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
Video
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.
My first time making cornbread from scratch using this recipe and it was divine!!!!
I had the pleasure of dining at home last night, and it was a delightful experience from start to finish.
These were gross 4 tsp. of baking soda? wtf
It says baking powder which is different from baking soda. I imagine 4 teaspoons of baking soda would be awful.
🤣
Baking soda are powder great I know the family like it sweet.Next time I’ll use more butter.love the recipe..
This was a hit in my house! I doubled the recipe and a couple minutes before done I melted butter n honey and glazed it then popped it back in to finish. Perfection. (Doubled bc I have a large family)
Great base recipe! I made 9 muffins with it. Since I made them to eat with a chili, I put half the sugar and added pepper flakes and some shredded cheese. It was an amazing side!
Yummy. Thank you
Can I use self rising flour for cornbread instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Linda, yes, but it will throw off the amount of baking powder and salt in the recipe. You will need to do the math. Self rising flour is typically comprised of 1 cup of all-purpose flour plus 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon fine salt.
This turned out perfectly! Only thing I did different was the addition of one egg white, used almond milk and a splash of vanilla. I definitely book marked this. And the person who commented JUST to say cornbread shouldn’t have sugar could’ve saved that review bcz no one asked.
So easy and delicious! Used oat milk in place of cow milk (1-1 sub) for my dairy-sensitive kids, and they turned out beautifully.
Loved this recipe – thank you! Made it as 10 muffins – perfect! Didn’t seem crumbly as my other recipe (made in a pie plate)
CORNBREAD WAS THE BOMB. THANK YOU FOR SHARING.
Cornbread isn’t cake and should never have sugar. It’s better when made with buttermilk. It should always be baked in a cast iron skillet. It should be made with coarse ground cornmeal.
Sweetness is a regional thing–many Southerners prefer non-sweet cornbread and often use white cornmeal, while most of the rest of the country likes it sweet. I personally use buttermilk, 1 T sugar, lots of butter, baking soda, and a cast iron skillet, but this is a perfectly nice recipe. I did try this one–with less sugar–and found it a great quick recipe when there was no buttermilk in my fridge, certainly faster than running to the store for a box mix.
Thank you.soda are powder I’ll use buttermilk next time I used non sweet almond milk.
This recipe is almost identical to the one on the back of my container of cornmeal. The only difference is the ratio of cornmeal to flour and a little more baking powder. Other than that, it’s the same, and it’s the recipe we’ve used for decades. Some people in different parts of the country like sugar in their cornbread. It doesn’t make it taste like cake. I just looked up a cake recipe, and it has 2 cups of flour and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. So, this cornbread recipe has nowhere near the amount of sugar to make it taste like cake.
I won’t even bother you with how I tweaked your recipe to fit my situation, because THIS IS PERFECTION! Consider my little blue box tossed…in a j*ffy, if you will.
Wonderful easy recipe. It’s my go to every time. I shorten the amount of sugar for others in my home. The best to perfect cornbread ever. As close to my moms I can get! thank you
Looking forward to other recipes