Name: Mexican Cornbread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 75 min
Ingredients: 1 + 1/2 cups self rising corn meal mix (white or yellow); 1 + 1/2 tablespoons sugar; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (mild, medium, or sharp); 1/2 cup vegetable oil; 1/2 cup chopped onion; 1 tablespoon diced jalapeño (seeds removed); 3/4 cup milk; 1 egg; 1/2 cup canned cream style corn*

Jump to Recipe

Most families I know make a version of this deliciously moist and decadent cornbread known to us as Mama’s Mexican Cornbread recipe. Studded with sweet corn, cheddar cheese, and spicy bits of jalapeño peppers.

Whenever I make Mexican Cornbread, I can happily eat two pieces of it, hot from the oven, and nothing else . Even my husband, who really doesn’t care for cornbread unless it’s sweet, comes running whenever I make this. My son’s only complaint is that I don’t cut the pieces bigger so he doesn’t have to keep coming back. Needless to say, when I make this Mexican Cornbread recipe by Mama for supper, usually, there isn’t any left.

Let’s get cookin’!

Ingredients you’ll need for this Mexican Corn Bread Recipe:

Cream style corn
Vegetable oil
Egg
Self rising corn meal mix
Sugar
Chopped onion
Shredded cheese
Diced jalapeno
Milk
Salt

Notes about the ingredients…

Some of you might recognize this brand as being the house brand of Dollar General. If so, give me five shopping buddy! I get a lot of quick trips in to DG when I’m looking for a few things but you could easily shop for full on groceries there most days and hey, look at the package, it’s FANCY! Wow, it just gets better 🙂 In my post for Tex Mex Lasagna, I talked about the virtues of shredding your own cheese and all of that still applies and is good and yadda yadda yadda. But that doesn’t mean I always do it.

P.S. I buy organic milk because it stays good for twice as long as regular milk 🙂

To everyone who wasn’t raised on sweet cornbread:

Oh I know putting sugar in there feels so wrong. Cornbread isn’t supposed to be sweet. T’ain’t fittin’ and I know that. But, this is my Mama’s Mexican Cornbread recipe and the sugar is just a scant amount and it really works well with the heat of the jalapeños. It won’t end up tasting sweet in this particular recipe so just bite the bullet and do what Mama tells you to do 🙂

How to Make This Mexican Cornbread Recipe

With Mama’s Step by Step Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, place all ingredients.

Stir all of that up pretty good with a spoon.

Now this is a cast iron skillet that I’ve had heating in the oven while it preheats.
Pour about a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil in it and swirl it around a good bit.

Like this picture above.

Pour in your batter and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until all golden and prettified 🙂

Here is the Mexican Cornbread all baked up.

Turn that cornbread over onto a large plate.

Stand aside because when the family catches a whiff it might spark a stampede!

Note about baking Mexican Cornbread in an alternative to Cast Iron:

You can make this in an 8 or 9 inch cake pan if you prefer. It’s traditionally made in cast iron but it will turn out just fine if you make it in a cake pan or even an 8×8 square baking dish. Just go with whatever cranks yer tractor 🙂