).
I substituted butter for shortening (butter flavor) and may I say, that they taste even better than when I use butter…. They hold up better are crispy on edges and chewy in the middle, perfect!
Whenever I make these and share them they get RAVE reviews! Seriously, people tell me not 10 out 10 but 100 out of 10!! More than just a keeper! Thanks Sally.
I didn’t have any cornstarch so I omitted this from the recipe. Also I was in a rush (or impatient 😉 ) so I chilled in the freezer for about 30-45 mins and then shaped and baked. They probably did spread a little too much but despite that they were delicious and perfectly chewy. Excellent recipe, thank you!
These are SOOO yummy! I retired my 22 year old recipe and adopted yours. One snag, mine spread and are flat. Taste is spectacular but I want them to look like a cookie, not a pancake! What do I need to change?? Thank you!
PS – You banana bread recipe is my go to 🙂
Hi Shannon, we’re so glad you enjoyed the cookies! Are you allowing the butter to cool just slightly after it’s melted? This helps prevent any overly greasy texture and any excess spread. Chilling the dough helps to prevent excess spread, too. We hope this helps for your next batch!
Hi! Baking these cookies now. Followed the recipe exactly, but dough is very crumbly. Is this normal?
Hi Ciera, is the dough quite dry? The most common reason dough feels dry is too much flour, especially if it’s scooped directly from the bag instead of spooned and leveled (or, even better, weighed). Just a few extra tablespoons of flour can throw off the balance and make the dough crumbly. The dough should be soft, slick, and slightly thick before chilling. We hope this helps for your next batch!
Hey Sally! I’ve made this recipe around three times already, but every time I’ve had the same problem of the cookies not spreading nearly enough (after chilling in refrigerator for around 24 hours), even after baking for around 20 minutes. The dough is also very hard when it’s done. I’ve seen too much flour as a likely culprit, but I’m almost certain that’s not the problem. What do you think the issue could be?
Hi Michael, Is the dough hard before or after chilling? Before chilling the dough should be very soft, thick, and shiny. After chilling if it’s too hard to scoop you may need to let it sit out at room temperature for a bit to slightly soften back up.
Very delicious cookies
What can I use instead of baking soda?
Hi Bam, baking soda is required for this recipe, there isn’t a good substitute. Hope you get to try them!
Can I sub anything for the corn starch? I don’t currently have any.
Hi Julie, If you do not have cornstarch available, you can simply omit it.
The chewiest most delicious chocolate chip cookies ever!! Thank you
Really excellent cookies. Next time I’ll have to double the batch.