Easy Homemade Cornbread
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. ;)
Originally posted 9-5-15, updated 3-6-17
See this recipe in my Easy Thanksgiving Dinner for Beginners meal plan.
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 Should I Bake Cornbread In?
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.
Can I Make Them Corn Muffins?
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
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal ($0.24)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ($0.15)
- 1/4 cup sugar ($0.20)
- 4 tsp 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 8x8 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.
Nutrition
Equipment
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, 4 tsp 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.
Slice it into 8 portions and serve! YUM! Never underestimate simplicity. :)
Didn’t use sugar, but otherwise was perfect. Very easy, even for a ole man.
Besides the sugar, and a cast iron skillet, this is how my Mom taught me to make it for my dad at dinner.
This recipe was too dry. Even after adding two more tablespoons of milk, it was a dough instead of a batter.
Can I use buttermilk instead of regular milk?
That will change the pH of the batter, so you’d probably want to substitute some of the baking powder with baking soda. I’d need to test it to find out the exact quantities before making a suggestion, though.
So easy and good! I was out of milk, so I used 1 cup of water + 1 tbsp of melted butter instead. And I threw in some frozen corn at the end. Honestly delicious.
I’ve made it several times and it comes out perfect every time.
Add oil in the bottom of iron skillet put on stove till it starts to smoke a little take off eye.add dough makes it crispy.
This! OR, generously oil your iron skillet and put it in the oven while it preheats and you’re mixing up the batter. The BEST part of cornbread is the crispy edges created when you pour your batter into a thin layer of hot oil in a cast iron pan that has been thoroughly preheated!
Made it for the first time today and my family loved it
Do you pour your liquids into your dry all at once, or do you pour a bit & fold once?
I did the pour & fold method and the batter was VERY thick for having been folded 4 times. It was more like dry cookie dough. I added a bit more milk and let it sit a moment, but didn’t want to then over stir in top of it being thick lol.
I pour it in all at once, I feel like you’ll do less stirring that way.
Followed the recipe exactly, and it turned out perfect!