With 11 million page views and counting since 2013, these super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website. Melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, cornstarch, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the absolute chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. And you don’t even need a mixer!
Reader Adrienne commented: “These are the best cookies I’ve ever had. Incredible. Don’t cut corners or you’ll miss out. Do everything she says and you’re in for the best cookies of your life. ★★★★★“
There are thousands of chocolate chip cookies recipes out there. Everyone has their favorite and this one is mine. Just a glance at the hundreds of reviews in the comments section tells me that this recipe is a favorite for many others too! In fact, if you asked me which recipe to keep in your apron pocket, my answer would be this one. (In addition to a classic cut-out sugar cookies and flaky pie crust, of course!) Just read the comments on a post in our Facebook group. These cookies are loved… and, warning: they disappear FAST.
The recipe is also included in two of my published cookbooks (in Sally’s Baking Addiction, I swap chocolate chips for M&Ms/chocolate chips combo).
Why Are These My BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- The chewiest of chewy and the softest of soft.
- Extra thick just like my favorite peanut butter cookies!
- Bakery-style BIG.
- Exploding with chocolate.
Back in 2013, I tested this cookie recipe over and over again to make sure they’re absolutely perfect. I still have a big space in my heart (and stomach) for these Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies. Today’s recipe is similar, but I increased the chewiness factor.
Reader A.Phillips commented: “Look no further. This is it. This is the perfect cookie recipe. Follow her instructions exactly and the cookies will be chewy and amazing. … These are the most perfect cookies I’ve made and I’ve tried at least 20 different recipes. ★★★★★“
You can make them with chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
Key Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
The cookie dough is made from your standard cookie ingredients: flour, leavener, salt, sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla. It’s the ratios and temperature of those ingredients that make this recipe stand out from the rest.
- Melted butter: Melted butter produces the chewiest cookies. It can, however, make your baked cookies greasy, so I made sure there is enough flour to counteract that. And using melted butter is also the reason you don’t need a mixer to make these cookies, just like these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and M&M cookie bars.
- More brown sugar than white sugar: More brown sugar than white sugar: The moisture in brown sugar promises an extra soft and chewy baked cookie. White granulated sugar is still necessary, though. It’s dry and helps the cookies spread. A little bit of spread is a good thing.
- Cornstarch: Why? Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick. We use the same trick when making shortbread cookies.
- Egg yolk: Another way to promise a super chewy chocolate chip cookie is to use an extra egg yolk. The extra egg yolk adds richness, soft tenderness, and binds the dough. You will need 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature. See the recipe Notes for how to bring your eggs to room temperature quickly.
The dough will be soft and the chocolate chips may not stick because of the melted butter. Just keep stirring it; I promise it will come together. Because of the melted butter and extra egg yolk, the slick dough doesn’t even look like normal cookie dough! Trust the process…
The most important step is next.
2 Major Success Tips
1. Chill the dough. Chilling the cookie dough is so important in this recipe! Unless you want the cookies to spread into a massive cookie puddle, chilling the dough is mandatory here. It allows the ingredients to settle together after the mixing stage but most importantly: cold dough results in thicker cookies. Cover the cookie dough and chill for at least 2–3 hours and even up to 3–4 days.
After chilling, the dough is quite solid, so let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes (to soften it up slightly) before shaping. (No time to chill? Make these soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie bars instead!)
- Further reading: How to Prevent Cookies from Spreading
2. Roll the cookie dough balls extra tall. After the dough has chilled, scoop out a ball of dough that’s 3 Tablespoons for XL cookies or about 2 heaping Tablespoons (1.75 ounces or 50g) for medium/large cookies. I usually use this medium cookie scoop and make it a heaping scoop. But making the cookie dough balls tall and textured, rather than wide and smooth, is my tried-and-true trick that results in thick and textured-looking cookies. We’re talking thick bakery-style cookies with wrinkly, textured tops. Your cookie dough should look less like balls and more like, well, lumpy columns, LOL.
Watch the video below to see how I shape them. I also demonstrate how I use a spoon to reshape them during baking if I see they’re spreading too much.
Another Success Tip: When you remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator, the dough may be slightly crumbly. Scooping and then shaping it with warm hands keeps it intact.
Tools I Recommend for This Recipe
I’ve tested many baking tools and these are the exact products I use, trust, and recommend to readers. You’ll need most of these tools when making sugar cookies and snickerdoodles, too!
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets
- Medium Cookie Scoop
- Cooling Racks
- See More: Best Cookie Baking Tools and 8 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.
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?
PrintChewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 22 minutes
- Yield: 16 XL cookies or 20 medium/large cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website for good reason. Melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, cornstarch, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the absolute chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. The cookie dough is slick and requires chilling prior to shaping the cookies. Review recipe notes before beginning.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (280g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, melted & cooled 5 minutes*
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups (225g) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla extract. The mixture will be thin. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, thick, and appear greasy. Fold in the chocolate chips. The chocolate chips may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them.
- Cover the dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2–3 hours or up to 3 days. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight for less spreading.
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Using a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measuring spoon, measure 3 scant Tablespoons (about 2 ounces, or 60g) of dough for XL cookies or 2 heaping Tablespoons (about 1.75 ounces, or 50g) of dough for medium/large cookies. Roll into a ball, making sure the shape is taller rather than wide—almost like a cylinder. This helps the cookies bake up thicker. Repeat with remaining dough. Place 8–9 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet.
- Bake the cookies for 12–13 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. (XL cookies can take closer to 14 minutes.) The centers will look very soft, but the cookies will continue to set as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, press a few extra chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. This is optional and only for looks. After 10 minutes of cooling on the baking sheets, transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 2–3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- 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 into a glass of warm water for 5 minutes.
- Can I add nuts or different add-ins? Yes, absolutely. As long as the total amount of add-ins is around 1 – 1 and 1/4 cups, you can add anything including chopped nuts, M&Ms, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chopped peanut butter cups, etc. I love them with 3/4 cup (135g) butterscotch morsels and 1/2 cup (100g) Reese’s Pieces. You could even add 1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles to make a sprinkle chocolate chip cookie.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: chocolate chip cookies
Thank you for the recipe! They came out sooooooo good!
★★★★★
Hi i added a bit of milk to the batter to help it hold its shape and it turned out great just an idea
★★★★
I am OBSESSED with this recipe. I make them maybe once a fortnight and try to freeze 2/3rds so I don’t eat them all. It’s absolutely saved me during COVID from dying of boredom.
Make sure you follow the recipe to a tee including the melted butter, extra yolk, room temp eggs and exact sugar measurements. To make myself feel less guilty, I do half the amount of choc chips and a smaller amount of vanilla essence which doesn’t really change the structure.
Thank you so much for explaining all the little nuances of why things might go wrong Sally! Everytime I make these for people, they are in awe that I had made them and they weren’t Subway or Mrs Fields.
★★★★★
Eating these fresh out of the oven. It’s everything I want in a cookie. Couldn’t be happier. Just a little crunch around the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. And so easy to make! Glad I made two batches of dough!
★★★★★
How can I make them vegan? Is it possible. ? 😀
Hi Cami, We haven’t tested these with any vegan substitutes but let us know if you try anything!
These cookies are AMAZING. my mom doesn’t really like cookies but when i made these she loved them. i am 12 and this recipe was very easy to make and tasted amazing.
★★★★★
I’ve made these twice already and they turned out perfectly both times—nice, thick, and soft even without the cornstarch.
The chilling of the cookie dough brings out an amazing flavor. I won’t be buying chocolate chip cookies anymore because I can just make these! 5/5! Thanks for sharing this, Sally 🙂
★★★★★
Can you roll into balls before you refrigerate?
Hi Laura, You can try but they likely won’t hold their shape without being refrigerated at all. You can refrigerate them for a shorter amount of time, roll them, and then place them back in the refrigerator to continue chilling.
Just wondering what will happen if I use salted butter instead? It’s all I have and I want to make them for back to school! Thanks
★★★★★
Hi Lane, if using salted butter, reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. Happy baking!
It’s my first time baking cookies and I achieved the chewy texture promised by this recipe. Yey!
I am just wondering, is it possible to reduce the amount of sugar of the recipe? And up to what ratio? Thank you so much and my family really enjoyed the cookies.
Hi Rachelle, Feel free to slightly reduce one or both of the sugars, but keep in mind that if you decrease the sugar the cookies will not have the same texture (it’s used for texture and moisture in addition to taste!). Let us know if you try anything!
So the cookies are fine. Very soft and thick, but bland :// Too much time for mediocre success.
★★★
I followed the recipe exactly and even weighed out the flour, but my cookies turned out really soft and fluffy with very little spread. I don’t think I overdid it with the flour since I weighed it out, so any idea what I might have done wrong? The taste of the cookies was fantastic, but am just looking for a chewier and less fluffy texture.
Hi Steph! Were you sure to use melted butter and an extra egg yolk? If you decide to try the recipe again, try adding 2 more Tablespoons of melted butter which will help weigh down the cookie dough and help create a denser, chewier cookie.
Followed the recipe to the letter as best as I can. These choco chip cookies are the best cookies I’ve done so far.
★★★★★
Awesome!!! Love these cookies. They didn’t spread out as much as I expected in the oven but I loved the taste!!! Will look forward to make these again. Love that I don’t have to use my stand mixer to make this!
★★★★★
Hi. Tried the recipe it was delicious but two things. Firstly, it spread alot and secondly even when cooked it was kind of falling apart. Can you tell me what I did wrong?
Hi Kay, You can see the post 10 Guaranteed Tips to Prevent Cookies from Spreading for help troubleshooting!
Okay these are honestly the best cookies I ever tasted not even exaggerating! So soft so chewy and sooo thick I tried so many recipes and this one is by far the best. (I also let my dough rest in the fridge for 40 hours.) Solid 10/10
★★★★★
So delicious! I keep coming back to this recipe.
★★★★★
These cookies are AMAZING! I’ve tried so many chocolate chip cookie recipes and have still not found the perfect one for my tastes. I love thick, chewy cookies and this recipe is the closest I’ve gotten. They were so easy to make, too. The only thing I hoped was different was the flavor, but I do also love a browned butter recipe that may be what was in mind when I tried these. 10/10 recommend giving this version a try! Thanks Sally!
★★★★★
I just made these cookies and they are the best. I used a regular ice cream scoop to measure out each cookie and then shaped them into mounds. This method gave me 20 cookies. I’ve been married over 50 years and still couldn’t make consistently good cookies. Thank you for taking the guess out of cookie making!
★★★★★
I made these cookies recently and I thought they were delicious! They are definitely thick and soft which is my favorite type of cookie. Some of my family did not love them as much because of the thickness and chewiness but I thought they were great. I did not add enough chocolate chips // chocolate chunks but that was a personal mistake! Delicious otherwise.
★★★★
I made these a couple days ago and they were fantastic! I find my cookies don’t spread very easily (not just this recipe, but any recipe lol), so I flattened them a little when they were still warm & they turned out perfect! Thanks Sally!
★★★★★
Hi Heloise, thanks so much for giving this recipe a try. To help the cookies spread a little more, make sure you’re spooning & leveling your flour. Too much flour can prevent them from spreading. Thrilled you enjoyed these cookies!
Hi,
Is it possible to use melted brown butter? Would I melt and brown 3/4 cup of butter or melt more to account for the moisture loss so I have 3/4 cup browned butter? I can’t decide between this recipe and the brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe!
Hi Megan, You can, yes, and the flavor is outstanding! But I they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter, for some reason! I suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Love this recipe, the taste is perfect, but the cookies are definitely too under-baked. I cooked them for exactly 12 minutes. It is common for my oven to need a little more time, so I’m not blaming the recipe. But I am curious, now that they have fully cooled, is there any way to save them? Can I re-bake them in the oven for a few minutes or is it hopeless. I am willing to sacrifice some perfection as not to waste them.
★★★★★
Hi Andrea, you can stick them back in the oven– I’d say 5-6 more minutes. (Seems like a lot but if the cookies have cooled, they need extra time to heat back up before baking more in the centers.) I hope this helps for next time.
Good afternoon! If ever I’ll replace half of the all purpose flour with bread flour, would there be any changes in the measurement of other ingredients? Also, can I use the ratio 1:1 when substituting bread flour for all purpose flour? Thank you in advance. 🙂
Hi Jeilani, You can use the same amount of bread flour without making any other changes, the cookies may even be chewier. Let me know how you like them!
I LOVE this recipe! I have made these delicious soft chocolate chip cookies many times and everyone LOVES them! They come out perfect every single time! Can I use M&M’s instead of chocolate chips for this recipe? I want to make a batch of M&M cookies, and a batch of chocolate chip. Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Raquel, We are thrilled you enjoy these cookies so much! Yes, you can swap M&Ms for chocolate chips without making any other changes – or even use half of each.
I’ve gone through about 5-6 different cookie recipes and this is the first one that turned out GREAT. All other recipes that I’ve tried have turned out flat, oily and completely inedible! My boyfriend ate 4 cookies in one sitting!
My only problem is that when I shape the cookie dough to be taller than it is wide, I made sure it has a solid base, but after 2 minutes in the over, it topples over, and the cookie ends up coming out oval, instead of round…anybody have a solution for this? Otherwise, this is a fantastic recipe!
★★★★★
I absolutely love this recipe but have a question – if I only have baking powder rather than baking soda will it make a huge difference to the end result? Just trying to avoid heading out unless I really, really need to 🙂
Hi Jordan, Unfortunately baking soda and baking powder are chemically different and not interchangeable. If you are interested in learning more you can check out the post Baking Basics: Baking Powder vs Baking Soda.
Excited to try but I know you only use 3/4 brown sugar. Why not 1/2 brown and 1/2 white? Like most? Trying to see the difference if outcome.
We prefer more brown sugar than white granulated sugar because the moisture in brown sugar promises an extra soft and chewy baked cookie!
Best recipe I have tried so far! I would like to make a chocolate version of this recipe, how would you do that?
★★★★★
I’ve made these about 3-4 times and this most recent time I think will be the best. Last go they spread a bit too much (different oven and didn’t have enough time to let cookies cool)
This recent time I cut my butter a bit (we don’t have “sticks” in New Zealand so I weigh the 170g from our giant cube and then cut smaller) I melted in the microwave until about a quarter or third was melted and then stirred the rest which melted nicely – it was still quite creamy and opaque instead of clear and bright.
I always top my choc chip chookies with a pinch of sea salt and used a cut up choc bar to add pieces to the top right when they came out.
This batch is for a friend but I recon one or two might get “broken” and unpresentable.
★★★★★