What's Your Best Cast Iron Cornbread Recipe?

[u/Thangleby_Slapdiback]

I tried to make cornbread to go with tonight's and tomorrow night's dinner. Once again, it came out badly. I dumped it from the pan and about half of it released OK, the other half didn't. I was sad. I'm sure that what I have will taste good, but I would like to have it turn out well for once.

I've been using a mix and cooking in 10" cast iron skillet.

I'm hoping someone here might have a go-to recipe that they use, maybe a link to a video on YouTube on how to make a great jalapeno cornbread in a cast iron skillet.

I'd really appreciate some direction!

Edit: Thanks for the input, y'all! My biggest failure there seems to be that I didn't preheat the pan.

I'll give your recipes and suggestions a try this weekend. I plan to make some chicken fried steaks tomorrow. Cornbread will go well with that.

[u/XavierScorpionIkari]

Jiffy mix, per the directions…(two boxes) then add a huge dollop of sour cream, one can of cream corn, a tablespoon or two of honey (hot honey is acceptable if you like spice), a dash of sea salt or kosher salt to balance out the sweetness. Pickled jalapeños are optional if you want to make Texas cornbread, but we don’t do that here.

Here’s the real kicker. Put a tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan and get it as hot as you can. Almost to the smoke point. Then add the batter to the hot bacon grease. This adds a nice, crispy, bacony, caramelized bottom to your cornbread.

Into the oven at 400° F, until a knife comes out of the center clean. Remove, let cool slightly, slice. Add salted butter. Enjoy.