Skillet Cornbread From a Chef’s Kitchen
Skillet Cornbread from A Chef’s Kitchen in Williamsburg, VA is a savory delight. Follow this step-by-step recipe and enjoy the crowd favorite in your own dining room.
Jump to RecipeSkillet Cornbread from a Chef’s Kitchen
Imagine yourself in the studio audience of a world-renowned cooking show. Except you get to eat the five-course meal with its wine pairings surrounded by friends and laughter.A Chef’s Kitchen gives you an unforgettable night of food, eating, and learning. Then they send you home with the recipes. Even as their menus change with the seasons, the skillet cornbread is a constant, and a favorite for guests to learn to make at home.
Skillet Cornbread During a Dining Experience
Chef John Gonzales, creator, and owner of A Chef’s Kitchen is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has authored two cookbooks for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and been featured on HGTV among other TV programs.The Classic Cornbread occurs after the appetizer and with the salad on A Chef’s Kitchen Dinner Menu. Yet, it is a favorite Side Dish returned to again and again during the meal.
You can watch Chef John making his now-famous cornbread recipe, in which he gives you tips such as using whole milk buttermilk for thickening. He also explains and the color of cornmeal in this Southern skillet cornbread is more for appearance (he uses yellow), and how necessary it is to use a cast-iron skillet, not a Teflon one.
Savory vs. Sweet Cornbreads
For years I’ve made a sweet cornbread to serve alongside Brunswick Stew. Chef John explains that his Southern-Style cornbread recipe is from Charleston, South Carolina where they don’t use sugar in skillet cornbread. He does use just one tablespoon and encourages cooks to double that if they want a sweeter result.
My big surprise? My kids gobble up this Skillet Cornbread. They prefer it much more over my sweeter version. Maybe it’s because they’ve grown up in Colonial Williamsburg and spent more than one field trip mixing cornmeal on-site at Jamestown and Yorktown.
Chef’s Skillet Kitchen Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup stone- ground yellow cornmeal
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions
Chef’s Skillet Kitchen Cornbread
- Preheat the oven to 450 with the iron skillet in the oven. After the oven is preheated, leave the skillet in for an additional 5 minutes.
- Whisk together dry ingredients: cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl.
- Add the large egg and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
- Remove the hot skillet from the oven and add the butter. Allow it to melt and brown. Swirl around the melted butter so that the edges and bottom are coated.
- Pour in the cornbread batter and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly.
- Turn out onto a cutting board and serve warm.
Nutrition
This fall, an iron skillet might be worth the investment. Enjoy this cornbread with dinner, or smeared with butter or honey as a delicious treat. Be both the chef and the guest without going out and enjoy the savory taste of this classic bread.
