My Favorite Cornbread Recipe | Southern-Style Twist on a Classic

In this video, Mary Katherine shares her personal favorite cornbread recipe — a twist on the traditional Southern version! This cornbread is moist, flavorful, and easy to make, making it perfect for Thanksgiving or any day of the week.

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Mary Katherine’s Favorite Cornbread Recipe

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Some of you have been asking about my cornbread recipe, and you’re going to want to stick around for this video. My cornbread is a little bit different than the traditional kind, but it works great when you’re going to make that dressing that you need for the upcoming holidays. So, for the upcoming holiday series that we’re going to post, you’re going to want to have this recipe first. So, jump on in today and let’s make some cornbread. Hi, I’m Mary Katherine and welcome to my table. I’m so glad you’re here. Cornbread is a southern staple and a lot of people like just really traditional cornbread. And if that’s you, don’t worry. We’re going to have another video where we also post a recipe that’s very traditional. But today’s is a little bit different. If you’re not quite a fan of the texture of traditional cornbread that’s kind of grainy with that cornmeal, then you may like today’s cornbread better. It’s not going to have that same grainy texture. We are using cornmeal, but we’re also going to have some other ingredients in it that are going to make it a little bit lighter, a little bit fluffier, and just a slightly different texture. So, let’s do it. This is part of our Thanksgiving meal series, and we’re so excited to bring it to you. All of the videos will be posted here on YouTube, but we’re also going to have links to them on mathnable.com. Even if you’ve already signed up for our newsletter, go ahead and sign up for the Thanksgiving meal guide and we’ll be sure to bring it to you. You’ll get it directly into your email. It’ll have all of the recipes there and it’ll even have a customizable grocery list so that you can pick and choose which dishes you’d like to make. You can make them all or you can just choose certain ones that you like. It’ll it’ll customize it to your taste. So, sign up for that there at mcathnesstable.com. The link will be in the description. Okay, let’s get back to the video. The first thing that we’re going to do for our cornbread is I’m going to get my trusty mug of bacon grease right here. I’ve got a paper towel and we’re going to get a generous serving of it. And we’re going to just slather it all over my cast iron skillet. Now, this is where you do not want to skimp. In fact, I’m going to grab a little bit more because we want all these sides to be covered really well, too. This is what’s going to give you that nice crust all over your cornbread. And we definitely want that. That’s the best part of the cornbread. And so, now we’re going to put it in the oven. And I’m going to turn it on to 350°. And when our oven is hot, then our skillet will also be hot. And we want it to be good and hot before we put the cornbread batter in it. Okay. Now, let’s put the batter together. The first thing that we’re going to use in our cornbread batter is this cornmeal mix. Now, this is my very favorite kind. There are other kinds out there and if you don’t have access to this, the others will work fine. But invariably when I buy this kind, I feel like my cornbread turns out better than it does any other time. So I use the Martha White buttermilk cornmeal mix. And we are going to get a good cup of it. I’m not measuring super specifically in this recipe and you’ll see why in a minute. Okay. Now, I’m going to get a little bit extra. That’s probably That’s close to about a half a cup. And then we’re going to finish off with about a half a cup of flour. Now, this is self-rising flour. If you use plain all-purpose flour, that’s fine, but you’ll have to add in your own rising agents like, you know, your um baking soda, baking powder, those kinds of things. All right. So this is about a half a cup, too. So what we end up with in the bowl is two cups of our dry ingredients. And both of these, since we have self-rising flour and then this is the cornmeal mix, it’s also self-rising. So we don’t have to add any of those extra things to it. So we end up with about two cups. Now you can vary the combination of the cornmeal mix to the self self-rising flour. You can just use the cornmeal mix if you want. It already has some flour in it, but in order to not get the super grainy texture, I add just a little bit of flour in mine as well. I am going to go ahead and add some salt. And I’m going to add about a teaspoon. This is a tablespoon. So, I just kind of guessing in that about a teaspoon of salt. And then the other thing that I like to put in this cornbread is some of the dried minced onion. You can also use fresh onion if you want. It just gives a really good flavor to it. And I’m pretty generous with this. I’m going to go in with about two heaping tablespoons. Maybe even just a touch more. So, we’ve got all of our dry ingredients together. And I just kind of mix them a little bit. Let’s come in with our wet ingredients. And the first thing I’m going to add is a can of creamed corn. This is another thing that just kind of sets this cornbread recipe apart from your traditional kind is just having those little bits of real corn in it. And then the creaminess of the creamed corn also helps with that texture in the cornbread. Now, we’re going to use buttermilk. Now, you can also substitute just regular milk with some vinegar or some lemon juice and make your own curdled milk. That will work in this recipe, too. But I have real buttermilk today. And we’re going to use one cup. And now we’re going to come in with our oil. Now, if you have lard or if you have shortening, you can use that in this, too. it’ll work fine. I’m just going to go easy dough today and use vegetable oil. And that’s about a half a cup. Probably a let’s say a generous half a cup. Maybe just a touch over. And now we’re going to add three eggs. And that’s all the ingredients that we need for this cornbread. So now I’m just going to kind of break up those egg yolks a little bit. And we’re going to gently stir it. And it doesn’t take it long at all to come together. And then once that skillet with the bacon grease in it gets hot, we’ll pour our batter in. You know, if you don’t have bacon grease, what I do in those cases is I just use either shortening or you can use lard or you can just use vegetable oil. If you use vegetable oil, I would go in with about a four of a cup and just pour it into my black iron skillet and then put it in the oven and let it heat up just like we’re doing now. And before you add your cornbread mix to it, go ahead and kind of swirl the pan around so that it’s sitting all around the bottom of your black iron skillet of your cast iron skillet. Because you don’t have to worry so much about the sides as you pour the batter in. Since this is in a liquid form, that oil is just going to kind of come up the sides with the cornbread batter as you pour it in. So, if you don’t have bacon grease, don’t worry. If you don’t have shortening or lard, just use what you have. Use the cooking oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, something like that will work just fine. It’ll still give a nice crusty edge to your cornbread. And see, just like that, our batter has come together. Our oven’s heated up. I gave it just an extra 3 or 4 minutes to be sure our skillet is good and hot. So, let’s get it out. And you can see that bacon grease has melted. Now, let’s go in and we’re going to hear a sizzle. If our pan is hot enough, you can see it sizzling around the edge. And that bacon grease is going to give it the nicest crust. And sometimes I just kind of tilt it just to make sure it’s gotten all around the top edge really well. And I like to let it sit here for just maybe 30 seconds to a minute after I have poured the cornbread batter into the skillet. And just let the sizzle and that bacon grease do its thing. And then we’re going to pop it in the oven. That’s probably been long enough. And we’re going to bake this at 350° for about 30 minutes. We want it to start getting golden brown on top. This recipe doesn’t get quite as brown as the traditional recipe of cornbread does, but I’ll show you what it looks like when it’s done. Come back and check it with me. Then, let’s take our cornbread out of the oven. Okay, I’m going to be totally honest with y’all. I’m not exactly sure how long I cooked this today because I was also doing something else in the kitchen and I’ve set the timer for that. Silly me. Not thinking that it was resetting my timer for the cornbread. I totally forgot about it. So, I know that it cooked for longer than 30 minutes. I think it was somewhere between 35 and 40. And that is much longer than you would cook a traditional cornbread because you’ve got that extra liquid in it from that creamed corn that we added and other things. And so it does take a little bit longer than your regular cornbread recipe does. I think this was really somewhere um maybe 37 38 minutes. And I’ll tell you this too, I was cooking it on fan bake. My oven has a setting for that and that’s very much like a convection oven and it cooks a little bit quicker. So, if you have a traditional oven, you may need to cook it a little bit longer than that as well. So, just watch for it. You really want this good color. This doesn’t get as brown as regular cornbread either, if you can see on the top. But, it is starting to get a good golden color, and that’s what you want for this recipe. So, this looks perfect. 35 to 40 minutes, maybe a touch longer if you don’t have a fan bake setting on your oven. Okay, let’s slice into it and give it a taste. All right, let’s see that crust on the bottom. Look at that steam. All right. Now, I’m going to turn it around so you can see that crust here at the back. See what that bacon grease does? It just gives it such nice crust on the bottom and that edge of the cornbread. That’s what you want right there. All right, let’s give it a taste. Now, if you want to put butter on your cornbread, it is delicious that way. But if you just want to put it in a bowl of soup or a bowl of beans and let it soak up all that juice that is in either one of those dishes, it’s delicious that way, too. My papa used to eat it when it was leftover. He would just take a piece of cornbread and he put it in either a glass of milk or a glass of buttermilk and just eat it with some onions on the side. And he and my mama would make a meal out of that with leftover cornbread. But it’s hot and fresh. Let’s give it a taste. [Music] That is some good cornbread. I’m telling you, I know that you may love the traditional cornbread and it is great, especially when you do soak it into a bowl of soup or the beans because the consistency of that cornbread just is perfect with that. But this works really well with it, too. But I prefer this one if you’re just gonna have a slice of cornbread with a plate of good summer vegetables or just as a side of bread with any meal. It’s so yummy. I got to have another taste. Okay, I’m going to flip it over and show you the bottom so you can see it really well. See that crust? And what y’all can’t see right now is there’s some drool like coming out of the cameraman’s corner of his mouth because he can’t stand that I’m sitting here talking about cornbread and getting to eat cornbread and the whole time he’s not able to do that and he has to smell it here in the kitchen. It’s just torture. Okay guys, that is our cornbread recipe and you need to save it so that you can make it anytime, but you also need to have it before the holidays. If you want to make homemade dressing or some people call it stuffing, then you need to have a good cornbread recipe. And this one is a great one for that dish. And the nice thing about it, you know, I’m always looking for things that you can do ahead of time before the holidays because there’s so much food to prepare and and such little time to do it. So, you’re always looking for what you can do ahead of time. And this is one of those things. You always would make your cornbread a day or two ahead of making your dressing because you want it to get a little bit dried out. But you can actually make it a month or two ahead of time and put it in your freezer. It holds really well in the freezer and it works perfectly to make that dressing. You just want to take it out of your freezer, let it thaw, and then let it sit out for a day or two to get that dried out texture that you want to put your dressing together, too. So, I love that about this dish. So, just make your cornbread as early as you want. We’re already in the time frame now when you can do that. So, make it now, stick it in your freezer, and that’ll be one less thing that you’ll have to do right when you’re coming up on the holidays. Well, I’m so glad you were with me here today at Mary Catherine’s Table. This is one of those southern staples, and I know some of you guys have been asking for it, and now we’ve given it to you. This is my cornbread recipe. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I think your family will love it, too. So, go ahead and make some cornbread and make everybody happy in your house. And remember, subscribe and share our videos with your friends. If you subscribe, you’ll get those notifications when we come out with new videos. And remember to go out today and find somebody who needs a little bit of kindness and give them some of yours.