Hatch Chile Cornbread

Since it’s Nebraska week, we can get this recipe started with some good old fashioned corn shucking. Toss your shucked corn cobs onto a grill and let them go until the start to get dark all around. You’ll have to turn them a few times, but just make sure they don’t burn. I love the taste of grilled corn and it adds an extra level of flavor to your cornbread. When grilled, take each one and use a sharp knife to slice off the kernels into a bowl. After you slice off the kernels, take a spoon and scrape the cobs from bottom to top to get the creamy good stuff off. Believe me, this makes a difference.

Now take your hatch chiles and place them on your stove top, directly on the grate above a burner, and turn the burner on. You just want to blister the skin. Turn them (using tongs) until the skin is blistered all around, then put on a plate and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, use a knife to scrape off the skin. It should come off pretty easily. Discard the skins and then dice up your chiles.

Preheat your oven to 400 with a buttered cast iron skillet inside. This is an important step to ensure a great bottom crust. In a bowl, combine your Jiffy mix, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup of milk, a cup of sugar, and 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Mix it all up really well until it’s smooth. You don’t want it to be lumpy. Mix in your corn and chiles.

Once the oven is preheated and the butter in your cast iron is sizzling, carefully pour your mixture into the skillet and put in the oven. Let it go 15-20 minutes and check to make sure the top is golden brown and if you stick a toothpick into the center it comes out clean. You may have to add a couple of minutes and you may have to tent the top with some foil to keep it from burning. That’s what I did, and unfortunately the foil fell onto the top and peeled off the layer (as you can see in the main picture above). But it didn’t affect the taste.

Now you can slice it up and serve with a little pat of butter on top. The balance of sweetness from the sugar, heat from the hatch chiles, and char from the grilled corn kernels gives this cornbread a complex flavor that will be a big hit at your next tailgate.

Home•

Pork•

Beef•

Poultry•

Seafood•

Sides•

Dessert•

Rubs