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 love this recipe, or should I say method. The only problem is I have arthritis in my hands and scooping the chilled dough was a nightmare. The third time I made it I put the dough in a small sheet pan and chilled that. Then I cut it into squares, and I just shaped them a little bit and baked them. They came out great, and my hands are very happy.
Are the oven temperatures in your recipes for convection or fan ovens?
Hi JP, 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. Hope this helps!
I’m making a few batches of these delicious cookies for my best friend’s wedding in a few weeks. I’m baking them the day before, letting them cool, and then transporting them the next day. Any tips for how to store them so they don’t lose their crisp edges? I did a trial run a month ago but unfortunately they went completely soft.
Hi Jennifer, how did you store them? Any air-tight container or zipped-top bag should work. If you want them to be a bit crispier, you can try increasing the bake time by just a minute or two as well. Hope they’re a hit at the wedding!
My normal chocolate chip cookie recipe has been Tollhouse for decades. I decided to try Sally’s recipe after I got her cookbook.
This just might be my new normal recipe. Different from the Tollhouse recipe but oh my soooo good! The recipe was easy to follow and I followed it to a T. Delicious cookies!!!!!!
I love love this recipe! However I find that at the end of the mixing process – before putting it in the fridge overnight – the consistency is much more sticky than yours. I weighed everything and followed the instructions to a T. The only thing I can think of is that the butter may have been too hot still, even though I let it cool for 7 minutes – is that a thing? Please advise!
Hi Sarah, it could be that the butter is still a bit too warm. You can try letting it cool for just another few minutes, but not so long that it starts to solidify again. How is the texture when it comes time to scoop? If it’s not too sticky, then you aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong!
How many do you get when you make them
Hi Harriet, this recipe yields 16 XL cookies or 20 medium/large cookies.
Hi, i love these cookies i make them all the time! i was wondering if i could put chopped maltesers instead of chocolate chips or would that effect the recipe too much?
Hi Ellie, we haven’t tried that, but let us know how they turn out if you do!
These were just alright. They were kind of dry actually and they weren’t very sweet. I’ll probably look for a different recipe.
I like adding chopped walnuts to choc chip cookies. When you say the add-ins should be 1-1.25C – is that in addition to the choc chips or including the choc chips? I usually just add walnuts to a recipe, and don’t make any reduction to the chips (and have not had any problems).
Thx
Including!
Hi, I just wanted to know, do you have any specifics on how to adjust for high-altitude?
Hi Sam, 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
These are great.
I do highly recommend changing the instruction to leave the chilled dough out for 15 minutes before working it into balls. You shouldn’t do this. Butter and chocolate melt at room temperature, working the dough will gradually warm your dough mixture and could cause your butter mix to separate or break. This might be why you mentioned the chocolate having a hard time sticking, it’s because it started to melt.
Work the dough cold/frozen and then, if resting is necessary, it should be the last thing you do before baking.
Thanks for the recipe!
We’ll see if they finally post my rating. These are okay.
sosososo good made this recipe about 3 times now and it’s the best one I’ve ever used!
I made dough this afternoon. And baked in evening. Only change to recipe was using milk choc chips. Weighed King Arthurs flour carefully spooning into scale. used wooden spoon and stiff spatula to mix. Dough was easy to work with, not at all crumbly or sticky. I refrigerated dough 3 hrs and let sit 15 minutes then I used 2 tablespoons of dough for one cookie. Put each ball together to make one, formed into tower or cylinder. Parchment paper on baking sheet. Put on 9 cookies per sheet. Baked 15 minutes at 325 f. Cooled on baking sheet for 15 min, 10 on rack. Beautifully colored and shaped. Have new oven and live in Midwest so no altitude problems. Loved this recipe, will make again and hope for same result.
Is it semi sweet or milk chocolate or some other flavor
Hi Jayne, absolutely! Use your favorite kind of chocolate chip.
AMAZING!!!!!!! This really is the perfect cookie. The texture, the crisp edges, the soft middle. I made mine with dark brown sugar with Terry’s chocolate orange (a British staple) that I chopped up. I plan on making them again for Christmas! These would be awesome with smarties (another British classic) but would use light brown sugar for that. Salted caramel would probably be a dream too. I also have plain chocolate to try. Honestly 10/10
I would recommend using less flour, i followed the recipe EXACTLY even tho in my mind i knew the flour would be too much. The dough came out so dense that it couldnt even spread when baking
what brand chocolate chips do you use do make the best chocolate chip cookie?
Hi Jayne, Ghirardelli brand chocolate chips are our favorite!
is it possible to roll the dough into balls before chilling? i found it difficult to manipulate the chilled dough because it was though. Apart from that this is my favourite recipe!
Hi Margot, the dough is too soft and greasy to form into balls/shapes before chilling. Instead, what will work, is chilling for 1 hour, shaping, and then chilling for the remaining time. Let me know if you try it this way.
Hello. I always use this recipe but this time I used brown butter and milk chocolate chips. Will the milk chocolste make them spread more?
Hi Shonda, a different chocolate chip shouldn’t make them spread more. We usually recommend bakers use our Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Just made these and followed the recipe exactly using the weight measures (grams). I think the flour is wrong and should be 170 grams. The dough was very dry and I needed to add more liquid to make it hold together.
Be aware the weight measures don’t work — at least they didn’t with my ingredients and I followed the recipe exactly.
Hi Matt, we’re so sorry you had troubles with these cookies. The flour weight is correct as written—281g. Were any of the other ingredients mis-measured by chance?
Hi Matt, I also weighed flour and had no problem with 281 grams. Not at all dry. They are beautiful, unfortunately still cooling. We cannot wait to try them.
Followed recipe exactly.
hmm that’s strange. I just made them for the 2nd time and after I mix it all together the dough is extremely soft (from the melted butter). But bakes up amazingly after chilling. Hope you try again!
I’m entering a bake off at work and want to annihilate the competition so have just trialled this recipe. In two batches I stuffed the cookie dough with a marshmallow, and another version with peanut butter and Jam.
The fellow contestants will not know what’s hit them, no survivors, these are sweeping the floor and leaving no crumbs with this. This recipe is INCREDIBLE, and absolutely undeniably so. My new go to recipe for choc chip cookies (sorry BBC vintage choc chip cookies).
Will also trial a chocolate orange and a choc chip & salted crisps version, but honestly, I don’t think any additions are needed. GAMECHANGER.
Hi Sally. The first time I made a carrot cake, I used your recipe. It was the best I ever tasted. I have made it several times since, and everyone says it is the best. Your cookbook 101 came in the mail today. I can’t wait to get started baking!
Thank you so much, Teresa! Hope you love the book.
I was wondering would browning the butter make it better?
Hi Mia, you can certainly 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.
Can you use sugar substitutes like monk fruit etc
Delicious cookies! Were easy to make and came out perfect every time.
Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe!
hi sally can I add black cocoa powder to these to give them a spooky vibe ?
Hi Kat, we don’t recommend adding cocoa powder to these cookies, but you can use our double chocolate chip cookies instead.
We loved the flavor of these cookies! I made them for our Airbnb guests but they were very hard! What did I do wrong?
Hi Kim, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t overmeasured, which can cause the cookies to bake dry and hard. Over baking can also cause them to become too hard, so you can try reducing the bake time by a minute or two next time as well. Hope this helps for your next batch!
Do you have to use unsalted butter or could you just leave out the salt in the ingredients? 🙂
Hi Camille, you can use salted butter and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. Enjoy!
I have been making my same chocolate chips cookies…
( I thought were the best) for years. Well…. I stepped out of my cookie rut and tried these. WOWZERS it is everything we want in a cookie. The adding of melted butter caught my eye and I thought no way, this will be a gooey mess. It was far from it. The ultimate chewy inside, crisp outside,cookie. I realize its okay to bake outside my preset recipe lines & to try something different, this was delicious surprise. Thank you!
3/4 butter melted but then it says 12 tablespoons thats a big difference
Hi Tanya, 3/4C is 12 tablespoon or one and a half sticks.
Sally, I started baking – get this – when I was in 5th grade! Since that first day of making a mess in the kitchen, I’ve tried many recipes from innumerable baking blogs and NONE of them have even come close to your wonderful baking. Your instructions are clear and easy to follow… and don’t get me started on your super helpful success tips! Plus, all of your recipes are DELICIOUS, which is an added bonus. 🙂
About the cookies…
They turned out like all of your recipes do… absolutely perfect!! Not only do they taste delightful, but they LOOK scrumptious – I know the party I’m going to later today will literally rave about them. Thank you so much; you’ve made all my parties a whole lot sweeter, every single time!