Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pinned over 3 million times, 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, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. Big chocolate chunks promise chocolate in every single bite. The flavor and texture of these cookies is unparalleled by any other recipe. No mixer required! 

There are hundreds of chocolate chip cookies recipes out there. Everyone has their favorite! But, in my mind, this recipe really stands out. These chewy chocolate chip cookies are:

• The chewiest of chewy and the softest of soft!
• Extra thick.
• Bakery style with an under-baked center.
• Exploding with chocolate!

Warning: these chocolate chip cookies require a tall glass of milk. Watch me make them from start to finish in my own kitchen:

I tested today’s cookie recipe over and over again to make sure they’re absolutely perfect before sharing the recipe. I still have a big space in my heart (and tastebuds) for my soft-baked Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re one of the most popular recipes on my website! Today’s recipe is similar, but I increased the chewy factor.

How to Make Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The cookie dough is made from standard ingredients: flour, leavener, salt, sugar, butter, egg, & vanilla. It’s the ratios of those ingredients that make this recipe stand out from the rest. Mix 2 and 1/4  cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and my favorite: cornstarch. I use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch in this recipe.

• Why cornstarch? Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all know and love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick.

Use melted butter in this chocolate chip cookie recipe. Most of the cookies on my website call for creaming softened butter with the sugars. Chewy chocolate chip cookies require melted butter.

• Why melted butter? Melted butter produces the chewiest cookies. It can, however, make your baked cookie greasy, so I made sure there is enough flour to avoid that from happening.

Since you are using melted butter, you don’t need a mixer for this cookie recipe.

Use More Brown Sugar

Use a mix of brown sugar and white granulated sugar in your chocolate chip cookies. I prefer more brown sugar than white granulated sugar because 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.

Too much cookie spreading? Here are my 10 Guaranteed Tips to Prevent Over-Spreading

Extra 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 and 1 egg yolk. You can freeze the extra egg white in a ziplock bag for up to 1 month or use it to make my Skinny Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes. 🙂

The dough will be soft and the chocolate chunks may not stick because of the melted butter. Just keep stirring it; I promise it will come together.

The most important step is next.

Chill the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Chilling the cookie dough is so important! Unless you want the cookies to spread into a massive cookie puddle, chilling the dough is mandatory for this cookie recipe. 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 the dough for at least 2-3 hours and even up to 3-4 days. After chilling, let your cookie dough sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling into balls.

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 have just one of two cookies whenever you want!

These cookies are huge–about 3 Tablespoons of dough is rolled to make one cookie. The batch only makes about 16 cookies since you will be rolling them so large. Feel free to make the cookies smaller (about 2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie) instead. If you do that, be sure to reduce the baking time by a couple minutes.

When you remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator after chilling, the dough will be slightly crumbly.  The warmth of your hands rolling it will make it stay intact. Roll the cookie dough balls taller, rather than wide as I discussed and showed in my cake batter chocolate chip cookies recipe. This little tried-and-true trick will result in thicker cookies. I do it for every single cookie I bake.

Secrets to Thick, Soft, & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Underbaked cookies are the secret to softness.
• Using cornstarch in the dough is another secret to softness, as well as the secret to thickness.
• Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie.
• Adding an extra egg yolk increases chewiness.
• Rolling the cookie dough balls to be taller than wider increases thickness.
• Using melted butter (and slightly more flour) increases chewiness.
• Chilling the dough results in a thicker cookie.

Bonus: try them with half M&Ms and half chocolate chunks!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

★★★★★ 5 from 26 reviews

• Author: Sally
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 12 minutes
• Total Time: 3 hours, 22 minutes
• Yield: 16 large cookies
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: American

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Description

Pinned over 3 million times, these super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website. Melted butter, 1 extra egg yolk, and more brown sugar than white sugar guarantee the chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. Chilling the cookie dough is imperative. No mixer required! 

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Ingredients

• 2 and 1/4 cups (280g) all-purpose flour (spoon & 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 & slightly cooled
• 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

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Instructions

1. Whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chunks. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them. Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or up to 3-4 days. Chilling is mandatory. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight for less spreading.
3. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
5. Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will help the balls stay together. Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick. See this post for more detail and a photo. Place 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls for looks, if desired.
6. Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.

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Notes

1. 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 4. 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. Click here for my tips and tricks on freezing cookie dough.
2. Salted butter can be used instead. Reduce salt in the cookie dough to 1/4 teaspoon.
3. Room temperature egg + egg yolk are best. Typically, if a recipe calls for room temperature or melted butter, it’s in 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. What to do with the extra egg white? Make these or these.
4. Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.

Keywords: cookies, chocolate chip cookies

Make a Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake next time.

See more cookie recipes.