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
I have the cookie dough chilling in the fridge and have a question about alternate cookie sizes. I prefer a smaller cookie, about 1 tablespoon, should I adjust the baking time due to the smaller size? I plan to freeze the balls and bake to order in order to avoid cookie bingeing.
Hi Denise! Yes, the bake time will be shorter for 1 Tbs cookies – we’re unsure of the exact bake time. Let us know if you give it a try!
Such a disappointment. I made these for a 104th (yes, that’s right!) birthday party. I tried this recipe because I was looking for chewy cookies and I’ve never before had a bad recipe from this site. I followed the directions completely. They didn’t spread like the photos show. I made them tall as directed, they were hard lumps of dry cookie.
★
Hi Rhonda! Usually when cookies are dry or don’t spread, there’s too much flour in the dough. Sounds like that’s what happened here! 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. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I love this recipe!! I baked these today and renewed my love for chocolate chip cookies. The recipe I had doesn’t even come close!! Thank you!!
★★★★★
Hi Sally tried this recipe several times and the cookies always turned out great ! Thank you so much!
★★★★★
This recipe is the best!! I use baking powder instead of soda though. Gives the cookies a brighter colour and a softer taste
Chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite foods. But I live “dangerously close” to a famous cookie bakery, so had given up on trying to bake anything better. However, I just made my first batch of these and – whoa! – never had a better cc cookie. So good, so chewy…and the directions, as always, detailed and easy to follow. Thank you to you and team for developing this recipe. They. Are. Amazing! No more bakery bought for us. Will keep half a batch of dough in freezer at all times, instead.
★★★★★
I LOVED THIS RECIPE!!!!
★★★★★
Any adjustments for high altitude? Thanks!
Hi Ashley! 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
The first time I made this recipe, I let my butter cook completely and got a very crumbly dough which didn’t spread much at all. The second time I read the entire recipe properly along with the tips at the bottom and made cookies exactly like yours! They were so delicious and I’m definitely freezing some. Thank you for sharing your recipe in grams! 10/10
★★★★★
We used to recipe for our date night, we got the Adventure Book from tik tok & one of the date challenges was to make pie (we opted for cookies) blindfolded while your partner guides you with only movements of your hands & body. 10/10 recommend as this recipe was easy to follow from someone who ho made them blindfolded
I followed the recipe but mine turned out to be kinda grainy. It probably was my bad though because I used whole wheat flour, so just a warning to anyone if you use it, I’d use a little less! Still giving 5 stars though because I can tell they would be absolutely amazing if I had the right flour haha
★★★★★
They turned out wonderfully! I chilled the dough for 2 hours and they were perfect!
★★★★★
There were certainly no complaints from my taste testers! I followed the recipe exactly and these cookies are definitely chewy and delicious! Though mine didn’t flatten as much as in the photo, and I ended up baking them an extra 3-4 minutes because of this and because they weren’t browning. They still turned out great. Next time I’ll flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass before baking.
Hi Kelly! Usually when cookies don’t spread, it’s because there’s too much flour in the dough. 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 very rarely comment on recipes, but this one is so good I feel it’s my duty to say something… these are honestly the best cookies I have ever eaten in my life. They are delicious and the texture is absolutely perfect. The recipe is detailed and easy to follow, so MAKE. THESE. COOKIES, y’all. You will be so glad you did,
Why do I have to leave in refrigerator for 2 hrs. Can I just put in freezer for 30 mins
Hi Cindy, the dough won’t chill evenly in the freezer. The fridge works best!
I love it
★★★★★
I love this recipe
I followed the recipe exactly like it was written. I let the dough chill at least 24hrs in the refrigerator before baking. I weighed each cookie at 50g to have even baking. The dough was hard to scoop even after sitting out for 10 min but was easy to shape. They spread perfectly and tasted AMAZING. I did add the extra chips to the top after pulling out of the oven. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
Mine came out tasting good but I they did not flatten out as much as I would have liked. Mine stayed more in the ball-like shape.
My family loves this recipe! We opted for the XL cookies and had a blast laughing at how big they are. Thank for your helpful education sessions too. We are learning a lot and having fun baking tasty treats.
If reducing sugar amount to lower the sweetness.
Would anything else need to be adjusted for the lack of sugar?
Also, would placing large cookie sheets on both, the top and bottom racks cause any variation in the cooking?
Hi Chris, you can certainly try reducing the sugar in this recipe, but keep in mind that it plays an important role in the texture and structure of the cookies, too. The baked cookies will be different than intended, but feel free to tinker with the ingredients if you’d like to experiment. We don’t recommend baking on separate racks, as the cookies will bake at different rates that way. It’s best to bake only one sheet at a time (or however many sheets can fit on the same rack of your oven).
Delicious, and super simple cookies!
Mine didn’t spread as much as the pictures, but I did reduce the sugars:
1/3 granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
So that may have contributed to less spread?
But it made from some thick, soft & chewy, chocolate chip cookies. <3
★★★★★
I followed the recipe exactly as it was written and my cookies turned out super delicious! But not as anticipated. My cookies didn’t really spread at all (which is fine but I was expecting a large , more flat cookie). Not sure what I may have done wrong? I will definitely make these again with a little less chocolate chips as there was a LOT with the 1 & 1/4 cup. My family is currently enjoying the batch I made tonight , as am I !
★★★★
Hi Jen, so glad you enjoyed them! How did you measure the flour? Cookie that don’t spread can be caused by too much flour in the dough. 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.
Eureka, finally after I have tried a dozen of different “chewy” cookies recipes…this is THE recipes! I actually melted butter on the stove and purposely burn a bit which gave some really nice hint of caramel!
★★★★★
Hands down the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have encountered thus far. I have been trying for a couple of weeks now to refine my chocolate chip cookie recipe for the perfect consistency of chewy with the crunchy edges in several recipes came close, but not quite like this one these are absolutely perfect! I actually did a cup of brown sugar instead of a 3/4 and they were heavenly. Thanks so much for taking the time out to share. This is definitely going into my electronic Rolodex of recipes
★★★★★
Hi! I don’t have cornstarch but have rice flour. Do you recommend I substitute (read online to use twice the amount of rice flour to cornstarch) or just omit cornstarch substitution. I saw you said you can leave cornstarch all together so wasn’t sure if adding the rice flour sub was going to make a difference.
Hi Christie! We haven’t tested rice flour, so would recommend leaving it out completely. Happy baking!
I followed the recipe exactly and these were the yummiest, chewiest chocolate chip cookie ever. I have always made the chocolate chip recipe on the back of the chip bag but IMO these are so much better, so I threw the old recipe away. And the stacking of the dough before baking is now my standard method. Great cookie.
★★★★★
I made your Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies and they were just amazing. I had never used melted butter, one egg and one egg yolk, and cornstarch. Nor had I refrigerated the dough. Everyone I’ve shared them with LOVED them. Thank you!!!
★★★★★
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever used. Delicious!
★★★★★
I have found a recipe that ends my search for the perfect ChewyChocolate Chip Cookie! I reduced the amount of chocolate chips to 1 cup and used milk chocolate chips. I can’t say enough about the texture and flavor of these cookies, soft, chewy, absolutely delicious!
These are so good! I have made them a couple of time and they are my go to. I like to chill for an one hour and forty five minutes. I add 1/2 tsp more vanilla, and as Sally has said before, the baking time is just a suggestion.
★★★★★
I have been making these for a few years now and have never had an issue. Follow the recipe exactly and you will not be disappointed.
My family and friends rave about these.
Absolutely love them.
★★★★★
The cookies tasted good- but mine kept spreading like crazy! I even tried to do like the video said and stop them from spreading but it didn’t work. I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong. Good taste tho. Probably not do them again- maybe I put too much butter? I followed the recipe tho.
Hi Mona, spreading cookies can be caused my many things – here’s our post with tips for preventing cookies from spreading!