Hatch Chile, Bacon, and Cheddar Cornbread
This changing weather makes me crave cornbread all the time. When I think of cornbread I think of thanksgiving dinner and cornbread stuffing (which we will talk about later), but today I thought of jalapeno poppers. The only problem was that I did not have any jalapenos at home. I did have an open jar of hatch chiles that I used to make nachos earlier this week.
I have made a green chile and cheddar cornbread that was pretty successful, so I figured there would be no harm in adding bacon to this mixture.
This is your basic cornbread, no bells or whistles recipe. Actually, it is the same recipe you find in the back of the bag. However, I do double (fine, almost triple) the amount of sugar. Then I spice it up with whatever I have handy. Today it was hatch chiles, cheddar, and bacon. I have made this before with roasted poblanos and corn with cheese. Basically any chiles and cheese you want to add would make this taste awesome.
Here are the ingredients you will need:
1 c. AP Flour* 1 c Corn Meal ¼ c sugar 4 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt
1 c. Milk (don’t use skim) 1 large egg ¼ c. vegetable oil (I use canola)
3 Tbps Hatch chiles (you can use jarred or freshly roasted) 5 strips of bacon ½ c. of shredded cheese
*The flour I am using is Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free cup-for-cup. My partner cannot eat wheat due to an allergy (amongst quite a few other things like soy, peanuts, tomatoes….) Therefore I cook and bake gluten free at home. If you do not wish to make this GF, all-purpose flour works great!
Steps: Preheat your oven to 425 ˚ F
Place the bacon in a cold pan, and cook over low heat.
In a large bowl combine all of your dry ingredients: flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate container combine the milk, oil, and egg. Mix them well.
Add the wet mixture to the dry and combine well, but do not overmix.
Add the shredded cheese. Mix.
Add the hatch chiles. Mix.
Add the bacon. Mix.
Use the bacon fat to grease you pan. You can also be healthy and simply use vegetable oil, but if you have bacon fat, why wouldn’t you use it!
Pour the corn bread mixture into the pan and smooth out.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Let it sit for 5 minutes before you cut into it, now slice, add butter, and YUM!
