If you love a light sweet, crisp-edged, robust cornbread where you can really taste the corn, this recipe for Southern Skillet Cornbread is for you! It’s perfect with a steaming bowl of chili!
Baking With Cornmeal
For the Native Americans, using ground corn as ‘flour’ was commonplace. When European settlers came to the New World and began learning cooking techniques from the Native Americans, they discovered the use of this ground corn, and began incorporating it into breads that they had been familiar with back home in Europe.
From these colonial days, even into the 20th century, cornbread has been a staple bread of the Southern United States.
Why Cook Southern Skillet Cornbread?
Ok, ok, it’s not just the fact that the bright, yellow cornbread looks so cool and rustic when served in a cast iron skillet.
The trick to making skillet cornbread is to preheat your skillet. Cast iron holds heat VERY well, so when you preheat your skillet, magical things happen.
Trust us. The instant that cornbread batter hits the hot oil in the skillet, it starts to sizzle. (And we do a little happy dance because we know the cornbread is going to be AWESOME!)
That sizzling means that the crust of your cornbread is cooking. It’s cooking fast and it’s cooking in hot oil. Which means this cornbread will have super crispy crust.
Sure, you could get a super crisp crust by baking your cornbread longer, but then the whole bread is dry and over-baked. Cooking the cornbread in a hot skillet means that the crust is crisp and the inside is moist.
PERFECTION!
Our Southern Skillet Cornbread Recipe: AKA PERFECT Cornbread
This recipe for Southern Skillet Cornbread was originally a dear friend’s mother’s signature recipe.
We adjusted it slightly, replacing butter for her oil and reducing the sugar, just a pinch. (We don’t like a super sweet cornbread, but for those of you do, go ahead and double the sugar called for below (like Pam did in her original recipe).)
But, even with our slight adaptations, we still give her credit for giving us the perfect cornbread.
And, perfect it is.
Tim and I had been on the search for our perfect cornbread for quite some time. The requirements? It had to be slightly sweet. Crisp around the edges. Moist throughout, but satisfyingly crumbly. Simple and comforting in flavor. And (maybe most importantly) grainy enough in texture that you could identify the corn meal.
Yeah, we’re a bit picky when it comes to some things. Cornbread is one of them.
A few recipes came close. And then, we were told about Pam’s famous cornbread. We tried it and chewed in stunned silence.
It is cornbread perfection.
Try it for yourself and let us know if you agree.
If you love a light sweet, crisp-edged, robust cornbread where you can really taste the corn, this recipe for Southern Skillet Cornbread is for you! It's perfect with a steaming bowl of chili!
Yield: 1 (10 inch) cast iron skillet
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 1 c milk
- 4 Tbsp + 1 tsp unsalted butter, melted (divided)
- 1 1/2 c corn meal
- 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/8 c sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 450F. Put a teaspoon of melted butter in your cast iron skillet, swirl to coat the bottom and sides. Place skillet in the oven while it preheats.
- In a small bowl, mix egg, milk, and 4 Tbsp melted butter.
- In a medium bowl, mix corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add wet ingredients and stir until just moistened.
- Carefully remove hot cast iron skillet from the oven. Pour the batter into the skillet and return to oven.
- Bake at 450F for 15-20 minutes. The cornbread is done when a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with only a few dry crumbs clinging to it.
- Let cool slightly before serving.
I love a good skillet cornbread. Very nice, indeed!
Oh yes, I don’t know that there is a better way to make cornbread than in a skillet. I’ve only been cooking it that way since I was given this recipe (so maybe a year now), but the difference it makes in the end product is amazing!
I love making things like cornbread in my cast iron skillet. Cast iron skillets are so wonderful! This looks like a great recipe.
Thanks Amy! I’m only recently discovering how wonderful cast iron skillets can be. I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of potential that I haven’t tapped into yet.
You sold me! I’m always looking for a good cornbread recipe and this sounds fabulous! Okay, I’m looking at the comment above me and thanks for pointing out that you can make this in a regular cake pan. I definitely need to go get a skillet soon, but in the meantime… 🙂
Awesome! Definitely no problem in a cake pan. Happy baking!
I think in need to buy a skillet… I usually make mine in a cake tin, not quite as classy!
I LOVE my cast iron skillet. (I actually have a couple sizes thanks to my Great Aunt.) I was a bit intimidated by them at first, but they are so heavy duty and versatile.
You could definitely make this recipe in a cake pan though. We actually made a batch to use in another dish, and since we weren’t eating it straight up we just made it an a square 8″x8″ pan. A 8″ or 9″ round cake pan would work too. The edges aren’t quite as crispy, but it still tastes great!
With your recipe, I can eat larger portions of cornbread now. When I go to barbecue places, they serve these tiny pieces of cornbread. Such a tease! Thanks so much for sharing!!
I don’t know how restaurants get away with serving such small portions of cornbread. Don’t they know it’s possibly the best part of the meal!? (Right up there with the barbecue of course 🙂 ) Sometimes it is scary how fast Tim and I polish off a pan of this stuff.
As corn meal is a staple here I am going to try this 🙂
I hope you like it! Let me know how it turns out!
Beautiful photos Sarah. The Cornbread looks so tasty. I wish I could get the flour over here in Ireland.
Best,
Conor
Thanks Conor! Sad that they don’t sell cornmeal in Ireland. It’s very interesting which ingredients we take for granted because of our locations.
They might but I have been a bit assumptive in saying so. I will go look and hopefully, I am wrong about it. I live in fear of reality though.
Best of luck in your search!
I’ve been looking for a good homemade cornbread recipe, so I definitely will try this out. In fact, we have snow coming our way and I was thinking about making chili today and of course cornbread pairs perfectly with chili . . . :0)
Snow! Yikes! (I’m barely coming to terms with the occasional dip to the upper 40’s.) Chili and cornbread sounds like the perfect remedy.
Oh my, this cornbread recipe is delish!! A keeper for sure! My husband said it’s the best one I’ve made. Thanks so much for sharing it. :0)
Thanks for trying it and coming back to share your results! I’m so glad you and your family liked it!