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
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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.
Is 4 tsp of baking soda correct? I thought it sounded like a lot but I put it in anyway and it had a very odd flavor and we couldn’t eat it.
That’s how much I use every time I make it.
Hi it sounds like you used baking soda instead of baking powder. The recipe calls for baking powder. Maybe that’s why you found it tasted “funny”. I would definitely give it another try 😊I’m making it tonight to jo with my taco soup 👍Hope this helped😊
This looks so good. Could I leave out the sugar? I grew up eating unsweetened cornbread.
I’d try reducing it by half first. The sugar does provide more than sweetness here, it actually affects the texture of the bread and moisture balance.
Has anyone tried making this with rice milk? I’m lactose intolerant so usually don’t have milk at home, and would like to avoid buying one just for this recipe.
I always keep dry milk on hand, and then mix up whatever quantity may be needed for a recipe. By doing this, I don’t need to purchase a large carton of milk that may not get used up before it spoils.
Hi Beth, am enjoying your recipes here in New Zealand :)
Have you every tried the cornbread using gluten free flour and egg replacer? I wonder how that would turn out…for my son who reacts to both gluten and egg.
Also re red beans, do you mean the kidney beans – just checking.
Many thanks
Chrissie
Hi Chrissie, unfortunately I don’t have any experience using gluten-free flours or egg replacers. :( Since this is a quick bread, though, it doesn’t really rely on gluten for strength, so that might not be a problem! Egg is a bit tricker, though. :P
I can’t comment on the gluten free flour, but I have some input on egg replacer. Went to make this recipe today but didn’t have any eggs. I took 1 tbsp chia seeds, ground them in a mini blender, then added 3 tbsp water and let it sit for 5 min. I blended the other wet ingredients with the chia mixture in the blender, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. I think it turned out pretty good, a crisp top but still moist inside. I don’t make corn bread that often though so I don’t have much to compare it to. Oh and there are small flecks in the corn bread from the chia seeds. I imagine the same thing would happen if you used a flax egg substitute.
I used this recipe as a guide to make chicken casserole. It was absolutely delicious. Next time, I’m going to add melted butter to the cornbread batter. Thank you, Beth!!! :-)
Delicious!
Made this last night to go with chili leftovers. I made some subs to clean out my fridge and pantry:
Killed the last 1/2 cup of stone-ground cornmeal and topped the cup with corn flour. (Will use a full cup of corn flour next time – grainy cornmeal hurts my teeth.)
Used last 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt, topped with milk. The batter wasn’t loose enough, so added about 1/4 cup more milk to loosen.
Baked about 12-15 minutes in a muffin tin – perfect! At first, I described them as a bit bland, but changed that to “neutral” because I like that they can go sweet (with jam) or savory (crumbled on chili). They are light and fluffy and so quick to make! This will be my go-to!
This is some real good cornbread. My friends and I ate three cornbreads in one sitting once. There were only 8 of us eating too. It’s also awesomely fast cause I had to go make another in the middle of the dinner. So now I’m the cornbread bringer for everything.
Made this as an accompaniment to my 10-bean soup and it was delicious! One word of caution: make sure you mix the batter until everything is well incorporated! I left a few too many lumps in my batter apparently that turned into bitter pieces in the final product, so make sure you mix well.
I made a double batch and it just perfectly fit my 9×13 baking dish, and it only took about 28 minutes to bake.
Next time I’ll be sure to mix more thoroughly, and I may add some sour cream to make the bread more moist.
This was delicious! Our smoke alarm doesn’t like me baking anything at over 375 (will go off from only the heat), so I baked it at 375 for about 20-25 minutes in a cast iron pan and it was great.
Tried this recipe as-is. It’s great. It is probably best made far enough ahead of time to allow it to cool completely before serving. I just had some while it was still warm and it was a bit too delicate.
What can I substitute the egg for? I have a vegan friend and want to accomodate
Unfortunately I haven’t experimented a lot with egg substitutes, so I don’t have a good suggestion for you. Sorry I couldn’t help more!
I’ve made this cornbread a few times now and it’s soooo good, especially hot out of the oven with butter <3 Although I usually go with the pie dish today I made a batch of cornbread muffins, made 12 and cooked them at 425 for 15 minutes.
I can’t believe it has taken me so long to get over here to give you a giant thank you for the recipe!!
I make it at least 3 times a month :) we absolutely love it. I have added in 1/2 tsp of Maple extract, another time I have tossed in grated cheese,ground chili, and diced bell peppers…I am wondering if it would work as a topping for a tamale pie??
Thank you so much for all of your hard work..This is a firm staple in our household that is on one very tight budget. Your recipes never make us feel like we are going without but instead eating very well on a limited budget. Thank you!
Yes, it absolutely will work as the topping for a tamale pie (I’ve done it a few times)! :)
No picture available to the side of the recipe or when it prints. Can the link be fixed so I can print this one out? Would love to add it to my recipe binder :) Thanks!
Thanks for pointing that out! I’ve got it all fixed now. :)