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 Best 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. Almost as thick as peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or their gluten free counterparts, flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies 🙂
Q: Have you baked a batch before?
Print
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 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 (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 success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: chocolate chip cookies
My little revision that made it extra chocotely was to up the chocolate to at least 2 cups with a combination of semisweet, dark, milk chocolate, and mini m&ms. No complaints yet.
Loved this recipe! I didn’t have cornstarch so I used some baking powder in its place, but that was my only change for the recipe. I will definitely try it with cornstarch in the future. That said, the cookies still came out exactly how I wanted, perfectly chewy with an aesthetically thick and textured look. Sally, you’re always my go-to and this is another reason why!
★★★★★
I have several of Sally’s chocolate chip recipes. Which is considered the latest and “Best”?
Although the ingredients are very similar in several of the recipes the oven temp of 325 is a significant difference in this one.
Hi Cheryl, that depends on what you’re looking for in a chocolate chip cookie. If you’re looking for chewy, this is definitely our favorite!
Absolutely delicious! The brown sugar ratio made it. I did replace some chocolate chips with walnuts and coconut.
★★★★★
Hi, I love this recipe but my parents find it too sweet. May I know if I can just leave out the white sugar and if the cookies will still be chewy? Thanks
★★★★★
Hi Micki, we don’t recommend it. White sugar is important not only for the taste, but for the texture and spread of the cookies, too.
Thanks Lexi. What if I reduced the brown and white sugar proportionately to cut down the sweetness? Or keep the brown sugar at 150g and reduce the white sugar to 50g? Any recommendation would be appreciated!
★★★★★
Hi Micki, you can try proportionally reducing both sugars, but again, the cookies will come out different than intended. Both sugars are important for giving the cookies their signature chewy texture. How about trying these chocolate chip cookies with unrefined sugar instead? Or even these almond butter chocolate chip cookies?
Followed the recipe exactly. A little cakey. When I made them the shape and size recommended, they were way too thick. I had to do half the amount and flatten them halfway thru cooking so that they weren’t too thick. They taste decent.
★★
Hi Dave! Thank you for giving these cookies a try. 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.
These are the best classic chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever tried. Unlike many other chocolate chip cookie recipes, they do not taste like the cookies made from pre-made cookie dough. They have a great vanilla and brown sugar flavor with just the right amount of chocolate, and a texture that is fudgy in the middle and crispy on the edge. Also, they spread just enough, in my opinion. Thank you for your recipes. This blog is always the first place I go to for a recipe.
★★★★★
these cookies were the best cookies ive ever made. on god. like tbh i never had better cookies.
★★★★★
When it comes to chilling dough I am impatient however it was well worth it. Cookies tasted amazing & baked perfectly.
★★★★★
I made the cookies without chocolate chips and it still came out amazing !!!
Made these when I was in a pinch and needed a quick cookie fast for my kids. I didn’t have corn starch so I used baking powder instead of the baking soda. And then I didn’t have time to chill, so I threw the bowl of dough into the freezer for a few minutes and then baked them into medium size cookies and they didn’t spread! They came out beautiful and tasted SO GOOD. Thank you for the recipe!
I agree! This is the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe! I won a Blue Ribbon in my county fair for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie this month! Thank you for your great recipes Sally!
Thank you for all of your time, effort, and recipes helping us all to Bake Our Best!
★★★★★
I followed the recipe EXACTLY. They aren’t very tasty, quite a over powering flour flavour. Maybe not sweet enough?
★★
★★★★★
I never comment anything BUT right now I’m doing it because I need to say: Thank you, Sally!!!!
I made this recipe last saturday (I was a little bit scared because the temperature of my oven is not super accurate) but the cookies turned out amaaaazing (almost too good that they last less than 3 days xD). So thank you, Sally… and lots of love from Chile 🙂
So glad they turned out, Dani P!
I am gluten free, so its hard finding good tasting cookies. I decided to try to bake one instead, but no recipes ever turned out good. That’s until i found this recipe. I substituted the flour for Gluten free flour, and these were the best cookies i’ve ever had! They are easy, and dont take long.
★★★★★
I love this recipe! Substituted arrowroot powder for the corn starch and they have always turned out great
★★★★★
I wanted to hate these cookies because they are far from fast and easy but, OMG are they amazing
I chose this recipe because I only like my cookies soft and chewy and so I followed the recipe and the notes to an exact T and my cookies came out all flat and crunchy. Maybe it’s my oven, but they came out the opposite of their description and what I was craving :/ don’t know what went wrong!
★★
Used softened butter instead of melting and butterscotch and chocolate chips along with pecans. Didn’t chill dough. All turned out perfectly! Best recipe. Keep it simple.
I didnt chill the dough also and they turned out fine
★★★★★
Good ol chocolate chip recipe. Easy and yummy
★★★★★
I love it
I will try it a third time, I have know idea what I am doing wrong. I watched the video after my last failure, I think I am needing to just stir it like it says, I am so used to using a mixture, after refriderating, it comes out like a rock. No reflection on Sally!
★★★
Hi Sandra Ann! Is the dough too hard to scoop? Let it sit at room temperature for half an hour or so before rolling the dough balls if that is the case. Or, you can roll the dough balls before chilling if you prefer. Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try!
I am super picky about my homemade cookies. I like them to be just a little brown and tiny bit crunchy on the outside and a bit gooey and soft on the inside. This recipe gave me exactly that! I am so exited to have finally find the perfect recipe for my own taste! One of my daughters loves to pop a choc chip cookie or two in the oven before bedtime. Now, she can do that. I froze some of them.
★★★★★
Hello, I followed your recipe but the dough was sticky after 3 hours in the fridge. After making them, they came out flat. Any ideas as to what I did wrong!
Hi Aleem! Make sure to not use scalding hot butter – let it cool a bit after melting. Here’s more tips for preventing cookies from spreading for your next batch. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I think these are toooo dry
★
So delicious!! Highly recommend browning the butter instead of just melting it. Adds depth and a toffee note.
These cookies are absolutely amazing!! They were a hit over here. Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
These tasted ok but they didn’t really flatten out. I had to “smush” them down when they were done cooking. I’ll probably look for another receipt next time I make chocolate chip cookies.
★★★★
The texture was great, but the cookies have an odd aftertaste, almost soapy. Is a teaspoon of baking soda the correct amount?
Hi Audrey! 1 tsp baking soda is correct. Oftentimes when you can taste that soapy aftertaste, that means your baking soda is getting old.