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 (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 & 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.
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can leave it out. The cookies are still very soft.
- Butter: Avoid letting the melted butter cool for too long otherwise your dough will be crumbly instead of soft (and your cookies will end up too puffy). You want it still a little warm. Salted butter can be used instead. Reduce salt in the cookie dough to 1/4 teaspoon.
- 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 love these, but they always look so greasy! Any tips on that Sally?
★★★★★
Hi Koree, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Did they seem to spread a bit too much as well? Here are our 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading. Also be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to measure your flour so that it properly soaks up the butter (which will prevent greasy looking cookies). Hope these tips help for next time!
can I use brown sugar only?
Hi Michael! The white sugar helps the cookies spread. The cookies will be a little different if using all brown sugar.
What are the adjustments for high altitude baking at 7,000’ and >?
Hi Cat, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Perfect for me. I don’t know why but I’ve been struggling to find a recipe that I like/do properly. I’m always too impatient to wait for the butter to get to room temp so another thing I love from this recipe. If I bake them too long I just do the bread in the bag trick to keep them soft. Perfect and I’m so excited to make it again soon!
★★★★★
These were a huge hit, my guests couldn’t stop eating them. All your recipes turn out perfect. I made mine pretty big and had to bake them an extra 2 minutes. I loved the tip about the column shaped drops before they go in the oven. You rock, Sally
★★★★★
Love this recipe! It’s been my go to cookie recipe for a while now and they freeze/ bake from frozen amazingly 🙂 Thank you so much!
★★★★★
Very popular and delicious!
★★★★★
I followed this recipe exactly and really want to love it…but sadly I don’t! They puffed up nicely and then flatten as they cool….I would like then a little more cakey…maybe I’ll add a bit more flour. Or I’ll continue on my search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.
★★★★
Hi Janet, thanks so much for giving these cookies a try. Perhaps you may like our soft chocolate chip cookies recipe instead. They’re less chewy than these and may be more of the texture you’re looking for. Let us know if you give them a try!
I like this recipe enough to remake it, though I did find that I needed to bake for an additional 5 minutes at a higher temp to even get the full dough ball to melt, even though I made 40g balls, not 50g balls. However apart from this, I enjoyed it enough to make again with that tiny adjustment. 🙂
★★★★
HELP!!! Need 4 dozen cookies in 2 days.
Made double batch of the recipe and and put in fridge to chill.
Just realized I used baking powder instead of baking soda.
Is there anyway to save this without starting over?
Hi Donna, unfortunately, it’s best to start over with a new batch at this point. Hope the cookies are a hit!
I made these for the second time last night. This time, I browned the butter. I didn’t have time to let it cool, though, so they ended up more like straight chocolate cookies.
However, that’s not why I wanted to comment. My husband is a fool 😉 and doesn’t like chewy cookies so much. I took a third or so of the dough, mixed in the egg white, sandwiched it between two sheets of parchment and rolled it fairly thin. I then froze it, used a pizza wheel to score it and snapped off pieces to bake. They took longer than the large chewy ones, but didn’t burn, probably bc my oven rubs cool. Once they were room temp, they were mostly crisp with a slightly chewy center. I want to try again with even lower temp and see if that eliminates the slightly remaining chewiness.
Hi Sandra, we’re glad you enjoyed these! Your husband may enjoy this recipe for crispy chocolate chip cookies as well. Let us know if you give it a try!
My sweeet son has been following you (and your recipes for a long while! Well, I’ve been reading his and others comments and I find all of your recipes are terrific! This choc. chip cookie recipe is the BEST – HANDS DOWN!!!!! I’m making them tomorrow and this time I’m using white choc. chips!!! Thanks so much for all of your wonderful recipes, Sally!!!
★★★★★
I made these a few days ago and they were so good! Everyone loved them, and couldn’t believe I actually made them! Will definitely bake these again ♥️
★★★★★
Hi! Can I make this recipe with 50% less sugar?
Hi Tiffany, You can try reducing the sugar, but keep in mind that sugar plays an important role in the taste, texture, and structure of a recipe, so we’re unsure of the results when using less sugar. We’d recommend starting small, and then you can reduce further in future batches as needed.
OMG! These are, in fact, the best homemade cookies ever!! I just made them last night and wow!! I’m not usually a fan but I make cookies for my husband and son all the time. I have been trying a lot of your recipes lately so decided I would try this one too and it was amazing just like all your other recipes!! My husband is requesting bacon in his cookies next so if you could make a recipe for those you will be my hero!
If I could make perfume that smells like these cookies, I’d wear it!!!! Oh, and they taste so delicious, too.
★★★★★
I LOVE THIS RECIPE, IM GOING TO MAKE IT FOR MY FRIEND.
I used chopped chocolate instead of chips. And I accidentally baked at 350 instead of 325. Still turned out amazing!
I made this last week. Followed the recipe to a tee (even did the levelling off of the measurements as the recipe said). It didn’t seem moist once all gently combined and when I took it out of the fridge a few hours later, the dough was as hard as a rock! Anyone else have this experience? Flavour was great though, but the cookies weren’t moist or chewy at all 🙁
Hi Carly, it sounds like your flour may have been over measured if the dough and cookies were hard. Before leveling, did you scoop or spoon the flour? Scooping will pack in the flour, so we recommend spooning instead. This post on 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies will also be a helpful resource. Thank you for giving these cookies a try!
I too followed the recipe to a tee. My dough was moist going into the fridge for 16 hours. When I took it out of the fridge, the dough was rock hard. It took 2 and a half hours on the counter to become pliable as opposed to 10 minutes. This did not impact the outcome, which was exactly as advertized.
This is my go-to cookie recipe! The last time I made it, I was feeling experimental and I browned the butter before adding the sugar. I also added an extra 1/2 tsp of cornstarch and 1 extra egg yolk. HIGHLY recommend if you have the time. Sally, have you tried browning the butter on this recipe?
★★★★★
Hi, We’re so glad you enjoy these! We have a recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies that I think you will love!
Funny timing!!! I sat to read the comments while cooking the butter!
If there was ever a perfect chocolate chip cookie, THIS IS IT!!!
★★★★★
This was hands down the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! This is definitely my new go to recipe
★★★★★
I have a question, if I want to put this in a baking pan and make cookie bars instead, how long should I bake them for?
Hi Syl, 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 recommend 1.5x the recipe or you can use these M&M Cookie Bars (swap the M&Ms for chocolate chips). The bake time will be longer for cookie bars. Same temperature.
Ok, so I’ve made probably at least 100 different ccc recipes and this one takes the gold! They look just like the picture and taste like an expensive bakery cookie. Easy, fool proof, quick to come together. Threw the dough balls on the pan in the freezer for 10 min cause I was short on time. Seriously this is the recipe I’ve been looking for my whole life!!!
★★★★★
I swap out 5-10 grams of flour for cinnamon and it takes these cookies from great to amazing! They’re my youngest daughter’s favorite cookie I make.
★★★★★
I get rave reviews whenever I make these. My edits: salted butter and omit the salt. I don’t fool with getting anything to room temperature lol, and I do half milk and half semisweet chocolate chips. I also put in extra 🙂 DO NOT SKIP chilling the dough. It makes a difference and it’s worth the wait.
★★★★★
Is it best to bake one tray at a time or can 2 trays be in oven at once?
Hi Deb, you can bake two trays at once if they fit on the same rack. Otherwise, we do not recommend baking the two trays on different racks as they will bake at different rates. You can bake them one at a time, then.
I’m curious about the choice of baking soda vs baking powder in these cookies.
Hi Charles, Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable in baking recipes. You can read more about the difference between the two in this post!
I made these and they are tasty for sure. However I found that they didn’t really spread very much and they were not chewy at all really. Now I admit that I did leave out the cornstarch by mistake. Not sure if that would have made them chewy.
it makes a difference, every step makes a difference from melted butter to the pre baked taller shape
I just made a batch
This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever written! Sally has the very best recipes! The only thing I change is I replace a small amount of the butter with some butter shortening. It makes the cookies taller. I also roll into the balls then refrigerate. Easy and the best! Sally is the best!
★★★★★
My family and I love this cookies so so much! Best chocolate chips cookies ever!
They are amazing
Buonissimi
★★★★★