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
hi sally and friends, this is about my fifth time baking these cookies! i’ve lost count. anywho, i was quite inspired by a different recipe site to modify the chocolate chip amount to two whole cups as i felt too lazy to do the optional choco-chip decorating for looks. yea yea i know, i’m a chocolate fiend. they still turned out beautiful, tasty, and gooey this time around! the only “issue” i created was the dough being very hard to scoop out. next time i am definitely gonna reduce it to 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips and i’ll let yall know how that turns out :-))
i’ve tried this cookies! those are absolute amazing! i want to rebake this but can i use palm sugar instead of brown sugar??
Hi Fila, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
I made these cookies and took them to work. Now my coworkers keep asking me when I’m going to bring in more. These are the best!
Should this recipe be adjusted for a high altitude? I live in Colorado?
Hi Pamela, 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
This is a great recipe. Finally, I found a recipe with butter that when baked, the cookie didn’t flatten out and they taste GREAT!! I did refrigerate them overnight because I ran out of time to bake them right away. I let them sit out for a couple hours until the dough was soft enough to scoop out. This recipe is a keeper!! THANKS!
Followed your recipe exactly except for size. Used my 1.5 T scoop rounded and got 24 cookies. Baked 13 min but adjusted temp to 330 because of slightly smaller size. They are delicious but are crinkly on top instead of smoother like yours. Is it because I made them smaller?
Hi Lei, we think ours are a little crinkly on top! We’d suggest keeping the oven temperature at 325°F and simply keeping an eye on the smaller cookies, rather than adjust the baking temperature.
I have tried dozens of chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, but this one has replaced them all. Absolutely delightful. I made mine with a regular cooky scoop and they were perfection. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Can I make cookie pops / cookie on a stick with this recipe?!
Hi Sierra, we fear that these cookies might be too soft and chewy to be sturdy enough for cookie pops. Our sugar cookies or chocolate sugar cookies might be a better option.
Great recipe for soft CC cookies!!
Hi Sally,
We love your recipe, my kids love choc chip cookies when i bake. We are strict vegetarian so we don’t use eggs and so I use flax egg(I use 1 egg = 1tbsp groundflax + 3 tbsp water, and I add little extra flax powder with 1 more tbsp of water) , and I follow exact recipe, some time the cookies spread well and some tome the stay quite thick(high) what should I do to make it better? I feel it needs butter or more quantity of flax egg, can you please advise where am I lacking?
Hi Priyanka, we admittedly don’t have much experience baking with flax egg. You should always expect slightly different results when you make ingredient substitutions. We do have an entire post with our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading. These 5 Cookie Baking Tips to Improve Your Next Batch might also be helpful for your next batch! Thanks for giving this recipe a try!
I just took the last pan out of the oven and they look beautiful! I already did a taste test on the first batch and they are absolutely wonderful. Nice and thick, chewy with that little crisp on the outer edges. The one thing I did do different was after combining the ingredients I put the bowl of dough in the fridge for about 45 minutes, then went ahead scooped and shaped them (they held their shape nicely), put them back in the fridge overnight and baked today. That way I didn’t have to worry about scooping that hard cold dough. Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe!
Just a question: can I use arrowroot instead of cornstarch in this recipe?
Can’t wait to make these cookies. I won my husband’s heart through his stomach with toll house cookies with whole wheat flour about 45 yrs ago. Also stopped baking cc cookies after tasting Metropolitan Market’s “The Cookie” the first time.
Arrowroot powder should work fine here, Debra!
I’m from Canada (Quebec) and I’m a fan of your recipes. I received one of your cookbooks as a gift, for Christmas, and I’m so glad I did! I’ve loved your recipes since 2021 and I hope to buy some items from your shop soon.
Thank you so much for the support, K! We hope you find lots of new favorites in the cookbook!
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I have made these cookies several times and they turn out amazing. My 5 year old loves to help and he is getting very good at measuring and combining the ingredients.
I have tried this recipe twice but each time, my dough is too dry and crumbly. I have followed the recipe to the T. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Trex, did you spoon and level the flour? Or did you pack it into the measuring cup? Make sure you are spooning and leveling it instead of scooping, which packs it down. (Not ideal for this recipe.) Also, did the melted butter become too cool and thicken up before adding the other wet ingredients?
These used to be my go too recipe. I made them a few months ago, I used a scale to measure, all my ingredients were fresh, and I chilled them overnight and they came out flat. I just made them again them and they came out flat again. Did you change the recipe in any way recently?
Hi Anna, so sorry you had trouble with these spreading. Here are our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading. Hopefully these tips help for your next batch!
Is it possible the weights are incorrect? I’m an experienced baker and follow all of the tips in this recommendation.
I also used the weight measurements and the cookies were flat. Glad im not the only one. Something must be wrong with the weights.
I use 120 grams = 1 cup of all purpose flour when I bake as my conversion, which i think is pretty standard. So 2 1/4 cups in this recipe would be 270 grams, not what is listed (281 g I believe). Is this perhaps the problem?
Yum!!!! These cookies are amazing!!! The recipe is easy-to-follow, and the cookies turn out chewy and delicious. Thank you for sharing!!!!
I have made chocolate chip cookies innumerous times over the years (and have eaten at least twice that) and I have to say this is my favorite recipe so far! I’ve made these twice for different holiday events this December and both times had people begging for more. Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
These were amazing!! My daughter is a cookie fiend and she absolutely loved them!! Crunchy on the outside and perfectly soft and chewy in the middle. Definitely our go to cookies from now on. Thanks Sally
Yummy! These came out perfect. I followed the recipe exactly. I did make mine a smidge smaller ~40g each
And rolled them into balls instead of the cones. Will make again!!
Hi Sally, these look amazing. Would using gluten free 1- to -1 flour compromise the cookie’s perfection?
Hi Dianne, We haven’t tested these cookies with gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do give it a try!
Made these delicious cookies today and we had a little bit of the Christmas mini M&Ms left over so we added those to the mix. The red & green colors made these scrumptious cookies look even more amazing! Quite possibly the best chocolate chip cookie ever! And definitely my go-to recipe from here on out. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us!
I love them!! I made them for a school project a how to do one and I took them in for my class to try them and they were so good!! Everyone love them! Thank you for the recipe and making it so good!! I will definitely make them again!
Hi Sally – Thank you for this recipe. As a baker who has always creamed softened butter and sugar together as the first step when baking cookies, I’m curious about this recipe’s use of melted butter instead. Have you tried it at first with creamed softened butter, and were the results unsatisfactory? I’m not criticizing, but just wondering about the difference. Thank you.
Hi Andrea, melted butter is key to the chewy texture in these cookies. If you want to use room temperature butter, we’d recommend these chocolate chip cookies instead.
Delicious cookies. Wouldn’t change a thing in the recipe!
You can stop looking. This is the best, most perfect, chocolate chip cookie recipe you will find. I’ve been cooking different recipes for a few years now. This is The Best!
Thrilled you love these, Tami!
This was a pandemic favourite of mine. Decided to come back to it after a few years. It still is holds its ground as a fan favourite in my household.
This recipe turned out perfect. I followed everything except where I live there are no real chocolate chips – only chocolate flavored chips, so I substituted crushed chocolate bars, and using 100 grams less of chocolate bar than chocolate chips required in this recipe, it still seemed like a lot of chocolate, so I’m glad I didn’t go out and buy an extra bar or two. I also let them refrigerate for 2 days
This recipe was great. I did a little twist I cooked them per recipe and then took them out and cooled them on a grated pan a while another batch cooked. Then I put them back in for like 6 min all together on 400 to crisp the edges. Amazing.
I just had a quick question. I followed the recipe to a tee. When forming my cooking it’s nearly impossible because nothing is stuck together it’s just a big bowl of complete crumble so I had to very aggressively with my hands force them together. I don’t understand how or where I possibly could have gone wrong
Hi Jason, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level to avoid the dough being crumbly. Hope this helps for next time!
I am new to your site and am I fan favorite right now. I have been looking for the best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I could find and so I tried yours. OMGoodness, I made two batches for our very small get together (no children mind you) and they were totally gone by the end of the Christmas night and it was only five hours and there were only twelve of us, LOL. By the way no one ate any Pie. This is by far the best cookie and they all went home with the recipe and the website. Thank you for making it a success.
Hi Sally, is it okay to use salted butter instead of unsalted?
Hi Francheska, You can use salted butter and reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. You can read more about unsalted vs. salted butter in baking. Enjoy!
If you don’t have cornstarch replace it with 2 teasp powdered sugar.
Which is just sugar and cornstarch.