Cornbread is a highly underrated side dish. You can whip up this deliciously sweet and moist homemade cornbread recipe with just a few pantry staples, and it makes a perfect side dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Serve it slathered with butter at breakfast, crumbled into your soup or chili at lunch, or as a side with your collard greens and pork chops for dinner. It’s inexpensive, comforting, and seriously easy to make! So toss that boxed mix and let me show you how it’s done for real. ;)
What to Serve with Cornbread
Cornbread is a great side dish to go with any thick and hearty soup, stew, or chili. The cornbread can be dipped or crumbled into the saucy stews, where it absorbs all the flavor. I love it with Slow Cooker Vegetarian Lentil Chili, Weeknight Black Bean Chili, Glazed Pork Chops, Mexican Red Lentil Stew. This cornbread recipe also goes great with eggs for breakfast!
Cornbread Add-Ins
To make your cornbread a little more fun, consider stirring in some add-ins, like cheddar cheese, roasted corn kernels, diced green chiles, chili powder, or jalapeños, blueberries, or even some cooked sausage!
What Kind of Baking Dish to Use
While this glass pie dish is my favorite dish to bake my cornbread in, you can use just about any baking dish. This amount of batter would fit well in an 8×8 casserole dish, or a 10-inch cast iron skillet (although you should preheat the skillet as the oven preheats). Glass, ceramic, and cast iron work best, but you can also use metal baking dishes.
Make Corn Muffins Instead
Yes, you can pour this batter into an oiled muffin tin, filling each well about 3/4 full. Bake at the same temperature for 16-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. This recipe will make about 10 corn muffins (see step by step photos below).
Easy Homemade Cornbread Recipe
Servings 8Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal ($0.24)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ($0.15)
- 1/4 cup sugar ($0.20)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder ($0.24)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 cup milk ($0.31)
- 1 large egg ($0.27)
- 1/4 cup cooking oil ($0.08)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF and coat the inside of a 9-inch pie plate, cast iron skillet, or 8×8 casserole dish with non-stick spray (or butter for more flavor).
- In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil.
- Pour the bowl of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir just until everything is moist. Avoid over stirring. It’s okay if there are a few lumps.
- Pour the batter into the prepared dish and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the top and edges are golden brown. Cut into 8 pieces and serve.
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Equipment
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Cornbread from Scratch – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and coat the inside of a 9-inch pie plate or 8×8 inch casserole dish with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Make sure these are really well stirred together.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup milk, 1 large egg, and 1/4 cup cooking oil.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients…
And stir just until everything is moistened. You don’t want to over stir the batter because that can develop the gluten in the flour and make the end product a little rubbery, so it’s okay if there are a few lumps. No need to stir until everything is completely smooth.
Spread the batter into your prepared dish and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the top and edges are golden brown. The exact baking time may vary slightly based on your dish and your oven.
The top will crack a little and look all delicious.
Or you can pour the batter into an oiled muffin tin, filling each well about 3/4 full. You’ll get about 10 corn muffins.
Bake the muffins at the same temperature, for 16-18 minutes, or until they’re golden brown on top.
Delicious and easy! Had to get cornmeal and only could find white corn meal. But was still yummy. Added cheese and chili powder. Next time I need to do it in a cast iron like others and with yellow corn meal. Ate it with eggs and lots of siracha!
I have a deep and abiding love for cornbread. It goes so well with so many things! I love serving it alongside sloppy joes and especially my veggie chili!
All I had on hand was white corn meal and it worked great though I’m sure yellow would be better it’s what I prefer but still thanks for the recipe.
I use a similar recipe as well…so yummy and cheap! I use white whole wheat in this and all of my baked goods for added protein.
My mom would make this and put it into a muffin tin. It’s probably because she dislikes cutting pie shapes, but I think it’s great for little individual cornbread.
When we make corn bread, it must be baked in a cast iron skillet to give it that famous crunch. Yellow corn meal is also a required ingredient.
I’ve never come across cornbread before (I think it’s just a US thing) and I have a question that’s probably really silly – but what exactly do you do with it? Do you use it to mop up sauces, things like that?
Not a silly question! :) You can eat it plain on the side like you would a dinner roll, or use it to sop up any type of sauce or gravy. I crumbled mine into my soup. A lot of people melt butter onto it and drizzle with honey or maple syrup, as well. It’s very versatile. :)
It’s awesome for breakfast with just a little butter.
HERESY!! Oh Beth, I usually worship every written word, but cornbread in a GLASS PAN??? Cast iron, baby!!
Hahaha, I do cast iron sometimes, but sometimes I’m lazy and like the easy to clean glass. ;)
Corn bread is one of those fall/comfort/homey foods for me! Thanks for sharing with us :-)
Dom
I just stumbled across a cornbread recipe that had sriracha swirled into the batter before baking…that sounds like it would be perfect for you, Beth!
Ooooh, yes!
This looks delicious! I’d love to make some, but I have just a few questions –
How long does it stay good for on the counter?
Does it freeze well?
Thanks!
It does freeze pretty good (gets a little more crumbly, but still delicious). I let mine cool completely, then have kept it in the refrigerator just to elongate the shelf life (since I need it for a whole week). It would probably be okay on the counter for a couple days. Make sure it’s covered tightly (but only after it is completely cool).
This is the recipe I use all the time for cornbread. I think a 1:1 ratio of flour to cornmeal is the tastiest mix. The cornmeal package always has a 5:3 ratio (which is a bit weird if they want to sell as much as possible).
Baking it in a pie dish it genius! You get much more equal serving sizes than an 8×8 dish because the middle puffs up.
“Boring” and versatile deliciousness, Beth! Cornmeal is missing from my pantry right now but I will try your recipe soon!
Found your blog during last year’s SNAP challenge and looking forward to new inspiration this year!!
Cornbread is a fave of mine… Goes great with this recipe :
http://americanfood.about.com/od/porkrecipes/r/Ham_Shank_Recipe.htm
Fresh rosemary a worthwhile splurge in this one. Similar to a white bean recipe I have seen on your site.
I will be following in the coming weeks!
This cornbread looks so good! I love how it uses ingredients I always have on hand.
You can make a single serving of this cornbread by leaving out the egg and using 1/8 of the other ingredients. To cook cornbread without an oven, you can cook it in a pan like you would cook a pancake.
Awesome, I need to try that!!
Thanks for the reply! I posted specifically how to cook the cornbread in a pan here: http://foodparsed.com/cornbread-for-one/
My daughter and I went out to dinner the other night and the restaurant served corn muffins with peach butter with all meals. The muffins were fried like this and were delicious.
This recipe is nearly identical to the one I’ve used for years. I often bake it in a 10″ cast iron skillet.