Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
Cast iron cornbread studded with spicy jalapenos and lots of cheddar cheese.
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
Jump to RecipeI’ve preached before about my love of cast iron (reasons you should own a cast iron skillet). At the end of the day it’s one of the best and most economical pieces of kitchen equipment you can get.
Sometimes I think it’s forgotten that cast iron is one of the best ways to bake. It distributes heat really evenly and gets really hot which is great for some baking recipes. I’m not sure I’d use it for some desserts, but it’s awesome for sturdy breads.
Case in point: Cornbread. Cornbread is more sturdy than your normal bread and can stand up to the heat of cast iron. Actually it benefits from it because it develops a nice crust around the edges which is oh so delicious.
This version is studded with a few of my favorite things: cheddar cheese and jalapenos!
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
- Serves:
- Serves 8
- Prep Time:
- Total Time:
Helpful Equipment:
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Cast iron cornbread studded with spicy jalapenos and lots of cheddar cheese.
Ingredients
Instructions
1) Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl and wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. When whisking your melted butter into your eggs and milk, make sure it’s not too hot or you’ll make scrambled eggs. Also, grate your cheese and dice up your jalapenos and scallions.
2) Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until batter is together. Some lumps are fine. Then stir in cheese, jalapenos, and scallions. Leave a few tablespoons of scallions and cheese to top the cornbread.
3) Let the batter sit for 10 minutes.
4) Pour the batter into a cast iron skillet. I recommend rubbing the cast iron skillet with a bit of butter just to make sure the cornbread doesn’t stick.
5) Bake at 350 degrees until the cornbread is set and the edges are browned, about 30 minutes. Check it with a toothpick in the center.
6) Cool for a few minutes before serving.
Making the batter
This batter is about as easy as it gets. I like to use a medium sized cornmeal for my cornbread which gives it a nice texture with a bit of bite to it. If you like yours softer, go with a fine grained cornmeal.
For this batter, the only important thing is to keep your dry ingredients and wet ingredients separate until they are all mixed up. This really just helps everything combine evenly.
So combine your dry ingredients in a large bowl and the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.
When you whisk your melted butter into the eggs and milk, make sure it’s not too hot or you’ll just make scrambled eggs.
Also get your add-ins all set before you mix together your batter. I would definitely seed the jalapenos but if you want it really spicy you can leave them in I guess.
On the scallions, chop the whites and the greens. You can and should use both.
Once everything is ready, stir your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients. It should be a pretty wet batter. Then add in your jalapenos, cheddar, and scallions. Leave about 2 Tablespoons of cheese and scallions to go on as a topping.
Let this batter sit for about 10 minutes to give the cornmeal a chance to absorb some of the liquid.
Baking the dish
Pour all your batter into your cast iron skillet. While it shouldn’t stick to the pan if your skillet is seasoned well, I went ahead and rubbed a bit of butter in my pan just to make sure.
Then add all your toppings!
Bake this at 350 degrees until the cornbread is set in the middle and the edges are nicely browned. This will most likely take 25-30 minutes, but check on it regularly and test it with a toothpick in the center to make sure it’s set.
Let it cool for a few minutes before slicing into it.
There’s a lot of flavor in this bread. It’s spicy, but the cornbread mellows out the heat really nicely. The cheese just kind of takes it over the top because you’ll hit these patches of melted cheese in the bread.
You could serve this as a side, but honestly, it was hearty enough for me just to eat as a breakfast in itself.
Mark this down as yet another chapter in the book of cast iron praise!
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Hello! My name is Nick Evans and I write and manage Macheesmo. I started Macheesmo 11 years ago when I was just learning my way around the kitchen. I love to cook and love everything food-related, but I have no formal training. These days I focus on fast, accessible recipes with the occasional “reach” recipe!
I’ve posted almost 2,000 recipes on Macheesmo. For each one, I do my best to give full explanations of what I did and tips on what I’d do differently next time. I’ll bring up the tricky parts and the easy parts.
I hope you can find something and cook something!
This looks really good. Do you think that there would be a big difference if I used buttermilk instead of regular milk?
You could sub buttermilk without a problem. It would be delicious.
love using buttermilk instead of milk in cornbread.
Nikki, as a born-and-bred, dyed-in-the-wool Southern gal I always use not only buttermilk but WHOLE buttermilk in all of my cornbread. Any cornbread is made better by buttermilk and whole buttermilk gives such a superior moist and tender crumb that you will never look back! IMHO NEVER use regular milk. If you only have regular milk mix a tablespoon per cup of cider vinegar or lemon juice to WHOLE milk before you begin preparing the recipe and allow it to sit aside to thicken until needed.
I cook almost exclusively in cast iron these days… love it! You cant go wrong with jalapeno cornbread. Good stuff!
This looks delicious! (Nick, there are three eggs in the photo, but no eggs in the ingredient list)
Thanks! Fixed :)
Just withinn the last two hours, I made some of your Jalapeno-cheddar corn bread. It is fantastic !
What a terrific treat ! Followed all the rules and …..no problem ! I must tell you, I am a cast iron afficianado. I use 'em for darn near everything. Learned about them long time ago from my Mom….Later…Joe
delicious! I made similar things but w/a Jiffy box :) Also like adding fresh or canned corn.
PS Nikki, I've made cornbread with buttermilk and love it.
Love jalapeno is my cornbread!
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Nick, Just noticed….the 3 eggs….. My print out didn't list 'em, so I didn't use 'em. BUT…….
the bread turned out wonderful anyway. I did not notice ANY difference, really.
Again, great recipe and site, keep 'em coming…..Joe
Well, looks like we were having the same idea this weekend! Although I'm pretty sure your cornbread just blew mine out of the water! Hehe! Looks great, as always, Nick!
Hi Nick,
There were no clear instructions for the butter and I accidentally made scrambled eggs. I'm 3 tablespoons short on butter now, hopefully it will turn out alright.
Sorry Tiffany. Yea… when you add melted butter to eggs, it's important to make sure the butter isn't too hot. I'll make a note in the recipe.
Tis the weekend, I suppose! I made jalapeno cornbread last night along with some turkey pumpkin chili. I also use buttermilk in my cornbread and it's great. Wish my cast iron was smaller — I'd use it more often!
Well, looks like we were having the same idea for next weekend!
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Looks great! I've been searching for a new cornbread recipe so I'll have to give this one a try!
Looks great! I've been searching for a new cornbread recipe so I'll have to give this one a try!
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If I'm not cool enough to own a cast iron skillet yet what size baking dish can I use to bake this magical cornbread in?
Thanks!
That looks fabulous, Nick. Cast iron rocks, we used our cast iron griddle tonight roasting potatoes in the oven.
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I must try this, I think I have all ingredients. Looks like it's very delicious and I think that's true :)
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Great post!
Very good recipe
wow the recipe looks really amazing, I haven't tasted this yet, but I would like to try this recipe on my next adventure in my kitchen, thanks for the recipe
Made this tonight – so good!
Can’t wait to make this, Nick!
Just wanted to come back and note that this is my favorite cornbread recipe EVER, and everyone I’ve ever made it for is similarly obsessed.
My sister uses this recipe but chops a bar cheese into small chunks instead of shredded—-just heavenly when you bite into a piece.
This was AMAZING!! Made tonight and it is the best and most importantly “moist” cornbread!!! I do not like dry bread :-) I too used buttermilk,, served this with shrimp and grits, YUM!!! Thanks for sharing!
Hey Julie! So glad you liked it. Definitely one of my go to cornbreads. Shrimp and grits is always a good go-with dish. :)
Love this cornbread! Can other flours like chickpea flour or oat flour be substituted for the regular flour? I have a gluten intolerant person coming to dinner.
Hey Peach, sorry for the delay on the reply. Yes though… I think you could substitute oat flour for the reg flour. :) Good luck!
I approve everything BUT the sugar. In Texas, well at least the area I grew up, you do NOT put sugar in any kind of cornbread, unless you are making a desert bread. My mother grew up in New Mexico, and she made the most wonderful ‘Mexican cornbread’, ever. The exception to your recipe (along with no sugar) is green chilis. I will try this however, just for grins!