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 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
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. :)
I appreciate the step by step photos as I can never be sure it looks like it’s supposed to. Delicious. Thank you.
This recipe was so simple n easy to make, that I loved it so much. Because I didn’t like cornbread since I was a 12 but now thank you for this. P.S. My wife also loves it, I made mine with blueberry’s n a little bit of creamed butter on top. 👍😎
I was always a Jiffy mix user, but this is just as easy and better tasting!!
Thanks for this idea and I am going to try it right away when my husband gets back from work I believe he going to enjoy it.
Delicious. It just needs a little more sugar for sweetness
I made this today. It came out delicious. I used 1/4 cup of maple sugar instead of white sugar. I will definetly make it again. Yummy, quick and easy recipe.
Tried this today using cast iron skillet. … I only had red ground corn meal. I also used 1/2 white sugar& 1/2 brown sugar. Then I made homemade buttermilk and used that for the milk.
It is good. Next time I will follow your recipe to the tee
Just want to say thank you for sharing !
Delicious recipe. I love making my cornbread in a cast iron skillet. I preheat the oven while making the batter. Then I heat the skillet on a burner on the stove top. I melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and then sprinkle in 1-2 T sugar. I let this get very hot, (but don’t burn it) and then pour in the batter.
Put the skillet in the oven and bake as usual.
The butter and sugar makes a wonderful crust.
I used a brand new glass pie dish to bake the cornbread in. I had sprayed it with non stick cooking spray but the baked cornbread stuck to the dish. Should I have put a bit of oil in the dish and heated it while I mixed the cornbread?
Oil does make a more solid barrier than spray, but I don’t think you’d need to pre-heat it. Butter is another option that will create a solid barrier.
Quick simple delicious. Thank you!
I first made the recipe with baking “soda”. Do not make my mistake! Double check! Had to throw them in the trash. I decided to make them again following the recipe with baking “powder” and subbing soy milk for dairy milk. They were great! I’m used to the box mixes that are a little sweeter, but these were great and easy. Will be my go to recipe. :)