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
Hello, i have previously tried this recipe( with original measurements) and it was a great hit 🙂 So, thanks so much for this recipe 🙂
My question is , I need to bake a large batch, so can we straightaway double or triple the recipe?
Is it okay to double/triple the Baking soda as well?
Hi Sharon, we’re so glad you love them! This cookie recipe multiplies well. If you are going to double the recipe, double all of the ingredients.
I have to admit I’m disappointed in this reecipe. A very chewy soft cookie, but lacking that wonderful Tollhouse cookie flavor. The First recipe of Sally’s that I haven’t enjoyed.
these are easily the best i’ve ever made and the best my husband and i have ever had. this time around i used chopped kinder eggs from easter instead of chocolate chips. thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
Even though, my gf and I fought the whole afternoon, we still baked these delicious cookies!
Sally, why did they turn out almost like bread/muffin texture??
Hi Jenn! This could be caused by too much flour in the dough. When measuring flour, use the spoon & level method. Do not scoop the flour out of the container/bag. Doing so leaves you with excess flour in the cookie dough.
This is a great recipe. After reading some of the comments I wasn’t sure but it is perfect as is ~ ❤️ Thank you for sharing ~
Making these in the morning, my question I have is do I flatten the balls once on the baking sheet or do I just leave them as balls and they’ll do their thing in the oven? Sorry if it’s a stupid question just trying to have it 100% right
Hi Cece, you can leave the cookie dough as balls when putting them into the oven. If you find they’re not spreading by the end of the bake time, you can gently tap the baking pan on the counter a few times to help initiate spread. More tips in the video, too!
Made the cc cookies today. Fabulous recipe and magnificent result. Thank you very much.
I love the recipe but I also like a cake like cookie version so, would it be possible to add baking powder to achieve this or does the cornstarch already do that in this recipe.
★★★★★
Hi Rose, these are definitely a chewy, not cakey cookie. You may love our soft chocolate chip cookies recipe instead!
Truly the BEST chocolate chip cookie EVER! I’m a world cruiser and thus far, have circumnavigated half the globe. You can even slice and “bake” in a non-stick skillet!! I make several batches at a time, roll the dough into a 1-2 inch round cookie logs, wrap them in baking paper, stack them up in the freezer, and slice and bake as needed. They are great for long passages and night shifts! A smashing hit at sea.
★★★★★
These cookies are next level. Hands down the best cookies I’ve ever made. The taste and the texture are everything you’d want in a cookie. Try this recipe and follow it carefully and you won’t be disappointed!!
Baked these for a potluck and the batch was gone within 5 minutes!
★★★★★
I was disappointed in this receipe. The cookie dough was lacking flavor and very dry. I did not like the cylinder style of shaping the cookies and simply chilling the dough gives the same results. Finally, baking at 325 was not the best choice. I would not make again.
★★★
Would it be possible to substitute the butter in the recipe for margarine, or would that ruin the recipe? I bought margarine by mistake haha
Hi Felix, margarine does not have the same baking properties (or flavor!) as butter. We don’t recommend that swap.
Hey, just tried the recipe, but the cookies didn’t spread as much as yours. Any ideas what the problem might be?
When cookies aren’t spreading, it usually means that there’s too much dry ingredient (flour) soaking up all the liquid. When measuring flour, use the spoon & level method. Do not scoop the flour out of the container/bag. Doing so leaves you with excess flour in the cookie dough. Hope this helps for next time!
I followed instructions to a T. Turned out divine. Husband says they were the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I am so glad I froze most of the dough balls-otherwise we would have eaten them ALL!
★★★★★
Just ate my first!
★★★★★
This recipe is really off. The wet to dry ingredients proportion is off in metric measurements. I followed everything to a T, rested the dough overnight. Now I have crumbly and sandy cookies. I’m attempting to fix the dough but who wants to add even more time to an already long recipe?
★★
I found the dough very dry and hard as a rock after chilling. No way to scoop it unless I left it out a lot longer than 10 minutes before shaping. I hacked it apart with a knife and made the towers, they barely spread at all and were not soft and crinkly on top. The taste was ok, but not at all like the pictures. Much more of a raised cake like texture and a bit dry
★★
Hi Vicky, we’re so sorry to hear you had troubles with this recipe. How did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured. If there is too much flour in the dough, it will soak up too much of the wet ingredients and cause the cookies to be hard and dry. They’ll have trouble spreading, too. Should you decided to give these another try, we hope these tips will be helpful!
Sally, I love all your recipes because they always turn out… except not this recipe. This was same experience. The cookies did not turn out and looked nothing like the picture. The dough was hard and crumbly and cookies had no flavor. I 100% followed the instructions and measured flour as Sally recommended.
★★
This is THE recipe I’ve been hunting for for years, I tried this recipe a month ago and have had to make a fresh batch every 3 days because my husband, parents and the kids demand them. Zero edits, perfect every time.
★★★★★
super delicious cookies! chocolate chips did not like to stick to dough so it took a little extra time to form the balls but the taste was worth it
★★★★★
I made these the other and followed the recipe exactly but for some reason the cookies really soft and braking a part. Any idea why this happened? I even chilled the dough for couple of hours.
Hi Saira, do they seem dry? Or could they be underbaked? A few extra minutes in the oven should help if they seem to be underbaked!
Best Chocolate Chip cookie ever!I am so thankful to you for all your wonderful recipes,which always turn out perfectly with your guidance. Thank you Sally.
LOVED THESE! Can you double the recipe for these cookies?
Hi Kathy, Yes! this cookie recipe doubles well. Glad you enjoy it!
Something is off and seems like too much flour to have chewy non biscuit cookies and the dough is nothing like described in this recipe smh
★★★
Delicious, chewy cookies. Just the way I like them. Next time I’ll add a sprinkle of salt right out of the oven to make a salted version.
★★★★★
These cookies are delicious. I’ve been looking for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies like this for a while. Mine always came out flat and crunchy but these, these are perfect. They’re soft and chewy and they even look aesthetically pleasing. I’ve already made these twice this week. They’re now my go to cookie. The only thing I did differently was use both chocolate chips and chocolate chunks because I love chocolate.
★★★★★
This was the best cookie recipe I’ve ever tried! Do not hesitate.
these are my GO TO cookies! Love them so much. Have you ever tried using browned butter? I make these all the time but just recently had the thought of browning the butter. Do you think this would make the cookies too rich?
Hi Bailey! You can use brown butter, yes, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter — we suggest using our recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.
Such fantastic cookies. I misread the ingredients and used egg whites instead of yolk. But they still came out fantastic!! I used mini chocolate chips and made them a little smaller because I wanted them for goody bags. Skipped the fridge part and baked them at 350 for 8 mins. Then turned them and baked for 3-4 more mins. Perfect shape!
★★★★★
I’ve made this recipe a lot and it’s our favorite! Due to some health concerns, we need to make some changes to our diet. Currently making muffins with oat flour for example. So , my question is….how can I adapt my favorite cookie recipe here using my own ground oat flour and honey as the sweetener?? Can it be done? We also use almond and coconut flours. We’re missing our chocolate chip cookies!! Help! Thank you!❤️
★★★★★
Hi Brenda! So happy to hear that these cookies are a favorite. Unfortunately, those swaps aren’t an easy 1:1 exchange in this cookie recipe. It will take some testing and you may be better off searching for a chocolate chip cookie recipe specially formulated for the ingredients you’re hoping to use. You may also enjoy these flourless chocolate chip cookies. Let us know if you find a recipe you love!
Thank you so much for the almond flour recipe – I will be making it. However, I want to “tweak” the chewy chocolate chip recipe and see how it goes. Martha Stewart has an article about swapping out regular sugar for honey, maple syrup and agave. I will be using this method with Sally’s Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies. What’s the worst that could happen!. Will let you know how they turn out.
★★★★★