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
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies: I tried this recipe for our Christmas Eve dinner. This is the BEST recipe!!! I ditched my old one!
I was worried about using melted butter, but now I don’t know what the worry was about!!!
OMG. These are delicious and where a big hit at the family Christmas party. Even those who are the traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe lovers said these were superior to the Toll House.
Made per recipe and turned out perfect. Thank you for this recipe.
Is there a way to make these without brown sugar?
Hi Cassie, We don’t recommend leaving out the brown sugar. It provides flavor and texture to these cookies.
Hi Sally, this has been my go-to recipe for years! I’ve been making it since you released it. I wanted to try something new this time around. Can I add sea-salt as a topper?
Hi Tania, Yes! After you bake the cookies, while they are still warm, sprinkle each with a little sea salt. It’s delicious!
Tried this recipe and it turned out amazing ! Soft and crispy and really light. My family was as thrilled so just wanted to send a big thank you.
Hey, uh I’m not sure where I went wrong but the cookies don’t seem to flatten in the oven and came out looking more like scones, any tips for that?
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!
The recipe I had been using for years was not great and usually resulted in cookies with way too much spreading. I found this recipe and used it tonight and wow! These cookies are delicious and look beautiful, no spreading and they are the perfect consistency and have a great flavor! I followed the recipe and instructions exactly, however I only had time to let the dough chill for 2 Hours…cookies were still perfect.
Absolutely delicious chocolate chip cookie. Made recipe exactly as directed and chilled before shaping for about 3 hours.
5 people tried them just cooled enough for the chips to still be melty and everyone was in cookie heaven. Will definitely be my new go to recipe for a chocolate chip cookie.
Easy to follow recipe for kids (with adult help!). Great explanations and tips, too. We enjoyed baking these together and even more… eating them!!
Hi! Can these be made with brown butter? Should anything be adjusted if the butter is browned?
Hi Inna, You can certainly use brown butter here, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter – we usually suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.
Amazing
I have been making these cookies for the past 4 years for Christmas presents for educators/ teachers and family and friends. Everyone LOVES them, they are a hit everytime! I scoop out into balls and the refrigerate for a few hours or overnight and they turn out amazing everytime! Thankyou!
Im not too sure what happened to my cookies but mine turned out disgusting. It was not soft in the inside it was hard
Just made these with my kiddos ☺️ I love Sally’s recipes. The only thing I do different is roll them out into balls before chilling the dough because it seems to take forever for it to come to room temp
This has been Michael to chocolate chip cookie recipe for a few years. The dough does not require any chilling and the spreading is minimal. There is no need to worry about the cookies melting into one big messy clump. Working with melted butter also makes things a breeze. I like to half my dough and make some with chocolate chip and some with white chocolate chip with nuts.
Is there a way to make these a bit more healthy by switching out the sugar for honey and maybe a bit of molasses, and using whole wheat flour in place of regular flour without compromising the softness and chewiness? If so, what change in the amounts of these ingredients would I make?
Hi Cathryn, we would search for a healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe using those ingredients. Adapting this recipe may be tricky.
If i don’t have eggs, what can i use instead.
We haven’t tested this recipe with an egg substitute, but let us know if you give something a try!
If i don’t have vanilla extract, what can i add instead?
Hi Michelle, vanilla extract adds a lot of flavor here, but you can leave it out if you don’t have any. There’s no perfect substitute!
I’m go-to cookie recipe that NEVER fails. I love putting tons of chocolate chunks, I put the cookies in the fridge to solidify the chunks after cooked in the cookie!
Can I add a handful of m & m’s to this batter?
Hi Karen, absolutely! Enjoy.
Terrific! Kinda sad that most of these are gifts … haha. Def my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe henceforth!
The cookies on the first two (larger) trays of cookies came out flat and baked into each other. I raised the oven to 350°F and the last two (smaller) trays with fewer cookies came out looking fine. The initial lower temp (325°F) allowed the dough to spread more before the bottom was “set”. I wanted to use these cookies as a gift, and the result is not giftable. I followed the directions, measuring the flour as you suggested (spoon and level), chilling the dough overnight, allowing the 15 minute wait time, making the cylinder shape (taller than wider) with the dough. The only change I made was that I wanted smaller cookies, so I used less dough in forming the cylinders. I did not taste these cookies yet. I hope they taste better than they look, but I cannot use these as gifts. Taking time to find another recipe and make different cookies does not fit into my schedule right now.
Hi Sissy, I’m really sorry these didn’t turn out the way you needed, especially for gift baking. From your description, the main issue was the smaller dough size combined with a very full baking sheet. Smaller portions warm and soften faster in the oven, and when they’re placed close together, the heat and airflow are less even. I hope that makes sense. The recipe is tested at 325°F for a ÷medium or large cookie size. For smaller cookies next time, spacing the dough farther apart, keeping the dough cold between batches, and baking on a cool sheet will make a big difference in controlling spread. Thank you for the feedback. I hope they still taste wonderful!
6 out 5 stars these cookies are so chewy and delicious I had to make a double batch! Best chocolate chip cookie recipe
Can you use this recipe for a cookie cake?
Hi Beth, We recommend this similar recipe for chocolate chip cookie cake.
Is it possible to scoop these into balls after mixing and refrigerate them for a few days until I am ready to bake. I am making several kind of cookies this year and looking for a time saver. Love your recipes btw!
Hi Judie, yes, you can do that! It’s best to still refrigerate the dough for 2 hours before you shape the cookies, though, as they will be too soft to shape right after mixing.
I’m so disappointed to say Sally’s recipe for Salted Caramel Choc. Chip Pecan cookies were an epic failure! I’ve never had a bad recipe from Sally’s site but this one was not one I’ll ever make again, nor can I recommend. The cost of baking goods are very high right now, so time, money and trust was lost. I tried to write an honest review on the page but the comment section wasn’t available (???). The caramel spread all over the place while baking and the cookie just wasn’t tasty. To prevent the caramel from spreading, I inserted the caramel on the tops of cookie after baking but otherwise I followed thr recipe to the T, (weights, etc.) and have been baking for over 3 decades…. Typically I rave about Sally’s recipes but not this one. I hope Sally and her team see this post and take it to heart that the recipe needs a honest review by her and her team and possibly some adjustments to improve it. For reference, I made this cookie for a holiday cookie competition with over 40 participants and not one person voted for the cookie. I think that’s saying something.
Hi T, I’m sorry the caramel pecan cookie recipe was a fail, especially given the time, cost, and care that go into baking, and the trust you’ve built with my recipes over the years. That cookie has been tested many times by both me and my team, but I also know that caramel in particular can be very temperamental and behave differently depending on the brand used, and even oven conditions. When it melts too quickly, it can certainly spread more than expected and affect the final texture and flavor. It’s worth us checking out the recipe again to see what improvements we could make, though. As for the comment section, it was temporarily closed on backdated recipes while we addressed a site issue, nothing intentional, and I’m sorry that prevented you from sharing your feedback directly there.
This is great, one of the recepies i have to print out and lamanate (excuse my spelling.) Tastes like they’re $5 each lol, slightly crunchy outside but soooo soft.
I made these cookies over the summer and they were a huge hit. But I tried making them again for a Christmas cookie and they turned out dry. I used a different flour, King Arthur flour. The first time I may have used just a generic flour. I thought I’d buy a “better” flour for Christmas baking. Do you think this could have made a difference? Could a higher protein content make a drier cookie?
I still haven’t found a good chocolate chip recipe. The cookies in the picture looked delicious but it didn’t work out. I followed the steps but I ended up disappointed. The cookies didn’t spread at all. When I saw they weren’t spreading I smashed them down. They were still pretty thick. They were someone soft and chewy but would have been big clumps if I hadn’t smashed them down. I’m not sure what I did wrong.
Hi Shasta, I’m sorry to hear that! Sounds like there may have been too much flour in your cookie dough, preventing it from spreading. 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. Also, if your dough chilled for a really long time, be sure to let it sit out at room temperature for a little while before baking. Hope these tips help for next time!
I don’t think they’re supposed to spread a lot. It’s for thicker cookies. Maybe fix the shape of the dough when you bake them?
can’t wait to try this! but can i subtitute vegetable oil for the melted butter? butter is quite expensive where i live thanks!
Hi Kam, no, you need a fat that is solid at room temperature. Butter is best, but you could try solid coconut oil. We haven’t tested it to know exact results with that substitution, though.
I make these cookies for my nieces and they love the recipe! I actually substituted peanut butter for half the fat content once because I didn’t have enough regular butter and they’ve made requests for them ever since. Thank you so much for the recipe!
How many calories per cookie ( 16 large )
Hi Tammy! 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