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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!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.
Corn bread
Just got your recipe I’ll be making it soon
Thanks.
I’m cooking this right now exactly by the recipe! This is not how my southern mom taught me how to make cornbread, but I wanted to try something different! The results are…. it is fabulous!!!! It’s moist and delicious! Great recipe!
So happy to hear it Roxie! It’s okay to stray from tradition sometimes!
I made the mistake of using baking soda instead of baking powder one time. The taste is horrible and I always hesitate to use baking soda since. When I do I make sure I have an acid to counter the taste. A little buttermilk works great.
Oh no! It happens to all of us! Glad you have a fix.
I used two tablespoons of baking soda and two tablespoons of white vinegar and everything turned out pertfect!
Thanks Peter!
Great recipe..I still had to go with how my Mother taught me when I was very young. Still have the same Iron skillet she used since I was a very young girl. Instead of Milk I use Buttermilk. I use 2 eggs , holds it together better. Heat the iron skillet on the stove top and you know it’s ready when your Batter sizzles. I also cook on 400. It comes out Crispy and Golden. I also top it with Butter right out of the oven…Southern raised. So in the South, NEVER ADD SUGAR….to each their own 😃
Thanks for sharing Rebecca!
Nice, easy and fool proof! I had all of the ingredients on hand, which is what I love about most of your recipes. The cornbread isn’t too salty or too sweet, which means its a great base for slathering it with salted butter or honey butter! :D Thanks Budget Bytes!
Thank you Noelle!
Just made this and it came out good i put whole corn in mine and it was great
I haven’t tried this but I’m going to soon. I was wondering if I could use buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Unfortunately I think I’d have to test that substitution to know for sure if it would work. There are a couple of significant differences between regular milk and buttermilk that could change the outcome: the acidity and viscosity/water content (buttermilk is much thicker and may not properly moisten the batter). So I think there is a potential that it could turn out quite different with that substitution.
thanks for recipe, it was perfect. I’ve added two table spoons of cream cheese as well and it was delicious.
My daughter loves it.
Yum!
I cut the recipe in half (there are only 2 of us). I did use a whole egg, which didn’t impact the end result. I used parchment liners in a muffin tin and half a recipe made 6 cornbread muffins.
They were perfectly done after 17 minutes in s 425° oven.
I followed the recipe completely and it was marvelous! It tastes just like how my great grandma made her cornbread when I was a little girl. I was thinking about using soy milk instead of dairy milk, but I didn’t want to stray from the recipe. I’m glad I didn’t!
Happy it brought back some memories for you Lindsay. :)
I have made this recipe as written four times now and by far it is the best corn bread we have ever eaten. Moist, tender and on point for sweetness. My hubby loves it and he is corn bread picky. I use 8×8 square glass pan and bake a few minutes longer. I let the mix set a few minutes before pouring into pan. Love it.
Happy to hear it! :)
This recipe is terrible. I followed it to the letter EXCEPT for the baking soda because 4 tsps of baking soda?? Really?? I only added two and you could still taste the baking soda. I put it in a 425 oven and the outside was totally done and the inside was raw. I turned the heat down to 350 toS finish cooking the inside and it was dry.
Just a super unsuccessful recipe.
If you had used the proper amount of baking soda the middle would not have been as dense and probably would have cooked through in the time listed. :)
This recipe doesn’t call for baking soda…it calls for baking powder. If you did use baking soda instead of baking powder then I could see why it would taste horrible. I’m making this recipe tomorrow so I hope it turns out ;)
The recipe calls for baking powder not baking soda.
That’s probably why all you could taste was the soda.
This turned out absolutely wonderful. 👌
Can I use almond milk instead?
I think 425 is naughty to high of hea. Followed the recipe to a t and burnt it all.
Way to high of heat*
Followed the recipe, only change was using cup for cup gluten free flour. Came out perfect!
2 cups of buttermilk is too much in this recipe…
This recipe doesn’t call for any buttermilk.
Why in the video it says 375 degrees but in the recipe it says 425 degrees
Oof, I didn’t notice that typo (I had outsourced that video!). Time to have that one remade. Thanks for catching that!!
Now I have no idea which oven temperature to use — ???
Use 425, as stated in the recipe above :)