Some nights you just need something warm, comforting, and easy to help melt off the stresses of the day, like a big bowl of chili. And maybe some cornbread, too, for good measure. This easy Chili Cornbread Skillet has all the comfort of a pot of chili, with homemade cornbread baked right on top to avoid excess dishes. Oh, and I hid a layer of gooey cheddar cheese between the chili and cornbread, too. Because cheese makes everything better!🧀
What Kind of Skillet Should I Use?
You’ll want a deep, 4-quart skillet for this recipe. I used my 10″ 4-quart Oxo stainless steel skillet for this recipe. If needed, you could also use a smaller wide soup pot or Dutch oven. Using an oven safe skillet or pot is the best option, but read on if you do not own an oven safe skillet or pot.
What if I Don’t Have an Oven Safe Skillet?
If you only own teflon skillets, skillets with plastic handles, or skillets that have other non-safe parts, you can still make this recipe. Simply let the chili simmer in your skillet or pot while you make the cornbread, and then transfer to a 4-quart casserole dish before topping with the cornbread batter and baking.
Can I Add Meat to the Chili Cornbread Skillet?
Absolutely! I made a vegetarian version this time around because it’s quite cost effective and it makes the meal more pantry-staple friendly, but you can always add meat if you have it on hand or prefer your chili con carne. Simply replace one can of beans with one pound ground beef or turkey. Brown the meat in the skillet before adding the onion, garlic, and jalapeño in the beginning.
Meal Prep and Freezer Friendly
This Chili Cornbread Skillet holds up extremely well in the refrigerator, and is also freezer friendly. As with any meal prep recipe, make sure to divide the dish into single serving portions right after cooking and get it into the refrigerator as soon as possible, so it cools quickly. Once cooled, the chili cornbread will keep in the refrigerator for about four days, or can be transferred to the refrigerator and kept frozen for about 3 months. You can see some of my favorite meal prep containers here.
Chili Cornbread Skillet
Servings 6Ingredients
Chili
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 1 jalapeño (optional) ($0.15)
- 1 15oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes ($0.89)
- 1 6oz. can tomato paste ($0.39)
- 3 15oz. cans beans (kidney, pinto, black) ($2.67)
- 1 Tbsp chili powder* ($0.30)
- 1 tsp ground cumin ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)
- 1 cup water ($0.00)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar ($0.85)
Cornbread
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal ($0.24)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ($0.15)
- 1/4 cup sugar ($0.20)
- 4 tsp baking powder ($0.24)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 cup milk ($0.31)
- 1 large egg ($0.23)
- 1/4 cup cooking oil ($0.16)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Slice the jalapeño lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and then dice the pepper. Add the cooking oil, onion, garlic, and jalapeño to a large 4-quart oven safe skillet. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
- Drain the canned beans then add them to the skillet with the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and water. Stir to combine.
- Allow the chili to come up to a simmer. Let the chili continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, as you prepare the cornbread topping.
- Begin to preheat the oven to 425ºF. In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until very well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the cornmeal mixture and stir just until everything is moistened.
- Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over top of the simmering chili. Carefully pour the cornbread batter over the chili and cheese, and spread it around until the surface is evenly covered.
- Transfer the skillet to the fully preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden brown on the surface. To serve, simply scoop the cornbread and chili beneath onto a plate or bowl, and enjoy!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Love chili? Check out my Simple Homemade Chili recipe with tons of ways to customize the flavors to make it your own!
How to Make Chili Cornbread Skillet – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Slice the jalapeño lengthwise, scrape out the seeds with a spoon, then dice the remaining pepper. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño to a skillet with 1 Tbsp cooking oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
Drain three 15 oz. cans of beans (any combo of kidney, black bean, or pinto—I used two black beans, one kidney). Add the beans to the skillet along with one 15 oz. can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, one 6 oz. can of tomato paste, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, and 1 cup water. Stir to combine. Allow the chili to come up to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to simmer the chili, stirring occasionally, as you prepare the cornbread batter.
Begin preheating the oven to 425ºF. Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Stir until they are very well combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup milk, 1 large egg, and 1/4 cup cooking oil. Pour the bowl of whisked wet ingredients into the bowl with the cornmeal mixture and stir just until the batter is combined (don’t over stir).
Before adding the cornbread batter to the chili, sprinkle 1 cup of shredded cheddar over the surface of the chili.
Carefully spread the cornbread batter over the surface of the hot chili, making sure to spread from edge to edge.
Bake the Chili Cornbread Skillet in the fully preheated 425ºF oven for about 25 minutes, or until the top of the cornbread is golden brown.
To serve, simply scoop the cornbread and chili beneath out of the skillet and onto a plate or bowl.
COMFORT FOOD.
I was looking for a recipe to use up a box of jiffy mix and this was perfect. Makes a ton of food. I cooked in a large cast iron which worked well. 25 min bake time was just right.
Ive tried this twice – once using Budget Bytes recipe and once using a different recipe for a very similar dish – and I have to say, never again. The flavors themselves were good. But there was just so much more cornbread than chili. I could barely eat my single serving so I don’t know how we’re going to deal with these leftovers!
I followed the comments and did add more liquid to the chili, which I’m sure helped but still it all came out too dry or “bready” for me. I wondered “where did all my chili go!?”
I’d say this is good if you want cornbread with some chili accent, rather than chili with a cornbread accent.
This was a huge hit in our house! We were able to get 8 servings. I cut the amount of cornbread in half and there was still PLENTY of cornbread.
YUM YUM! We did 1 can of kidney beans and 1 pound of browned hamburger (we are big meat eaters) and added the 1 cup of beef broth per other commenters and this turned out perfect. We will for sure make again!
Kids loved it and so did I. Like others, I used 2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix instead of making from scratch, and it worked great. I made it in a dutch oven instead of the skillet; also worked fine. The chili is really good on the second day after the flavors have had a chance to play together overnight. YUM.
Delicious! I agree with a lot of the comments–I will probably add more liquid next time, and while we were surprised by the chili-cornbread ratio, we really liked it. We’re pretty big eaters, but I think we’ll get eight servings from this instead of the six Beth suggests.
Really yummy!
Would using a “Just Add Water” cornbread mix from the grocery store work with this?
I would think that would work, although I haven’t tested it to be sure. :)
Hi Ashton and Beth, I used 2 boxes of jiffy corn bread mix and 2 cans of cream corn to make a corn souffle topping. Came out great!
That’s awesome to hear Jess. Thank you for sharing this is helpful!
One question. For that souffle, did you also use rest of ingredients listed on box directions, OR JUST the creaned corn.
I made this last night with two boxes of Jiffy mix, and it was totally delicious!
Follow up: I went with 2 packets of the Martha White Cotton Country Buttermilk Cornbread Mix and it turned out great!
I had an issue cooking the corn bread.
4 stars because it was missing something in flavor. Recipe is easy to follow, except I messed up the corn bread somehow, bit I dont think that was the recipes fault
I’ve only ever made this with Jiffy – I only use one box. The layer of cornbread is a little thinner, but I think it’s enough. I think the Jiffy probably makes this marginally cheaper, too.
Beth: Could you use a cast iron skillet or a Dutch oven for this? I don’t have a stainless oven safe skillet but I do have a Dutch oven and two sizes of cast iron skillets.
Thanks in advance!
Hi KT! Yes it would be great in either!
I make something similar but more taco style with taco seasoning and add a can of corn – it’s good! One issue I always have is that the bottom of the cornbread layer never seems to quite cook – you don’t seem to have that issue so maybe I just need to cook it a tad longer!
Hmm, yes, try cooking a few minutes longer and make sure that chili is simmering hot before adding the cornbread. The heat from the chili actually helps cook the cornbread from the bottom up. :)
Would like to make this gluten free. Could I substitute the one cup all purpose flour for a gluten free flour?
Hi Carla! Yes I’ve used the Cup4Cup and the Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Mix a few times and had good success.
Huge hit with the family and very easy. I read the reviews and made the following tweaks:
-added extra liquid (about 2 cups beef stock, just what I had on hand)
-substituted 1 lb ground beef for 2 cans of beans (my husband is a carnivore)
-substituted canned chopped green chilis and 1 tsp chipotle chili powder for the jalapeño (there were no jalapeños at the store today, weird)
The family loved it. We love cornbread, and the chili as written is definitely too dry to stand up to the amount of batter in the recipe. Adding extra liquid to the chili perfectly fixed that.
This is definitely going into the rotation for winter!
Great swaps! Thank you for sharing.
Please only use 1/2 teaspoon of chipotle at most! It’s the only thing I could taste…
I think my chipotle powder is pretty new, so if you buy a fresh one or if you are sensitive to spice, definitely decrease!!
That should say old, my chipotle powder wasnt new! 🤦♀️
How do you think this would freeze? Thank you!!
I do think this one would freeze well. :)
My luck with freezing cornbread has not been ideal.
You’re better off just freezing the chili – the cornbread won’t freeze well. When you thaw out the chili, make a fresh batch of cornbread batter to throw on top.
Had this for the first time this Sunday afternoon. Both my wife and I thought it was simply wonderful. We used a 12″ cast iron skillet as the 10″skillet barely held the the three can’s of beans.
I agree with the folks that said that this had a of cornbread, which is fine by us. The bean/vegetable mixture cooks down so that when we cut into the dish, there was a thinner layer of chili and a thicker layers of cornbread. The chili was so flavorful that the tastes between the chili and the cornbread balanced out perfectly.
Another budget bytes winner!
Tasty chili and cornbread. Definitely will make again. There was probably a little more cornbread than the chili needed, making the dish a bit on the dry side, so I’ll probably cut down the cornbread recipe by about 1/3 next time. Other than that, delicious!