Among the special types of breads we find, cornbread is the most versatile one. Why is that? That is because with appropriate pairings and side dishes with it, it becomes suitable for almost all types of cuisine and culture. Basically, cornbread has the ability to blend with multi-cuisine dishes. Interesting, isn’t it? The con of this characteristic is that you have too much to choose from. And it gets a bit overwhelming on where to start when you are making cornbread the center of attraction in your cooking.
We have had our fair share of dilemma and confusion with cornbread recipes and finally came up with few pointers on where to begin. For easier understanding, we will be talking about two major aspects here.
The first one is the recipes with cornbread as the core ingredient. The second one would be what are the major dishes or side dishes that you can enjoy with cornbread. We will also try to give you a heads up on which recipe and dish should be served as main course, sides or appetizers for better clarification. So folks, without further to do, let’s jump right into some mouth-watering meals.
Cornbread as the core ingredient
With cornbread you can actually create a myriad of meals. We have identified some of the most appetizing dishes that you can make with cornbread as the core ingredient. Now the problem that you usually face is with setting up the menu. You know what? Simply go with your mood for the day. Or, you can choose occasion specific menu. When you browse through the article, you will realize which dish to choose during which occasion.
Honey cornbread muffin
The most common form of dish with cornbread is to create muffins. Therefore, we would definitely ask you know get hold of a simple cornbread muffin recipe. With different stuffing within the muffin, you get to try out different flavors. Our advice would be to go for this honey cornbread muffin recipe. This is simple yet superb delicious! You can skip the honey and add different topping as well if you want.
But honey is the favorite of the masses when it comes to cornbread. You can also hold create hold into the muffins and add some savory stuffing as well. This stuffing based cornbread muffins is popular during the holidays but hey, there are no rules when it comes to enjoying a nice meal. You can prepare it anytime of the year.
Sausages stuffed in cornbread
Sausages actually pair great with cornbread. For light meals or a good breakfast, the combination of sausages and cornbread is one of our favorites. Well, you can have them separately or turn the corn breads into muffins stuffed with sausages.
The cornbread necessarily does not have to be in the form of muffin, you can use design this in the form of hot dog as well with sausage in between with cornbread at two corners. This is an interesting sausage cornbread stuffing recipe that you can enjoy for dinner or you can choose the method we discussed before.
Bacon strip cornbread cake
A cornbread cake is a favorite to all corn lovers. It doesn’t take much to prepare them actually. The interesting thing to notice here is that the cake can be converted to either dessert or savory based on what you mix with the cake. Our personal favorite is to convert them into a delicious evening snack.
How do we do that? With a twist of bacon strips! All you need to do is bake the cornbread and in between put some crispy bacon strips. You can thank us later for this brilliant idea. If you like crunchy flavor more, you can heat the cornbread more to make it crispier.
Cooked vegetables and cornbread
You will find many cooks and chefs referring vegetables with cornbread. We completely agree with this concept. Do you know why? Because any type of vegetable tastes absolutely delicious with cornbread. You would think that only sautéed veggies will work with cornbread.
But guess what? Even gravy full mixed vegetables taste lovely with cornbread. What you can do is chop square chunks of cornbread and cook them with your favorite veggie dish. You will love the unique flavor and taste; cornbread brings to your vegetable dish.
Jalapeno cornbread cake
Jalapeno cornbread cake is the most common recipe you will have your friends talking about if you discuss cornbread. That’s because, it is so simple to make and the taste is delightful.
We like this as part of appetizer or snack because of the subtle sour flavor. If you are looking for something unique, we suggest that you try this jalapeno cornbread recipe at home. Your friends and family will be pleasantly surprised with the exotic bite of jalapeno, cornbread and cheddar cheese in a dish.
Cornbread casserole
Cornbread casseroles are quite popular holiday treats. We love how creative one can get with cornbread casseroles. You can go for the classic cornbread casserole served with turkey on the occasion of thanksgiving. You can spice it up with some tacos and ground beef as to prepare a fulfilling casserole.
Since we are a bit biased about sweet and creamy items, we would highly recommend trying out this cornbread casserole recipe. It is creamy and you can use it as a wonderful side dish. As a party host, if you want to surprise your guest with something unique, some creamy cornbread casserole is quite a good choice for you.
Cornbread apple pie
You know what is great about being a cooking enthusiast? Innovation and creativity! When you come up with a successful tasty recipe that everyone enjoys, your joy knows no bounds. Cornbread apple pie was something that gave us that kind of joy. Of course, after our discovery we found that it is already all over the internet! Nonetheless, similar recipe made by different hands has a different flavor to it.
Enough of feelings, let’s get to the point, shall we? To make apple pie you will need apples cooked to brown with caramel flavor over the top. The amalgamation of caramel, cooked apple and cornbread is an absolute delight to your tongue. You can try with this cornbread apple pie recipe and come up with your own ones once you get the hang of it.
Chunky fried cornbread
These are commonly called cornbread croutons. This is one of our favorite comfort foods and something that our team likes to prepare on a gloomy day. It takes minimalistic effort and tastes wonderful. When you are preparing a fancy meal with cornbread, having cornbread leftovers is a common thing.
You can easily prepare chunky fried cornbread with the leftover. Cut them in small chunks and simply fry them in the oven or stove with some beans and sundried tomatoes. You would love them. This is a common cornbread crouton recipe that you can try at home. Pro tip, instead of using butter, try margarine for heating the cornbread. The flavor is much more vibrant with that.
Which sides pair well with cornbread?
You can enjoy a simple cornbread paired with some tasty sides. During lazy afternoons when you don’t feel like cooking, using some of these sides might help you get the fulfilling meal you want. Yes, cornbread is indeed a fascinating ingredient that goes well with plenty of food items.
All types of cheese!
Be it cheddar, parmesan or cottage cheese, you will love all types of cheese with cornbread equally. Of course, the cheese selection should be done based on your palate. If you are looking for something simple, you can put a cheese spread over the cornbread and enjoy this on Sunday afternoons or Monday mornings with a good cup of coffee.
Milk
Reading this article, you might get confused at times with the variety of food items we are discussing. What else can we do? Cornbread tastes amazing with a myriad of options.
We are just being honest with you. If you want a healthy start to the day, a glass of milk with cornbread is not a bad option for breakfast at all. Not just as sides, cornbread dipped in milk actually tastes quite nice. The combination of crunchy cornbread and the creamy milk is truly delightful.
Honey, Maple syrup and banana
Cornbread is like waffle or pancake. In fact, it is better. A much healthier choice for everyone! Cornbread tastes wonderful with maple syrup and some banana chopped over on the top. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? You can also use honey instead of maple syrup or both for extra sweet mornings. These sides are mostly suitable for breakfasts.
Custard fruits
You can enjoy a good corn bread with assorted fruits that you use for custard. Mix some of your favorite fruits including banana, apple, cherry, mangoes and peach and enjoy a relaxing and healthy meal for the day. This combination is great for those who are following a fruit diet. This meal can be taken anytime of the day; for breakfast, lunch, evening snack or dinner.
Chicken soup
The crunchy flavor of cornbread makes it suitable to have with chicken soup or stew as well. Actually any type of diluted soup tastes good with cornbread. With concentrated soups such as thick Thai soup or cream of mushroom soup, cornbread doesn’t go that well. Otherwise, with clear soups of veggies or chicken, you can enjoy a good meal with cornbread. This combination works great as an appetizer in a three course meal.
Nachos with beans
It is pretty normal to assume that two crispy items do not go together. However, in case of cornbread and nachos, things are just the opposite. These tortilla chips and cornbread taste like a wonderful delicacy honestly. Add some gravy made with beans and you have yourself an interesting meal for the day.
Scrambled eggs
Mornings might seem monotonous during a work day. Trying out different breakfast each day helps to lighten up the mood and motivates you to start the day. Some scrambled eggs paired with cornbread are not a bad start to the morning at all. You get your desired protein for the day as well as something delicious.
Butter and jelly
At the end of the day, cornbread is a type of bread. And we all know what goes well with breads; some butter and jam. The pair of butter and bread has been there for decades and is still going strong. We all love it for some reason or the other. Maybe for convenience, for easy making or just maybe for its subtle and simple taste! Nonetheless, you can enjoy a cornbread with a butter or jelly spread in the morning or in the evening.
Vanilla, mango or strawberry ice cream
Remember we mentioned that cornbread is the healthier version of waffle or pancakes. Guess what else tastes good with cornbread then? Some ice-cream of course! Our handpicked favorite flavors that go well with cornbread are vanilla, mango or strawberry. You can choose your own flavors definitely. However, we would discourage having chocolate ice cream with cornbread. Their taste is quite underwhelming with chocolate ice cream and cornbread.
What main courses to serve with cornbread?
From the hundreds of options available to serve as a main course with cornbread, we picked up a few for you. Too many options tend to get overwhelming. Luckily for you, we have taken the burden of shortlisting some of the best recipes for you.
Barbeque chicken
Instead of mashed potatoes or sautéed vegetables, try some cornbread as the side dish. Something different on the dinner is always appreciated by friends and family. We were quite amazed to know that cornbread taste quite good with barbeque chicken. For a fancy dinner or barbeque parties, you can try this barbeque chicken recipe. Serve this delightful barbeque chicken with cornbread and you will find guests appreciating the food all the way!
Pot roast chicken
In winter mornings, cooking some heartwarming pot roast chicken is not a bad experience at all. You know what will make it more delicious and unique. A bit of love and some chunks of cornbread! You can choose to cook the cornbread along with the pot roast to give to it a nice and fresh flavor.
Or you can simply make the pot roast at first and enjoy the cornbread as a side. This pot roast chicken recipe is simple to make at them and is less gravy. If you manage to do it right, we can assure you that cornbread with some pot roast chicken will be a marvelous combination.
Pork dishes
A common rule of thumb is to serve any pork dish with some cornbread. Yes, all types of pork dishes go extremely well with cornbread. Maybe it’s the corn flavor in the bread that makes it so appetizing when paired with red meat. Whether it’s some grilled pork chops, Lemon Dijon pork, pork grilled cheese sandwich or a simple barbeque pork, cornbread will go well with all of it.
We would highly recommend with pork dishes using cornbread as sides instead of mashed potatoes or rice. That’s because red meat already contains lot of fat and you don’t want to add to that with extra layers of carbohydrate.
Mixed vegetable rolls
For vegetarians, we have some recipes that go really well with cornbread. Mixed vegetable rolls are one of them. To make up for the nutrient required for your kids, mixed vegetable rolls are a great way to convince your kids to intake vegetables.
With the right kind of mixture, vegetables can be made palatable for the kids too! Try making this Indian vegetable roll recipe at home. You can use cornbread as covering for the roll or you can serve cornbread separately. Either wise, the taste would be great.
Ground beef
Another red meat that goes well with cornbread is some minced or ground beef. Well you can use them as filling of the cornbread or as the main course. We love it both ways. If you are using them as filling, that’s basically suitable for supper time. Ground meat and cornbread served as main course is good for lunch time. Our personal favorite ground beef recipe is this one.
This is a bit on the heavier end and we would suggest saving this recipe for special occasions only. Instead of potatoes in the mentioned recipe, you can use cornbread or serve the cornbread separately.
Fruit salad
Fruit salads can be made both in a healthy and not so healthy way! Which one to choose, we will leave it to you. Cornbread served as side with fruit salads is pretty great actually.
You can also make cornbread croutons and serve with fruit salad. We find this combination highly suitable for evening parties or when you are inviting some friends over for chitchat. This along with a bottle of wine and some good friends is a wonderful way of relaxation.
Conclusion
For beginner cooks, cornbread can be a bit of hassle for you. You can start with the basic sides that go well with cornbread. Once you start having them, you will be able to make your own mixes of casseroles, muffins and croutons made from cornbread. For regular cooks, we say you go all out and experiment with a variety of recipes we provided with cornbread as the core ingredient.
