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 Must-Have 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.
Q: Have you baked a batch before?
Print
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 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 (1.5 sticks or 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 tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: chocolate chip cookies
Good, chewy cookies but I could taste the cornstarch or at least gave it a slightly bitter-ish taste. My bf said they were good but prefers my original recipe that’s from my grandma, wanted to try these as mine are slightly crunchy. Thanks for sharing my kids will devour them I’m sure
Delicious cookies! Everyone always loves them.
★★★★★
My kids love these cookies. They are so easy to make. No mixer required!! Mine turn out perfect every time !!!
★★★★★
Hi,
I have not made this cookie recipe yet but, i am wondering about the melted butter since a lot has been said about it being the reason why we get flat cookie.
Any clarification please.
Thank you
Hi Joi! See the blog post above for details on the methodology of these cookies. Melted butter makes them extra chewy!
Hi Sally,
Thank you for the reply. I made this already..and it turned out perfect.
Thank you for your time. Appreciate it
Absolutely love this recipe. Everyone now asks for it but I keep the recipe to myself because I love making cookies so much. It’s a weekly go to recipe. I make them for school groups, mothers club and any other group activity I can.
I have been experimenting with different extract like salted caramel and using different choc chips like Caramilk chips. It’s works wonderfully.
Question— How much cocoa would I need to turn the recipe into a chocolate choc chic cookie ????
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes, I have tried many and they are always a massive hit. And also shared your website with many of my family and friends.
Aussies live cookies. Thank again.
★★★★★
Hi Cass! Here’s our double chocolate chip cookies recipe. Enjoy!
Does the cookie remain chewy for a week or does it harden immediately?
They remain chewy if properly baked!
Wow these turned out amazing. So delicious and soft. Yummy! No changes needed! I Just have to say I have never had a bad recipe from Sally’s baking recipes!
★★★★★
Just perfect! The best chocolate chip cookie EVER! And all the tips you offer for success! The cylinder shape is my favourite! Thank you Sally for sharing your techniques. These are a huge hit in my house!
★★★★★
Love this recipe, the cookie was a hit. I followed the recipe exactly, however, my cookies didn’t spread at all. My batter was thick but I still chilled it for 2 hours as the recipe calls for. Any suggestions?
★★★★★
Hi Jan, How are you measuring your flour? Be sure to spoon and level, or use a food scale if available, to ensure just the right amount of flour. When cookies are not spreading, it typically means there is too much flour soaking up the wet ingredients. This post on 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies may also be helpful to review.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I made the cookies about a dozen times now, for my children, to bring along when meeting with friends, etc etc. They are always welcome and usually receive a lot of enthusiastic praise. And rightly so.
There is one thing, however, I may have to take issue with. In the text, it says the cookies last about a week. What a blatant lie! When my boys are around, the cookies never last longer than two and a half days…
Cheers!
Rainer
★★★★★
How about “they last up to a week if you somehow forget about them!” 😉
Yes, agreed. That never happens, though.
Sally
I was getting ready to bake these cookies when I noticed a big discrepancy in the corn starch measurements! In your video you call for 1 cup of corn starch, yet in list of ingredients it says 1 1/2 tsp. of corn starch! I decided that’ll too big of a discrepancy to ignore & I couldn’t find any other bakers asking about the cornstarch measurements!
Also, there was a small video of these cookies being made using a stand mixer! Can you use a stand mixer?
★★★★★
Hi Linda, thank you for asking! In the video I say “a touch of cornstarch” and not a cup of cornstarch. You could definitely use a stand mixer for this if you’d like.
Thanks Sally! I am not the best whisker so using mixer should help!
Linda
★★★★★
If I need to 5x the recipe, should I do in one big batch or 5 smaller batches?
Hi Jennifer, it will probably come down to whether you have mixing bowls large enough to handle all that dough! It can be hard to stir together that volume of ingredients, too, so maybe start by trying to double it, then make it again and triple it?
I love this recipe! It’s soft and chewy and very comforting when paired with cold milk. By the way, the recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of flour, but can i instead use 2 cups of APF and 1/4 of cocoa powder to make the inside out cookies? Thanks
★★★★★
Hi Michelle! So glad you enjoy these cookies. Cocoa powder is a very light and fine dry ingredient, so it’s not a basic 1:1 switch with all-purpose flour. It’s best to use the inside out cookies recipe instead — they’re chewy and soft-baked just like these.
So these need adjusted for higher altitudes?
Hi Jenny, 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
I made a double batch of these for my son and his friends video game extravaganza. I added an extra tablespoon of vanilla extract and rather than use chips, I went to Sprouts Market for mini peanut butter cups to use in them. The PB cup mini’s made it way more expensive but so worth it. Damn good cookies!
★★★★★
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! My family went crazy over them. in fact, my oldest grandson (home from college) ate 8!!! Needless to say, I just made another batch and doubles the recipe this time. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
★★★★★
Excellent. Have now made these twice exactly as written, no notes! My only problem is that I cannot resist eating all the cookies.
★★★★★
I’ve tried a ton of chocolate chip cookies over the years and this is BY FAR my families favorite. It’s now my go to recipe. The cookies never last more than a couple of days.
★★★★★
Hi! I made your brown butter, pretzel mm cookies years ago, and have the pin saved- but every time I click the picture of those cookies, just the brown butter chocolate chip one shows up. I know I can eye ball quantities of the pretzel & mm but just want to know if you have a link to that recipe somewhere?!
Hi Amy! I removed that old recipe a couple of years ago because it wasn’t getting much traffic. However, it’s basically the brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies only without the chocolate chips and toffee, and replace with half M&Ms and half pretzel pieces.
Delicious recipe! I’ve been baking for a long time. For some reason these cookies always turn out flat for me. Doesn’t matter how long I chill the dough for, they spread and are very thin. Any ideas??
Thanks!
Hi Rachel! Here’s our best tips to help keep cookies from spreading.
This is an excellent recipe. I combine Sally’s recipe with the ATK chocolate chip cookie technique by increasing the butter slightly to allow for browning. I then melt the sugar into the browned butter until room temperature and add the eggs to the butter/sugar to create the glossy mix ATK recommends for getting additional gloss and chew. No more effort, no more dishes, but the best of all worlds!
★★★★★
I think this is an amazing recipe. I couldn’t actually believe how good. Hopefully next time will be as good. Frozen some too but haven’t cooked yet.
Thank you
★★★★★
Literally every single recipe I have tried from this site has been a knockout, and this was no exception. My partner said these are their favorite cookies ever. Absolutely delicious! I’m off to try the soft recipe next. Thanks Sally!
★★★★★
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe! Cookies were not flat at all, even though I only refrigerated dough 2 hours.
★★★★★
Thanks so much! I used this recipe for my friend. I used the cookies as a present because she is leaving the school. You helped me to make her last day special!!!
★★★★★
This was incredible
★★★★
I have never been that great at making cookies. That is up until now. This is undoubtably the best cookie recipe that has ever been published. The tips that you gave were so helpful.
The taste is superb!!! The appearance is outstanding!!
I definitely will be using this recipe over and over again. Thank you so much for sharing
★★★★★
I’m bringing dinner to a friend on Wednesday and I’m am making these cookies for the dessert. I can’t wait to try these after all the great reviews so I can rid myself of all the others chocolate chip cookie recipes I have! Most cookies are pretty yummy the day they are made. Are these cookies as good on the second and third day, if they last that long.
Thank you !
Hope they’re a hit, Linda!
This cookie recipe solved all my cookie problems in the oven. It is so fail proof and the taste / texture/ depth is incredible!! There is no other cookie recipe to look for as i have tried 4 other recipes but this one is definitely THE WINNER. Question, will it be ok to add 2 tablespoons of Dry Milk Powder to the Dry Ingredients? Thank you ♥️
★★★★★
Hi Bianca, we haven’t tested that addition so we’re unsure of the results. Adding more dry ingredient can impact the spread of the cookies (along with overall taste and texture). We’re glad you’ve been enjoying this recipe!
Can I speed the chilling process up by chilling the dough in the freezer for an hour instead of the fridge?
Hi Lisa, unfortunately not. Freezing won’t evenly chill the dough. You really need a good 2-3 hours in the refrigerator.