Three goals in the second period saw the Londoners cruise to a comfortable victory, which could have been by a bigger margin.
Though they did trail to a Darren Bent goal on 17 minutes, the Blues never looked like finishing the contest second best.
Bent sent the Stadium of Light into raptures as he pounced on an early opportunity to repay some of his £10million transfer fee.
Kenwyne Jones' shot was blocked into the path of Bent and the striker made no mistake slotting the ball under Petr Cech.
After that though the hosts were restricted to half chances as Chelsea began to dominate.
They broke in numbers time and time again and the home defence must have felt like they were at the Alamo as the first half drew to a close.
It was backs to the wall defending, but Steve Bruce's men held firm right up until the half-time whistle.
But if the last 15 minutes of the opening period was a statement of intent from the Blues, then they duly delivered on what they had promised after the restart.
Chelsea continued to press after the break and got the breakthrough they craved in the 52nd minute.
Michael Ballack swept the ball home from inside the 18-yard area to put the finishing touches to a corner from the left.
From then on there was no looking back for the visitors as they stepped things up a gear.
Just after the hour Chelsea went in front. Didier Drogba went down in the area with ease, any contact seemingly minimal, and referee Steve Bennett didn't hesitate in pointing to the spot and up-stepped Frank Lampard to drill the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
Sunderland keeper Marton Fulop guessed the right way, but was unable to get anywhere near the midfielder's effort.
Chelsea now truly had their tails up and things took a turn for the worse for the hosts when Deco rounded off the scoring with a touch of class.
The Portugal schemer caught the ball perfectly on the edge of the 18 yard area and watched in delight as the strike found the net as it rebounded in off the far post.
It was a finish of pure quality and was appreciated by both sets of fans - the home support applauding the diminutive midfielder as he left the field to be replaced Andriy Shevchenko on 86 minutes.
Chelsea could have added to their scoreline with Didier Drogba unable to convert a number of opportunities.