Cheesy Mexican Cornbread
Cheesy Mexican Cornbread is a tasty and scrumptious cornbread recipe with a little Tex-Mex flare and a lot of savory flavors thrown in too. This one includes diced green chilies to give it a hint of heat. The savory flavors include bacon and bacon grease, Cheddar cheese and onion to give it that smoky, sumptuous flavor that’s terrific in cornbread.
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I made a Mixed Bean Chili and a Grilled Salmon Chowder for back-to-back dinners in early January. I wanted a cornbread recipe to go with both, so I turned to an old friend’s cookbook and found this recipe. I’ve never made a layered cornbread before, but this has a Cheddar Cheese layer in the middle! It’s really, really good, and deliciously savory. Then I remade the recipe when I made up a batch of Vegetable Beef Stew, Beef and Vegetable Potpie and Southwestern Shepherd’s Pie. This time I increased the bacon and the sugar. While it still contains the savory flavors the extra sugar balanced out the recipe and made the cornbread even more delicious in my opinion.
Cheesy Mexican Cornbread uses both buttermilk and sour cream so it’s a very moist (not crumbly) version of cornbread. It also includes a can of creamed corn to bump up the corn flavor. I used a 9×9″ square baking dish so the recipe took about 50 minutes to cook all the way through. If you use a slightly larger dish, this recipe may cook in 30-40 minutes.
This cornbread pairs really well with soup or chili. That said, I know many people want sweet cornbread. That’s why I made a sweeter version the second time around and liked it enormously. I actually bumped up the sugar to almost 1/2 cup, rather than the two tablespoons this original recipe called for. I did not find the cornbread overly sweet and the extra sugar really balanced out the savory flavors a whole lot more. Regardless, a slice of this cornbread will be pleasurable to all!
Cheesy Mexican Cornbread is delightful.
I served it with Mixed Bean Chili and it was wonderful.
This cornbread recipe includes bacon, onions, green chilies and a layer of Cheddar cheese in the middle.
It was also wonderful with Grilled Salmon Chowder.
Here’s what I did.
Fry bacon strips in large skillet over low to medium heat until done. Be careful not to overcook or scorch the bacon. The second time I made this recipe, I increased the bacon to six slices. Yum. 😉
Remove the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Reserve four tablespoons bacon grease for the recipe. Once the bacon cools, break into small pieces and set aside.
Place a can of creamed corn in a mixing bowl. Add diced green chilies, diced onion, cornmeal, flour and sugar. This picture shows two tablespoons. The second batch used 7 tablespoons of granulated sugar and we liked it much better.
Add eggs, buttermilk and sour cream.
Stir ingredients to combine.
Add bacon pieces and bacon grease to the recipe.
Stir again to combine ingredients.
Spray a 9×9″ square baking dish with cooking spray. Spread half of the cornbread mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Sprinkle Cheddar cheese evenly over top of the cornbread mixture.
Spread remaining half of the cornbread mixture gently over top of the cheese mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees approximately 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I made this recipe twice and it took about 50 minutes both times before the cornbread was completely cooked.
While this cornbread doesn’t use jalapeno peppers, it does have a little bit of heat from the diced green chilies.
I cut Cheesy Mexican Cornbread into 12 slices.
It’s a great cornbread to serve with Grilled Salmon Chowder. We prefer a sweeter cornbread. I used seven tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar the second time around and the cornbread was perfect that way!
Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, onions and diced green chilies provide plenty of savory flavors for this cornbread. The creamed corn adds additional texture. Using additional sugar mellowed out the savory flavors and made a perfect blend of ingredients in my opinion.
Here’s the recipe.
CHEESY MEXICAN CORNBREAD
(Recipe adapted from Linda Stiles, Ovilla, TX)
Cheesy Mexican Cornbread
Equipment
- 1 9×9" glass baking dish
- 1 large skillet to fry bacon
- 1 mixing bowl
- 1 wooden spoon
- measuring spoons
- measuring cups
- 1 sharp knife to dice the onion
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow corn meal
- 1/3 cup flour (I used unbleached flour)
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 7 tbsp. granulated sugar (see note below) (This is 1/2 cup sugar minus one tablespoon)
- 2 large eggs
- 4 tbsp. bacon drippings (reserved from frying bacon)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk or soured milk
- 15 oz. can cream-style corn
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup sharp Cheddar cheese shredded
- 6 slices bacon fried crisp, and broken into bite-sized pieces
- 4 oz. can green chilies diced, undrained
Instructions
- Fry bacon over low to medium heat until crisp but not scorched!
- Measure out four tablespoons of the grease for the recipe.
- Break bacon into small pieces.
- Set aside.
- Mix together cornmeal, flour, onion, salt, baking soda, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, sour cream, green chilies and creamed-style corn in a large mixing bowl.
- Stir to combine.
- Add bacon grease and bacon and stir again to combine.
- DO NOT ADD the cheese.
- Pour half of batter into a greased 9×9” glass baking dish.
- Cover the top of batter evenly with the grated Cheddar cheese.
- Pour remaining half of batter gently over top of the cheese and spread to the edges of the dish.
- Bake at 350°for 40-50 minutes.
- Though the center will be gooey due to the cheese, the cornbread should be completely done.
Notes
© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen
Nutrition
Cheesy Mexican Cornbread is very moist since the recipe uses both buttermilk and sour cream. The cornbread doesn’t crumble apart from being too dry like many cornbread recipes do.
Bacon and cheese make everything better!
Cheesy Mexican Cornbread is great with soup or chili. It’s also good with any Tex-Mex meal like Enchiladas or Chili Pie.
Yes it was wonderful with Mixed Bean Chili!
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