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.
I just realized I don’t have any vanilla. Can I make them without and they will still be great?
Hi Michelle, the cookies will lack flavor without the vanilla. Let us know if you give it a try!
Look no further than this chocolate chip cookie recipe. These were soft, chocolatey and oh so good.
I will never make a different chocolate chip cookie.
Hi!! I did not realize they needed to cool in the refrigerator for so long, is there an equivalent minimum time for them to cool in the freezer?
I love alll of your recipes btw!! Thank you for your work
Hi Seirra! Chilling the dough in the freezer results in uneven coldness of the dough. We recommend sticking with the refrigerator!
Thank you, Sally, for this delectable cookie recipe. Until now, I had not found a “favorite” CC cookie recipe. This one is it! I made a double recipe, following your instructions,, and this is now my “go-to” chocolate chip cookie recipe. I chopped up baking chocolate, and used that instead of chocolate chips, as that is my preference. I baked some, and froze most of the dough, and have baked from frozen as well. Both turned out wonderful. I like to have some in the freezer when I will need a quick treat. Thank you!!
Can’t wait to make them. Do I have to use a cookie scoop?
Hi Stephanie! See step 6 – you can use a tablespoon measuring spoon instead 🙂
Made these at the lake this weekend, super easy and yummy, I froze 1/2 of the batch rolled and ready I bake next time we are at the lake! Thanks for the recipe
Would m&m’s work with this recipe?
Yes, absolutely! You can swap M&Ms for chocolate chips without making any other changes – or even use half of each.
Hi Sally!
How would the recipe turn out with vegetable oil in place of butter? What should I adjust if I use oil?
Hi Annie! For best results, we recommend sticking with melted butter here — although some readers have had success with melted coconut oil.
I made these using the Guittard Super Baking Chips. I doubled the recipe, chilled overnight and baked for 12 minutes. These were not only delicious, but the presentation was gorgeous. I brought them to a family gathering for 15 and they were all gone by the end of the day!!
These will be my go to for gifts and potlucks!
From one Sally to another, thank you for this recipe! They are delicious and were enjoyed by all as our Sunday dinner dessert. I followed the directions as directed and measured each cookie ball at 45g so they were all nice and equal in size. Will make again soon. ☺️
Hi Sally, I’m Carol ( a fan of choc chip cookies) how did you measure each cookie at 45 g, did you use a scale or other means of measurement, thanks!
Hi Carol, we use a kitchen scale to measure the weight of each individual cookie.
Simply amazing! My new favorite chocolate chip cookie! These were a hit with my family and came out perfectly! I also love that you didn’t need a mixer.
Took a batch almost straight from the oven to a baseball game. I got better reviews than the team. So easy and I like that I don’t have to pull out the mixer.
Hi Cindy, thank you so much for giving these cookies a try. We wonder if your butter solidified too much after melting. If so, the dough will be crumbly. Make sure it’s still melted. And 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.
I absolutely LOVED this recipe and will definitely be using it soon again. I didn’t have chocolate chips so I used Reese Peanut butter chips instead and they were perfect. I will be making more with chocolate chips, etc…
All I can say is WOW!! The best batch of chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. And I’ve made a LOT of batches over the years. They did seem undercooked in the middle at first but once completely cooled they firmed up and were moist and chewy. Fyi – Last Christmas I decided to change up the variety of cookies I make for my cookie platters. I “retired” your Magic Cookie Bars. Big mistake. Got a lot of complaints from my family. Bringing them back in 2022.
These are my go to chocolate chip cookies-they come out great every time!
The best soft chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! Soft without being underbaked. People ask me “how did you do that?!” Note that this is not a recipe for those who like crunchy chocolate chip cookies.
These are THE BEST chocolate chip cookies. This is my go-to cookie recipe and I’ve never been disappointed. Easy to make and the dough refrigerates well to make cookies a few days later even!
hi. can i substitute APF with almond flour?
Hi Ann, we don’t recommend almond flour as it has very different baking properties and is not always a 1:1 swap. We haven’t tested it, but if you are looking for a gluten-free cookie you might have success experimenting with a gluten-free all-purpose flour like Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup. Or you might enjoy these flourless almond butter chocolate chip cookies instead. If you give anything a try, we’d love to know how it goes for you!
Recommendations for high altitude. I live at 8300′ elevation.
Hi Ray, we wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Is it possible to make this recipe except use a jelly roll pan for chocolate chip pan cookies? Thank you.
Hi Candice! There isn’t quite enough batter to yield a 9×13 inch pan of cookie bars, but is plenty for a 9×9 inch square baking pan or try this chocolate chip cookie bars recipe. For a 9×13 inch pan using this exact recipe, we’d recommend 1.5x the recipe — we’re unsure of the best amount for a jelly roll pan. The bake time will be longer for either. Let us know what you try!
Cornstarch makes all the difference in the world. Like a magic ingredient in these cookies! The best.
I made this recipe for my students and it was a huge hit! I was low on semi-sweet chips, so I used about 3/4 bittersweet – but I followed the recipe otherwise. I think the extra brown sugar is key!
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
I’ve been making a slightly modified Tollhouse recipe for years but I wanted to give these a try based on the raving reviews to see what I was missing. I followed the directions to a T and they came out dough raw in the middle( even after waiting 10 minutes and baking for 13). I will try baking them a little longer next time and give them one more go. They are a decent flavor but the reduced butter and sugar (in comparison to Tollhouse) makes them taste a little bland to me. It might just be personal preference though.
I make these for my coffee shop, but use a mix of 3 chocolate chips, milk, semi-sweet and dark chocolate. I keep the frozen dough in the freezer all the time so they are always fresh baked. A community favorite.
BEST. RECIPE. EVER!!
This is my “go to” recipe for chocolate chip
Cookies. It’s the only recipe I use now
The past two times I’ve made these cookies they’ve flattened once I took them out of the oven. Any ideas of what could be causing that? I’m refrigerating the dough for the recommended amount of time and following the recipe to a T. My ingredients are fresh. I can’t figure out what’s going wrong! I didn’t have this issue the first few times I made them. Is it possible to “over mix” the dough? (regardless of my issues, they are still DELICIOUS and so soft! best cookies I’ve ever had–just want to get the look of them right!)
Hi Sarah, They will deflate a bit after baking which gives them those beautiful crinkly tops! Our best trick however, is to roll the cookie dough balls taller, rather than wide. This little tried-and-true trick will result in thicker cookies. We do it for every single cookie we bake.
My choc chip
Cookies always come out hard 🙁
Looking for soft and chewy and not to pale looking.
Thank u
Hi Pam, is this the recipe you’ve been using? They shouldn’t be hard. Let us know if you give this recipe a try – it’s a favorite!
Can the butter be browned when melting it? I’ve come to love browned butter so much!
Hi Donice, You can, yes, 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.
These cookies turned out to be amazing. Everyone at home loved eating them!
I’ve been searching for a consistently reliable ccc recipe for years and finally found this one! It’s made it into our binder of most loved recipes. Trust the cooking time!! They will look practically raw but they will set up beautifully. The first time I made these I didn’t believe they were done and overcooked them and ruined them. Every other time I followed exactly and they were perfect!
I’ve made these a few times and they are delicious but I always have to add time. I follow the recipe exactly but after the cool off times they’re still raw in the middle.
These were excellent! I didn’t realize I had to refrigerate for hours, so I threw the sugar/butter/egg mixture in the freezer for 5-10 min then mixed it with the flour mixture so I could bake them. The dough was then the desired consistency to bake. They turned out perfectly and now this is the only recipe I’ll use. Excellent instructions too! Thank you!
I can’t wait to try this, especially with the cornstarch! The recipe calls for adding the butter mixture to the flour mixture. What would happen if I did it the other way around, adding the flour mixture to the butter mixture?
Hi Christine, We find it a bit easier to mix that way but it shouldn’t make too much of a difference one way or another. Enjoy the cookies!