Killer Cornbread

Funny how a simple side dish can turn the most humble meal into a masterpiece.  I’m not a southern girl, but I can appreciate the beauty and bliss that is really good cornbread.  Take a pot of beans and ham hocks, a bowl of chili, a pan-fried fish or a simple green salad, add a chunk of steaming, buttery cornbread and you have something very special indeed.

I was watching a cooking show once where the chef was making “spoon bread”.  It was more of a cornbread casserole, as opposed to your solid chunks of cornbread.  This recipe is somewhere in between.  It will set up and can be cut into squares and picked up with fingers – if you wait and let it cool down a bit.  Hot out of the oven, it is softer than regular cornbread, and although you can cut it into squares to serve it, you may want to eat it with a fork until it cools.  Mine never seems to make it that long.  It is soooo good!

This recipe uses a prepackaged cornbread mix, to which you’d normally just add milk and egg.  I don’t use a lot of packaged foods, but I’ve made my own cornbread before and it’s never as good.  Therefore, when I see these on sale, I buy a pile of them and fill up the back corner of my cabinet so they are around when I need a quickie side dish.

Killer Cornbread

Killer Cornbread

4 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pkg. Jiffy cornbread mix
1 cup cream-style corn
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400˚.  Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat and sauté onions.  Let cool a few minutes.  In a small bowl combine onions, sour cream, 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese and salt.  Set aside.  In another bowl, combine cornbread mix, corn, milk and egg.  Pour into a greased or sprayed casserole dish (either an 8×8 square pan, or an 11×7 pan, or something equivalent).

 

Making cornbread. Most people just stop here and cook it. But where’s the fun in that?

Gently spoon onion mixture over the top of the corn mixture.  Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese over the top.

 

As you can see, the placement of the sour cream mixture is not an exact science. Try to get blobs all over the surface.

Bake 30-40 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.  Let cool and slice into squares.  Try not to eat the whole pan at once.

Hot out of the oven. I like mine a bit gooey so I usually stop at 30 minutes. If you want a more solid square to pick up, go closer to 40.

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