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.
Can I use a self-rising white corn meal mix? It says it has Hot Rize and a little bit of flour in it. Thanks!
We haven’t used that flour with this recipe to say if it would be a good alternate.
May I use butter instead of the oil?
We haven’t tested it with butter in lieu of oil but you can certainly try.
Would this work with gluten free flour?
We haven’t tested the recipe with gluten free flours yet. But you can certainly give it a try!
This was my cery first time making homemade cornbread and it came out great, I was so excited!! My family enjoyed as well, Thanks for this easy fix.
Hello, I’m excited to try your recipe! It calls for cooking oil and unfortunately I don’t have that but I do have vegetable oil. would this be okay to use as instead of the cooking oil?
Yes vegetable oil will be just fine. Or if you have applesauce that will work too.
Wonderful! Thanks for taking the time to reply. I tried this recipe tonight and had to substitute the cooking oil for vegetable oil. Came out great! This was my first time making cornbread from scratch. We had it with homemade chili. Thank you so much for this recipe, my husband loved it! Next time I’ll try the applesauce substitute :-)
Hi,
First time doing g corn bread from scratch. Ia did muffins and top it with cheddar cheese. Let’s see how it works❤️
Thank you, very easy to make
Hi do you preheat the oven tray?
We like cornbread with a sour taste baked in oven lost my recipe can to you help?
Give this recipe a shot and see what you think :)
I made the muffins with a slice of jalapeno on top of each one! Loved this recipe.
My husband and I loved this! Delicious and simple to make.
could I use a white cornflower instead of yellow?
thanks all for your help!
Yes you sure can!
I have not cook corn bread frm scratch in years, but I am trying your recipe now since the Virus is keeping us in doors. It looks good.
This recipe is so simple yet so tasty!! I cooked it in a 10.5 inch cast iron for only about 12 minutes, and it was delicious!
At long last, a recipe that works and is delicious! I made muffins and perhaps that helps avoid crumbling. In any case, I now have a keeper recipe for cornbread. Thanks.
Can I used a plant based milk instead of regular milk and can I freeze these?
Yes and yes!
This was the best cornbread I have made. My family was very happy.
This is actually my first time
The recipe is very simple and affordable, can’t to try it,
So excited
Made this Gluten free today and still great.