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We asked chefs for the best boxed cornbread mix — and one was the clear winner
'Kitchen magic in a box': Even the pros love a good shortcut. Stock up on this one now before Thanksgiving.
As talk of Thanksgiving starts to crop up, we can't help but feel like it's not just pumpkin spice season but also cornbread season. To make this classic side dish, you need cornmeal — but who really has that on hand?
I write about food and cooking for a living and I certainly don't, probably because it's one of those ingredients I only use a couple of times a year. For this reason, and because I have about a thousand other items on my to-do list, boxed cornbread mix is super appealing to me ... and lots of professional chefs, too. The pros love a good hack!
And it turns out there's one cornbread mix they mentioned more than any other. Read on for their pick —it's a perfect, easy Thanksgiving side — plus the only pan you need for baking it.
Best cornbread mix approved by chefs
We suspected a few chefs would champion Jiffy, a version of which has been around since the 1930s, but we were unprepared for their unbridled enthusiasm. Quite a few confessed that Jiffy is their go-to when it comes to cornbread (or corn muffins, as the box says).
Oscar Diaz, chef at Little Bull in Durham, NC, explains why, "I always have a box of Jiffy on hand because when I cook at home, I keep things simple. I try not to 'chef it up' too much at home; the most I will do is tweak things here and there."
Food Network personality Sunny Anderson even calls it magic! "I love Jiffy mostly because I grew up on it, there's plenty of nostalgia there [...]. The best thing about Jiffy is that it's a very forgiving mix. You can add a multitude of ingredients like sausage, cheese, herbs, fruit, even adding or substituting sour cream or Greek yogurt for the eggs, and somehow how it still comes out great. Kitchen magic in a box."
Jocelyn Delk Adams of Grandbaby Cakes also prefers Jiffy. "It's the perfect texture of a cornbread: light, fluffy and moist. Even though there’s a continued debate amongst Southerners if [cornbread] should be sweet or savory, just about anyone who tries Jiffy loves it."
And the pan to make it in ...
"I feel cornbread tastes best out of a cast iron skillet, and when it comes to cast iron, I love Lodge!" says Diaz of the mega-popular — and Ina Garten-approved — Lodge skillet.
Delk Adams considers a cast iron skillet, "the only vessel to bake [cornbread] in. Cast iron skillets give the bread a textural difference in the crust. Gorgeous, crisp exterior with a tender, moist interior."
Chef Ricky Moore of the Saltbox Seafood Joint uses this type of skillet when he wants to achieve a crunchy brown outer crust and moist interior texture. We couldn't agree more.