This southern style cornbread is one of the best side dishes you can serve at at any meal. It goes with family style casseroles, comforting bowls of soup, or traditional meat-and-vegetable dinners. I make this cornbread in a cast iron skillet, but you can use whatever type of pan you have.

If you’re in a hurry, simply click on the jump-to-recipe button beneath the title. You’ll be taken to the very top of the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Homemade Cornbread for Any Meal

I love slices of cornbread with any type of meal. It’s especially good with beans, soups, and stews.

Sometimes I add butter, but not always. It all depends on whether or not I have gravy on my plate.

Cornbread is perfect for almost any meal. And then later, crumble a leftover slice of cornbread in a glass of buttermilk or whatever kind of milk you drink. That’s a delicious snack I enjoyed in the afternoon or before bedtime.

Southern Style Cornbread Ingredients

You need both dry and wet ingredients to make this delicious cornbread. I also used a 10 inch cast iron skillet like I was taught to do.

If you have a seasoned skillet that’s been passed down through a generation or two, that’s the best one to use. However, you can purchase an iron skillet and season it yourself.

Here are the dry ingredients you need:

• Yellow cornmeal
• All-purpose flour (regular or gluten-free)
• baking powder
• Baking soda

You can add sugar if you like your cornbread sweet, but I’m making it the traditional way.

I used a gluten free flour, but regular all-purpose flour is the standard. If you use one that’s gluten-free, check to see if it has xanthan gum in it. If not, add a couple of teaspoons to make up for the lack of gluten.

You also need wet ingredients, including the following:

• Buttermilk
• Eggs
• Cooking oil
• Butter

For exact measurements of each ingredient and full directions, go to the recipe card at the bottom of the page. You can even print out the card by using the “print” button.

Variations of Easy Cornbread Recipe

Some folks are adamantly against sweet cornbread. However, I feel that food should taste good to the person eating it.

So if you like sweet cornbread, add sugar. If you’re like me and prefer the traditional southern cornbread, leave it out.

You can also use whole wheat flour in place of the all purpose flour. Before I went gluten-free, I tried whole wheat flour, and it was good.

Or you can follow this Jiffy cornbread recipe from the Back to My Southern Roots blog. A lot of people enjoy this sweet version.

I enjoy the traditional “dry” cornbread. But if you want to make it moist, add more oil or a small can of creamed corn to the batter.

Another thing I like to do is add a little “kick” to my cornbread. That’s why I make these delicious jalapeno corn muffins.

How to Make Southern Style Cornbread

First, preheat your oven. It needs to be a hot 400 degrees F to get the right texture.

If you’re using a cast iron skillet, put some butter in the center and stick it in the oven. After it melts, make sure the entire bottom of the pan is covered with the melted butter.

You can use vegetable oil instead of butter, but I think the butter adds more flavor.

As I mentioned, I use a 10″ cast iron skillet to make this cornbread. However, you can use a smaller skillet if you want your cornbread thicker.

I prefer the thickness of the one I made for this recipe, as well as having a 10 inch round cake.

I’ve also used a rectangular or square baking dish when I didn’t have access to my pans. It still comes out delicious!

Next, mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure you blend them thoroughly.

Then, mix all of the wet ingredients in a medium-size bowl.

The egg, milk, and oil need to be well blended to have consistency throughout the cornbread.

Now, pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is blended.

Your batter will be very thick, which is what you want. Pull the skillet out of the oven and pour the batter into it, leveling it as you go.

If you use a smaller skillet or pan, make sure that you don’t fill the skillet beyond 2/3 full. Otherwise, you might have to spend some time cleaning the bottom of the oven.

Return the skillet to the oven and cook for about 18 minutes, or until the top turns a light golden brown.

Remove your cornbread from the oven and place the skillet on something that can handle the intense heat. I use either a silicone trivet or extra potholder, depending on what’s close at hand.

After 5 minutes, slice the cornbread. Serve it with butter and enjoy!

If you have about 15 minutes and some heavy cream, try this super easy and delicious homemade butter. I love making my own butter because I can add as much salt as I want. It’s also a fun experience to enjoy with the kids or grandkids.

How Long Does Cornbread Last?

If you don’t eat all of it at one meal, the best way to store leftover cornbread is in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It should last up to a week.

You can also store leftover cornbread on the kitchen counter for a day or two. Make sure you wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil.

Store cornbread in the freezer if you can’t eat all of it within a week. It should be good for up to 6 months in the freezer.

Traditional Southern Iron Skillet Cornbread

This easy cornbread recipe takes me back to my childhood where four generations got together to cook. Mid-morning, my great-grandmother, grandmother, mom, and I headed to the kitchen to make the daily feast.

One of the things I could always count on was having some sort of bread at every meal. Sometimes it was biscuits, but it was often this delicious southern style cornbread.

Since my maternal grandparents lived on a farm, the biggest meal of the day was at noon. In fact, they called that meal dinner, while the evening meal was supper.

Sometimes we had traditional southern-style cornbread that crumbles fairly easily, while other times we had this super moist fine-ground cornmeal cornbread that holds together. Both are delicious.

Whether we were eating soup or a chicken dinner, this cornbread was the perfect accompaniment. I loved dunking it into any gravy or sauce on my plate.

My grandfather used to break up a piece of cornbread and drop it into a glass of buttermilk. Then, he’d eat it with a spoon.

Now I enjoy doing the same thing. But if I don’t have buttermilk, I’ll use whatever milk I have on hand.

Although there are many versions of cornbread in the South, my family made it this way. Most of the recipes I’ve seen are very similar with slight differences in the amount of each ingredient.

See this recipe shared at Meal Plan Monday, Full Plate Thursday, and Weekend Potluck.

More Recipes

This cornbread is delicious with almost any meal. I like it with these oven-fried chicken strips. This is a delicious gluten-free recipe that tastes as good as the traditional version.

It’s also good with this chili con carne. It balances the spice in the chili and adds quite a bit of texture to the meal.

Another dish that’s good with this cornbread is homemade lentil soup. You don’t need anything else to make this a complete meal.

If you like creamy soups, serve it with this comforting cream of mushroom soup or delightfully flavorful cream of tomato soup.

Please feel free to share!