Spicy Cheesy Cornbread. Mmmmmm cooornnnny!

The other day, we were making this really yummy turkey stew from out leftover turkey dinner from Thanksgiving (yes, I know that was months ago, and yes, the meat was frozen so it was just as good as the day we made it) and we wanted something substantial to go with it. Something... bread like. But we didn't want to go with everyone's go to: Italian bread. So, I made this yummy cheesy, spicy, corny cornbread and figured I'd share it all with you. 

If you haven't already heard, Jiffy corn muffin mix = heaven when it comes to baking ANYTHING corn like. It creates an awesome base to mess with and tweak as you see fit. Also, it's pretty delicious on its own, but we're not doing that today. That being said, I used 2 boxes of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix because one box just doesn't do it. 

So, this recipe is really supper supper simple! The only thing that you really want to be careful of is over mixing the batter. If that happens, the cornbread will loose that light fluffiness that everyone loves when it comes to corn bread. And I personally like when my corn bread has loads of chunks of corn in it so I know that I'm not just eating corn meal, thus canned corn and canned creamed corn.

And this recipe is supposed to be spicy and cheesy right? So I have one jalapeno chopped up, along with about 1/2 of a red bell pepper and 1/2 of an orange bell pepper for color. And of course, 1 whole cup of shredded cheddar cheese. You can leave any of those out if you'd like or replace them with different types of peppers or cheese, maybe add some onion if you'd like. These were just personally what I liked in there.

Ready? Awesome!

To begin, take your wet ingredients: 1/3 C milk, 1/3 C sour cream, 1 egg, 7 oz can of kernel corn, 14.75 oz can of creamed corn, and 1/3 C melted butter (which is about 5 1/3 tablespoons) and mix them together until fully combined. It will obviously be very chunky and runny, but that will change soon. 

You can see the wet mixture underneath the powder from
the Jiffy mix... forgot to take a picture before
I tossed it in. Oops!

Your next step is to add the two boxes of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix and 1 tsp baking powder (be careful not to use baking soda... no good). Again, DO NOT OVER-MIX. You just want the mixture to be just wet enough that it is combined. There will be chunks of dry Jiffy mix Remember that we will be mixing it more once we add the peppers and cheese.

Now for the pes de résistance: the additives! Jalapeno, bell peppers, and cheese. Can't go wrong with that. You want to make sure the jalapeno is chopped up nice and small. I made them into really tiny squares, like you would see in salsa. A good thing to keep in mind: these things can be really spicy and can irritate your hands when handling them so I suggest using gloves. This keeps your hands from stinging like crazy if you have any invisible cuts and cuts down on mess! Won't have to wash your hands between each thing.  The bell peppers I made a bit bigger, still small but larger squares. Cutting them into strips and then into squares is probably the best bet to do it.

I suggest adding all of the peppers at once, mixing them so they're evenly distributed. Just remember to be gentle with that batter. No over mixing. After they've been mixed in there nicely, add the cheese and mix it in there well. With the cheese, it will probably stick together and create chunks, which is fine. You'll just get nice pockets of cheesiness which is always fun.  

Red, green, and orange. Remember, you can add different fillings if
you'd like, like onion or other peppers or nothing at all.

Cheese! Again, add any type you'd like. Mozzarella would probably
make a good addition, for example. And you can increase or decrease
the amount according to your preferences

You're batter should come out looking something like this:

Once fully mixed, place inside a baking tin. It can be square or round, depending upon how you would like to serve it. I used a 1 1/2 inch deep round cake pan and mu batter fulled it up pretty well. There's no need to grease the pan, the corn bread will be nice and moist and slip right out when you cut into it. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until brown on the top and edges (depending upon your oven, you may need to have it in for a longer period of time. I left mine in for about 70 minutes). You can split it between two pans if you'd like, there is definitely enough batter for that, just make sure to adjust the time for cooking so that they both come out perfect. 

After a little over an hour, my corn bread was ready! And it seems there was a little bit of a mishap... Maybe I should have used 2 pans instead on 1... Oh well, still turned out delicious and fluffy. Look at the golden brown! Mm, mm, good!

Just a little spillage. Still tasty! 

Perfectly golden all around! 

And there you have it! I served it along side my turkey stew creation with some basmati rice. But you can serve it along side anything you see fit. It's fluffy and light in flavor with a little kick but will still fill you up!

I hope you all enjoy and make sure to leave me comments letting me know how yours came out and how you liked it!!