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Spicy Mexican Cornbread

Name: Spicy Mexican Cornbread
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup unsalted butter (, melted); 1/2 cup sugar; 4 large eggs; 15 ounces canned cream-style corn; 4 ounces canned chopped green chili peppers (, drained); 1/4 cup green onions (, sliced); 1 cup cheddar cheese (, shredded); 1 cup flour; 1 cup yellow cornmeal; 4 teaspoons baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on April 18, 2023

0 Comments

Servings

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 35

Total Time 45

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Spicy Mexican Cornbread is fluffy, buttery, and full of flavorful ingredients like cream-style corn, green chilis, cheese, and cayenne.

This Spicy Mexican Cornbread recipe has an extra kick to it and is just as wonderful a Side Dish as Traditional Cornbread. Perfect to serve with Classic Beef Chili or Easy Beef Taco Chili.

Spicy Mexican Cornbread squares stacked on serving plate with jalapeno slices and honey drizzled

This Spicy Mexican Cornbread recipe is an excellent Autumn side dish. You can serve it with any number of Soup and Chili Recipes. Cornbread is great to dip into chili and let it soak up the flavorful sauce. This recipe is packed with even more flavor due to the spicy chilis and cayenne pepper throughout.

It’s an easy Mexican take on classic cornbread that’s impossible to get enough of. Your whole family is sure to love the slightly spicy taste and tender breading of this Mexican Cornbread Recipe. There’s also shredded cheddar cheese and cream-style corn throughout making for a Cheesy Mexican Cornbread that’s melty and stringy as you pull it apart.

This Mexican Style Cornbread is also wonderfully easy to make. The prep time is only 10 minutes and even with the baking, the total time for the Easy Mexican Cornbread is 45 minutes. It’s simple to make and store, and unbelievably tasty. Spicy Mexican Cornbread is sure to become a new favorite dish in your household.

More Cornbread Recipes

Key Ingredients

Cream-style Corn:

Spicy Mexican Cornbread Collage of prep steps

How to Make Spicy Mexican Cornbread

Prep: Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then use nonstick cooking spray on an 8×8 inch baking pan to make sure the cornbread doesn’t stick to the pan.
Batter: In a large bowl whisk together melted butter, sugar, eggs, creamed corn, chopped green chili peppers, green onions, and shredded cheddar cheese. Continue mixing the wet ingredients until the ingredients are well combined. Sift in the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix until just combined, but do not overmix.
Bake: Pour the cornbread batter into the prepared baking pan or cast-iron skillet. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Once the timer goes off, put a toothpick in the center of the Mexican Cornbread and check to see if it comes out clean. When it comes out without any batter on it, you can take the bread from the oven and serve it.

Key Ingredients

Canned Cream-Style Corn: You’ll see cream-style corn in the canned food aisle of your grocery store. Any brand will do, but choose one that you enjoy eating. It will provide some creaminess and the chunks of corn bring texture and a nice corn flavor essential for delicious Cornbread.
Canned Chopped Green Chilis: Grab the green chilis in the canned food aisle while you’re there getting your cream-style corn. These canned green chilis have a mild, spicy, and delicious flavor. You can buy them already diced, which will save you the time chopping them in the kitchen. Be sure to drain them before you mix them into your dough. You don’t want the extra liquid making everything too watery.
Sliced Green Onions: Slice your green onions when ready to make Spicy Mexican Cornbread for a fresh, mild spice throughout. The green color will pop, showing everyone that you’ve got wonderful flavor in each bite of the Cornbread.
Cayenne Pepper: Another element to bring some spice to this Cornbread, cayenne pepper will add a unique punch that’s pretty different from the spice of the chilis and green onions.
Cheddar Cheese: Cheese goes so well with sweet, fluffy cornbread. Cheddar cheese, especially goes well with the Spicy Mexican Cornbread to bring that creamy, slightly sharp, cheesy flavor to balance out the spices. For more ideas about cheese variations, keep reading below in the post.
Yellow Cornmeal: Cornmeal will give you that sweet, comforting flavor of corn throughout your Cornbread, and of course it serves as the base of your Cornbread.
Baking Powder: In order for your Cornbread to rise, and have a pleasant, fluffy texture, you’ll add some baking powder along with the other dry ingredients.
Sugar and Salt: Corn is naturally a bit sweet, so adding some sugar to your Cornbread will ensure that sweet flavor runs throughout your bread. Then, adding the salt will balance out the sweetness, and spiciness of Spicy Mexican Cornbread. It will also enhance the flavor of the Cheddar Cheese.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should the cream-style corn be drained before adding into the Cornbread?

Go ahead and pour the whole can of cream-style corn into this Spicy Mexican Cornbread recipe. Do not drain any of the liquid out. You want all of that creamy goodness to add moisture to your batter.

What is the difference between yellow cornmeal and white cornmeal?

Obviously the most noticeable difference between white and yellow cornmeal is the color. They are each made from either white corn, or yellow corn. Yellow cornmeal gives your Cornbread that classic yellow color so it’s a great choice in this recipe. As for the taste, yellow cornmeal contains beta carotene which can bring a slightly richer flavor.

What can I add into Mexican Cornbread?

Try mixing in different ingredients to add some alternative flavors to the recipe. Green onions, bell peppers, cilantro, cloves, cumin, garlic powder, or other seasonings could make great additions to Mexican Cornbread. For more ideas check out the recipe variations in this post.

Variations on Spicy Mexican Cornbread

Spices: There are other spicy ingredients you can use in your Cornbread recipe instead of green chilis and cayenne pepper. Try mixing in chopped jalapeno, paprika, or even a dash of Sriracha sauce.
Cheese: Instead of cheddar you can try mixing in other kinds of cheese. Pepper Jack Cheese, Gouda, Swiss, or Monterey Jack will all work great.
Sugar Substitutes: Instead of granulated sugar, you can try using honey, brown sugar, or maple syrup in this recipe.
Gluten Free: You can also make your corn bread with different kinds of flour. Use wheat flour for some extra nutrients or almond flour for a gluten-free recipe.
Meat Additions: Brown some ground beef or sausage in a skillet and mix it into the recipe for more filling corn bread and ground beef recipe.

Recipes to Serve with Cornbread

How to Store Spicy Mexican Cornbread

Serve: To make sure the cornbread stays moist and soft, don’t leave it at room temperature for more than a few hours or it will start to go stale. To keep it fresh at room temperature put the cornbread in an airtight container, and it will last for 1-2 days.
Store: Once the recipe is cooled to room temperature you can put it in an airtight container to store in the fridge for up to a week.
Freeze: To freeze the Mexican Cornbread wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. It will keep well for 2-3 months.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

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