With 30 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!
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips. This recipe is such a fan (and personal) favorite that I included it in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
One 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 beloved… and, a warning: they disappear FAST.
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.
I’ve 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.
One 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, pumpkin crumb cake 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, just like in these brown butter marshmallow crispy cookies. 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 or up to 3 days. I usually chill it overnight.
(No time to chill? Make these soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie bars, giant chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookie cake, or crispy chocolate chip cookie bark 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.
Because of the melted butter in this dough, the dough is very soft and a little greasy before chilling, so it’s harder to shape the cookie dough balls. We recommend chilling first, then shaping. If after chilling the dough is very hard and difficult to scoop, let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes and then try again.
We typically do not recommend jumping right to the freezer without chilling the dough first. A quick freeze like that can cause the dough to chill unevenly and then spread unevenly during the baking process. For best results, we recommend following the recipe as written. If you don’t have time to wait for the dough to chill, try this recipe for 6 giant chocolate chip cookies instead, which doesn’t require dough chilling (see recipe Notes in that post for details on using the dough to make 24 regular-size cookies).
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 (with video tutorial).
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?
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 45 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. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (170g/12 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted & cooled for 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
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk until combined, then whisk in the vanilla extract. The mixture will be thin. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or spatula. The dough will be very soft, thick, and shiny. 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 refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight to prevent overspreading.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. If the dough has chilled for longer than 2 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
- Using a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop the chilled cookie dough, about 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, then use your fingers to shape the cookie dough so that it’s taller rather than wide—almost like a cylinder. This helps the cookies bake up thicker. Repeat with remaining dough. Arrange the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 13–14 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. The centers will look very soft, but the cookies will continue to set as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is optional and only for looks!
- Store tightly 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 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 in a bowl 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 to 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi, is there any reason why you don’t chill them after shaping, before baking?
Hi Cora, We find this dough to be too soft to roll into balls before chilling, but you can chill the dough balls if you find that works better for you!
These are our favorite chocolate chip cookies ever!! If I’m in charge of bringing a dessert, these are my go to’s and I always end up sharing the recipe because people can’t believe how good they are!!
hi sally, can i double this recipe? or is it not recommended?
Hi Iris, yes, you can double this cookie recipe. So glad they’re a hit!
Can I make smaller cookies (1 tablespoon). If so, would I modify the cooking time. Thanks!
Hi Taryn, the cooking time will be shorter, but we’re unsure of the exact time needed. 350°F (177°C) would be a better baking temperature if you aren’t making large cookies. Let us know if you give it a try!
I make smaller cookies and bake for 10/11 mins and they’re perfect.
Can you use brown butter in this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Martha, You can, yes, and the flavor is outstanding! But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter — we suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Hi Sally! I am planning to make this recipe and I love browned butter so I was just wondering if this recipe would work with browned melted butter. Thanks
Hi Avery, it should work just fine–let us know how they turn out!
Tried it this morning , sooooo delicious
I loved this recipe!! It turned out great, super soft and moist. Thank you for coming up with such a good recipe!
Best cookie recipe and I have tried them all
can I add cocoa recipe to the recipe
I’m halving this recipe, and plan on baking around 10 cookies at a time. Will the bake time increase, and by how much? I’m planning on keeping the cookie size the same.
Hi Emma, for the same size cookies, you will have the same bake time.
This recipe is the BEST. I didn’t have brown sugar and so just used regular sugar and it still tasted amazing. I want to make these again with brown sugar and see if they taste even better. I took them out of then oven at around 9 to 10 mins and with a spoon pressed them down and then let them continue cooking for a little longer. This made the cookies look great. I think out of this and the other recipe I tried that day I preferred these cookies.
I noticed several of your cookie recipes advise the oven temperature to be 350°F yet this chocolate chip cookie recipe state 325°F. Why the difference? When I used 325 temperature, I wasn’t getting the brown, crispy edges and not the overall rise in the center as the cookies baked. I have checked the oven temperature to make sure it is correct.
Hi Krysia, since these cookies can be quite large, I recommend the slightly lower temperature for more even baking. Feel free to increase it if you prefer.
I want to make these cookies using a 3 tablespoon scoop. Do I need to adjust cooking time for these larger sized cookies.
P.S. You have inspired me to be a great home baker. All your recipes are so good!
Hi Denise! Yes, the baking time will be longer. You may love these giant chocolate chip cookies as well!
I have made these a couple of times and both times my cookies are so soft that they fall apart. Would adding a little more flour help? Or baking a little longer (although they certainly looked like they baked enough)? I enjoy using Sally’s recipes when I bake. I’ve made dozens of them and would love to get this recipe to turn out too!
Hi Beth, we don’t recommend adding more flour than called for, as you risk drying out the cookies too much. However, an extra 2-3 Tablespoons should be fine here. Be sure to spoon and level or use a scale to measure your flour to ensure just the right amount. Adding an additional minute or two to bake time should help too.
I was able to make these vegan by using vegan butter and bob’s red mill egg replacer. It was so delicious! Chewy center and crispy edges. The perfect cookie! Thank you!
This has been my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for years! Unfortunately due to a recently discovered genetic mutation (MTHFR) my kids can’t have any enriched flour which means I have to use whole wheat. Do you have any suggestions for making this recipe work with wheat instead of all purpose flour? I’ve tried twice so far and the cookie kind of melts in the pan which is completely different from the absolutely perfect cookies I am used to! I know you suggest only using all purpose flour but any suggestions would be welcome! Thanks!!!
Hi JR! We wish we could help more, but we haven’t tried making these cookies with whole wheat flour. It will likely take some trial and error and tweaking the other ingredients to find the best combination of ingredients. Let us know if you give anything a try! If you’re interested, here are all of our recipes using whole wheat flour.
Made this recipe for the first time yesterday and received feedback from friends that these were “quite possibly the most perfect chocolate chip cookie”. Loved it and will make again.
I made these and took them into work. A lady who wasn’t sure about my cooking said she would only eat a half… as soon as she bit into the half she said, no way could she just eat half. Haha.
They are really good. I used tapioca starch instead of cornstarch. Not sure if it did anything but they were tasty as! Thanks.
How can I double the recipe? Love to make more of these!!
Hi Em, you sure can!
Hi Sally, with the directions stating 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, will I have two egg yolks and one “set” of whites? Essentially leaving the whites out from one egg? Thank you and I’m so excited to try this recipe!
Yes, that’s correct, Morgan!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe!! Fool-proof, delicious, and simple!
Do your recommend refrigerating baked cookies or leaving at room temperature?
Thank you in advance! 🙂
Hi Kimberly! We recommend storing at room temperature. Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. So glad you love them!
I am getting ready to bake these. I have loved every recipe I’ve tried on your website. I do have a question. Could I use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose?
Hi Michelle, for best results, we recommend sticking with all-purpose flour in this recipe.
I’ve used chia seeds as an egg replacement in CC cookies before and I liked it. It added a little crunch. I think it’s like 1T per egg (google it to check for sure). You put them in water and they get a gooey eggy texture
Hi Vanessa, For the best taste and texture we recommend sticking with real butter for these cookies.
Hii, I would love to try out this recipe, but I have a question: can I use vegetable oil instead of butter? if not, what would happen? and which recipe could you recommend to me that has vegetable oil?
Thank you!
Hi Colette, you need melted butter here for the fat because it is a solid at room temperature. For best results, we recommend sticking with butter, although some readers have reported success with melted coconut oil. The taste will be different with that substitution.
Hey Sally! I’ve been following your blog since I was 13, and now at the age of 15, thanks to your amazing recipes, I can not only bake but also plate and decorate like a pro. Your recipes always turn out perfectly and I just love the way you always explain the science behind every step; it really does help. Thank you for these delicious recipes, foolproof tips and so much more. Lots of love <3
Hi Sally, i love this recipe and always follow yours for choco chip cookies! However one thing I haven’t been able to achieve is that my cookies always comes out too smooth and rounded at the top. How do I achieve a cracking top?
When you take them out of the oven, lightly tap the bottom of the cookie sheet and they will crinkle.
This recipe is amazing, I appreciate it!
I love this recipe thank you!