This cornbread recipe is moist, buttery, spicy, and cheesy. Perfect on its own or with a pot of beans. In this case, I’m making it to go with my Good Luck Black Eyed Peas and Southern Style Mustard Greens. The Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread has whole corn kernels as well as the diced jalapeños and shredded cheddar cheese mixed in. It is so moist and delicious, I should’ve made a few breakfast muffins out of it. Oh well, next time.
I prefer to cook my cornbread in a cast-iron skillet. Pouring the batter into a preheated skillet with a little melted butter in the bottom creates crisp edges and a beautiful buttery crust that is delicious.
This is the same buttermilk cornbread recipe I use in My Mom’s Cornbread Dressing recipe. Only this Mexican style cornbread has the addition of the whole kernel corn, jalapeños, and cheddar cheese. Actually, is this Mexican style cornbread or Texas-style cornbread? I suppose either description works. This cornbread recipe uses only butter, not oil, to keep it moist and flavorful. Butter enhances the flavor of the cornbread, whereas oil would just make it oily.
Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread Ingredients
- Dry Ingredients: This is the ideal mixture for light and cake-like cornbread. Cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. This is the typical base I use for all the different types of cornbread I make. At the beginning of the baking season, I always buy a new container of baking powder in Autumn so that I know that it is fresh.
- Wet Ingredients: This is the ideal mixture for a moist and flavorful cornbread. Buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. I have a good recipe for Homemade Buttermilk if you forgot to buy it. Again, these are my normal wet ingredients for all my cornbread recipes.
- Jalapeños, Corn, and Cheddar Cheese: This is where the jalapeño cheddar cornbread recipe gets really good. I use fresh jalapeños, fresh or frozen corn, and a good quality cheddar cheese. Prepackaged cheddar is fine for this recipe. I put 2 jalapeños in the batter and place slices of two more on top as a garnish. Oddly, red jalapeños have a milder flavor than the green ones. All three of these ingredients add a nice moistness to the cornbread.
Here is my recipe for Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
Equipment
- 10-inch Cast Iron Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Corn Meal
- 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Cup Buttermilk
- 1 1/2 Cups Corn
- 1 Cup Cheddar Cheese Shredded
- 2 Jalapenos Seeds removed, fine dice, for the batter
- 2 Jalapenos Sliced for topping
- 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter Melted, for the batter
- 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter For the cast-iron skillet
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F
- Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and buttermilk, stir to combine.
- Add the jalapeños, corn, and shredded cheddar, stir to combine
- Add the melted butter and stir to combine.
- Place the cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and melt 2-tablespoons of butter in it. Pour the batter into the cast-iron skillet and decorate the top with sliced jalapeños.
- Bake for approximately 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center of the cornbread, comes out clean.
Alyssa
This is honesty one of the best corn bread recipes I’ve ever had. I used frozen corn and cut down the buttermilk by about 1/4 cup to account for the excess moisture. I used homemade candied jalapeños in place of the fresh, and the little bursts of spicy sweet were DELICIOUS. Honesty this is my new go-to recipe. Yum!
Steven
Thank you, Alyssa! That is a great compliment and I love the modifications. I’ll need the candied jalapeños next time I make this cornbread recipe!