There are some things that are such an ingrained part of your childhood that you can’t remember not having it and one of those things for me is this cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet. My mom has baked thousands of pans of skillet cornbread and I’ve certainly made my fair share.

It’s a simple recipe that you can add some variety to or just whip out a plain pan of cornbread and be very happy with yourself. You can substitute honey for the sugar and whole wheat or gluten free flour for the all-purpose flour. Stirring in crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, or a diced jalapeño is amazing.

This is perfect with chili, a pot of beans, stew in the winter, a big salad in the summer, or with butter and honey for breakfast or dessert. We always use this cornbread for our dressing at Thanksgiving too.

Simple Skillet Cornbread Recipe

  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 4 Tablespoons butter

To get started put an 8 or 9 inch cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 400°. While that’s going, mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk together the eggs and milk in another bowl. I use an immersion blender to do this but a whisk works well too.

Open the oven and add the butter to the skillet to melt as it finishes heating. This is important because you need a really hot skillet to pour the cornbread batter into and your butter needs to be hot and sizzling. When the oven is up to temperature and the butter is hot, stir the egg and milk mixture into the flour and cornmeal bowl and stir to blend. Make sure there aren’t any clumps of flour hiding on the bottom of the bowl.

Carefully take the hot skillet out of the oven and pour the butter into the cornbread batter and stir quickly to combine. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

The trickiest part is coming up! When the cornbread is finished, have a large plate or platter ready and confidently flip the skillet over onto the plate. The cornbread should fall out onto the plate in one beautiful, buttery, golden piece. Sometimes it sticks and I have to loosen it around the edges with a spatula and then flip it out onto the plate. Then all you have to do is cut it into wedges and serve. Perfection!

Tips and Tricks

  • The size of your skillet determines the thickness of the cornbread, smaller skillet will make it thicker, a bigger skillet will make it thinner. Use whatever you like and/or have.
  • Whole wheat flour makes a delicious cornbread but it won’t be a fluffy as all-purpose flour.
  • Honey or maple syrup can be substituted for the sugar.
  • To use for dressing make the cornbread the day before you will need it and cut it up into large-ish pieces to dry out a bit. My mom bakes her dressing inside the turkey and I bake mine in a dish. It’s delicious either way.