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 / 12 Tbsp) 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.
this recipe did not work at all. the cookie ‘dough’ was the consistency of cake batter and i couldn’t mold them or roll them in my hands. when the cookies were baked, they were very flat and flimsy. they were the consistency of cake.
Hi Kaya, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Were there any missing or mis-measured ingredients by chance? The dough should be slick, but not the consistency of cake batter. It sounds like there was too much liquid and/or not enough of the dry ingredients.
How would I turn the base of these cookies into a chocolate flavour cookie? My partner wants me to make double chocolate versions?
Hi Bethany, we’d recommend using our double chocolate chip cookies recipe instead. Same great chewy texture as this one!
I thought this would be a perfect recipe for some special cookies. I made the cookie dough yesterday and read that I could refrigerate it overnight. When I was ready to bake the cookies, I couldn’t dip the dough. The dough was too stiff after several hours to use my dipper.
Hi Ruth, it sounds like your flour may be over measured. Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured. When there is too much flour, it soaks up all the wet ingredients and causes the dough to become especially hard and dry, making it difficult to scoop.
This is basically the recipe I’ve used for years with a couple of differences. I use 1cup of softened butter and no cornstarch. (What does it do?) I also add 2cups of Rice Krispies instead of nuts! SO GOOD!
My chocolate chip cookie recipe does not call for chilling the dough but, my cookies are flat . Would it help to chill the dough anyway
Basic chocolate chip cookies should be the easiest thing in the world to bake, but I never could get them right – always too flat, oily, just messy, not at all nice for sharing. I never would have thought to use cornstarch, but this recipe created absolutely perfect cookies. Thank you!
I haven’t made these yet, I plan to today! I’ve had issues with flat cookies recently but I do everything properly; cooled butter, chilled dough, spoon and leveled flour. I made cookies my whole life and just the past few years they suddenly started getting flat. Any thoughts or tips?
Hi Sophia, our post with 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading will be a helpful resource to review. We hope you love the cookies!
No where near my fav recipe. I was pretty disappointed to be honest. Produces very thick almost cake like cookie. I prefer a super chewy almost Carmelized cookie.
This is a great recipe!! I was too impatient to wait the full chill time haha, but I just opted to not melt the butter all the way and chilled for about an hour- it worked out. I also added some heath chunks along with semi sweet chocolate chips and it turned out delicious!
Can you use vanilla pods instead? And would it be the same amount?
Hi Anna, you can use the seeds from 2 vanilla beans instead.
The dough is very runny, is this normal?
Yes; expect a greasy, loose-looking dough.
I actually love this recipe! I’ve used it twice before and it worked flawlessly but the past couple of times I’ve tried doing it the dough just crumbles up! I have no idea what I’m doing wrong
Hi Jess, Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured, which can make the dough crumbly.
These came out perfect! I’m curious if you could form all the cookies before chilling, and then chill the individual cookie “balls? So much easier to form when dough is not chilled.
Hi Liz, 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.
AMAZING. Perfect. My fiancé and I are obsessed (and my mom was drooling at the photos I sent). They also LOOK as good as they taste! I’ve never made such picturesque cookies and I didn’t even poke extra chips into the top.
I used light brown sugar — definitely going to make these again, and I’ll be using dark brown sugar for sure (not that these needed improving in any way) I don’t ever make cookies, so I didn’t see the instructions to cool them until late. Wound up tossing the dough in the freezer for an hour, then the fridge for another hour. Made the “cylinders”, cooked for twelve minutes. Turned out perfect. It’s only a few subtle differences from the recipe I was going to use on the back of the chocolate chip bag, but I’ve got a feeling those few tweaks in this recipe made a world of difference. Thank you for this!
Need help!!! I have made this recipe at least a half a dozen times and each time they come out so greasy. I have followed the recipe to a tee; let the butter cool for 5 mins after melting, refrigerate dough overnight, make dough balls then freeze for 5 mins, cool cookie sheets with Silpat mats, one batch at a time. I even tested my baking soda and oven temp (check oven temp every 15 mins for several hours. I am at a complete loss….this time I added.2TBSP of flour hoping the increase amount would help, sadly no luck, still greasy. The flavor is amazing, but who wants a greasy cookie. Does anyone have any suggestions!
Hi JB, thank you for the feedback. I would try adding a little more flour, such as another 2 Tbsp. You can also bake the cookies for another 1-2 minutes. And be sure you are using the correct amount of butter: 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks/12 Tbsp/about 170g).
I have made this recipe 10 times to everyone’s delight. The last time I used dark brown sugar instead of light brown. The grandchildren and my husband absolutely loved them more.
Hello! Should I add one teaspoon of vanilla if i am using imitation vanilla flavor(bowl and basket)?
Am sorry just to make sure I understood right! So I stick to the two teaspoons even if it is the imitation vanilla flavor I have??
Use the same amount of vanilla extract even if you are using imitation.
Thank you for your quick and continuous support!
Can I use 1:1 gluten free flour for this recipe? Would I need to make any other changes?
Hi Emily, we haven’t tested it, but a few readers have reported success doing so. Let us know if you try it!
They were slightly too cakey for me.
my daughter requested chocolate cookies with white chips
Please suggest how much Cocoa I should include and if I need to adjust the moisture
Hi Mariah, here is our recipe for chocolate cookies with white chips. Hope they’re a hit!
10/10!! So delicious. Finally found my go to recipe! Used 1/4th dark chocolate and 1 cup semi sweet, chopped up bars not chips 🙂
I love this recipe, thank you so much! As someone who’s only baked 3 or 4 times since learning how to, I really appreciate how detailed your instructions are. There’s just one thing that’s been on my mind. Does it affect the cookies if I roll the dough first into balls before chilling them in the fridge? Or is it required that I chill first before rolling them into balls. Thanks in advance! ☺️
Hi Selina, You can certainly portion the dough before chilling, but it can be a little slick without some chilling first. We’re so glad you enjoy the cookies!
Well I guess I just got lucky by finding this on my first search for chewy chocolate chip cookies because these turned out to be the BEST I’ve had!! Great recipe. Easy to follow. Perfect cookies.
VERY disappointed in this recipe… Vey flat and greasy… Will Not use this again
Hi Sharajoy, this post on how to prevent cookies from spreading may be a helpful resource for you. Thank you for giving these a try.
These were good, but I like crispy chocolate chip cookies better. Is there a way I can make these more crispy? Or do you have a crispy chocolate chip recipe by chance?
Hi Janelle, here is our crispy chocolate chip cookies recipe. Enjoy!
Hands down best cookie recipe for chocolate hip copied it to a t and it’s sp fire I cutt down on chocolate chip cause my little one
Thank you so much for all the delicious recipes , very easy to make & Family approved! One question though I bought the oxo medium cookie scoop as you recommend, I’ve used it for a couple months now and it always gets jammed and it won’t scoop out especially with chocolate chip cookie dough at room temp.I’ve tried spraying it with oil and dipping in water, no luck. Can you recommend another one that would cooperate better ? Thank you, Holly
I loved this recipe too! Definitely my sister in law’s favorite!
This is hands down my favorite cookie recipe EVER! It does not take long for these bad boys to disappear at my house and they’re always a favorite when I take them to parties and pot lucks! Thank you thank you thank you for this recipe, Sally!
Loved this recipe! Super soft and it was like a chocolate explosion in my mouth!
I have one question though, when I took my cookies out of the oven they deflated? why is that?
Hi Emily, that is completely normal for cookies to deflate a bit once they come out of the oven. They should still stay nice and thick though. Did they seem overly thin? If so, here is our post on how to prevent cookies from spreading for troubleshooting. We’re glad you enjoyed the cookies!