Jalapeno Cornbread

Jalapeno cornbread from scratch tastes MUCH better than a box of Jiffy! It’s a simple bread with sweet and spicy flavors and goes very well with chili and soups. Sharp cheddar cheese gives this cornbread even more delicious taste. You’ll love this quick bread recipe!

Cornbread is a great traditional southern bread. It’s warm, comforting, and has a soft, crumbly texture. I love that it’s SO easy to make!

You can whisk it all together in a bowl and pop it in the oven. So fast and easy and it’s very versatile. Of course, it pairs perfectly with a bowl of soup or The Best Chili, but the uses for it don’t stop there!

It is delicious for breakfast with a cup of tea and some honey drizzled on top. It’s a great side dish for lunch and dinner. You can also chop it up, dry it out, and then use it to make cornbread dressing.

Types of Cornbread

There are several ways to make this tasty treat. Recipes for cornbread often have different ingredients and ways of making it, based on regional preferences. Each region also have strong beliefs about what should be included in cornbread and not.

For example, in southern parts of the U.S., you will usually find recipes where corn itself is the most prominent ingredients. Modern southern recipes would include flour and even sugar but that wasn’t always the case.

Southern recipes also prefer buttermilk while northern ones prefer milk. Northern cornbread recipes were also the ones to start sweetening it with sugar or syrup. 

And of course, what you use to bake cornbread is also a regional aspect. Southern cooks prefer a cast iron skillet while northern prefer a baking dish.

If speaking regionally, my Buttermilk cornbread recipe is actually a pleasant mix of southern and northern recipes.

Jalapeno cornbread has a southwest influence of adding spicy peppers to food. It has a very pleasant and strong flavor of jalapeno pepper but it’s not actually very spicy. Unless you include the seeds because that is what actually adds majority of heat to food.

Jalapeno Cornbread

Similar to biscuits, this is a quick bread recipe, meaning there is no yeast in the ingredients. As a result, it is very quick and easy to make, just mix and bake. You can have a pan of warm cheesy cornbread ready to eat in less than an hour!

INGREDIENT NOTES + SUBSTITUTIONS

This is not a complete list of ingredients. To see all ingredients, including amounts, refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

• unsalted butter – Because the amount of salt in butter varies by brand, it is best to use unsalted butter. If all you have is salted butter, omit or use less salt in this recipe.
• eggs – it’s best to use eggs that are at room temperature before you start making this recipe. Not only are cold eggs more difficult to incorporate into batter, but they also increase the baking time.
• buttermilk – If you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, it’s easy to make your own buttermilk substitute. Simply mix 1 tablespoons of white vinegar with enough milk to add up to 1 cup together. Then, let it rest for 5-10 minutes, until the milk thickens.

• cornmeal – There are different varieties of cornmeal, ranging in texture from coarse to corn flour. For the best tasting jalapeno cornbread, use finely ground cornmeal. For more information, here’s a great article on the differences between types of cornmeal.
• sharp cheddar cheese – It is always best to buy a block of cheese and shred it yourself. Bagged shreds contain cellulose, a chemical that prevents cheese from clumping. Unfortunately, it also prevents the cheese from melting properly and affects the taste.
• jalapeno peppers – Jalapenos aren’t very spicy at all, but if you have a problem with spicy foods, you can either remove the seeds, or make sure to get young peppers. Young peppers have smooth, firm skin. Older peppers are spicier and have visible veins on the skin.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Use a whisk to combine everything. This ensures that there are no clumps of flour in the mixture.

2. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture.

Whisk wet ingredients together before adding the mixture to the bowl to make sure everything is mixed evenly but the batter is not overmixed.

3. Fold in cheese and jalapenos into the cornbread batter.

Be careful not to over mix the batter, as you’ll end up with dry jalapeno cornbread. Just use a mixing spatula or large spoon to gently fold the ingredients into the batter.

4. Spread mixture evenly into a greased baking dish.

5. Bake, cool in the pan, then slice and serve!

Cheesy cornbread is delicious with any type of chili. Make a batch of turkey chili, or for a meatless meal, serve it with vegetarian chili.

If you made any of my recipes and shared them on Instagram, make sure to tag me @willcookforsmiles and #willcookforsmiles so I can see all the things you tried!

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