EDITOR’S NOTE (August 6, 2019): Updated recipe’s instructions.
This savory cornbread is filled with tasty pieces of cracklings. The key ingredient in this easy recipe is processed pork cracklings.
Although my favorite Hormel brand of pork cracklings are precooked before packaging, I fry a few minutes in vegetable oil to enhance flavor.
The fried cracklings season the vegetable oil. The cracklin’ cornbread is baked in the seasoned vegetable oil. The flavor is amazing!
Fried pork fat is famous for the hard edges called meat skins. Remove before adding to cornbread batter to protect teeth. Meat skins are very hard. Press cooked cracklings with back of a spoon. REMOVE all rock hard pieces. To protect teeth, only add soft pieces of fried pork to cornbread batter.
You’re invited to make some Easy Cracklin’ Cornbread Muffins. If you prefer cracklings made with fresh pork fat back, check out my Cracklin’ Cornbread. Both are delicious!
Enjoy!
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 25 minutes |
| Servings |
servings
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- 3/4 cup processed/precooked cracklings
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 box (8.5 ounces) corn muffin mix
- 3 tablespoons self-rising white cornmeal mix
- 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
- 2 medium eggs, beaten
- 1 cup buttermilk
Ingredients
|
|
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Use an 8" skillet (thick cornbread) or a 9" (thin cornbread). Spread cracklings in a medium-sized skillet.
- DISCARD all hard pieces of fried skin to protect teeth. KEEP soft, fork tender cracklings.
- Add 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Stir until evenly coated. Add cracklings.
- Stir constantly for 2-3 minutes until vegetable oil and cracklings are golden brown. Do not leave stove while meat is cooking.
- Turn off heat. Sprinkle salt over cracklings. Stir well. Slightly crush tender cooked cracklings with heavy spatula or spoon. Set aside.
- In medium-sized bowl, combine corn muffin mix, self-rising white corn meal mix, sugar (if using), egg, and buttermilk. Stir together until smooth. Small lumps okay.
- Use a large spoon to scoop fried cracklings from skillet. Leave 2 tablespoons seasoned vegetable oil in bottom of skillet.
- Stir together cornbread batter and fried cracklings until evenly combined. Set aside.
- Warm skillet with seasoned vegetable oil over low-medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. AVOID smoking hot.
- Pour in cornbread batter. Spread evenly around skillet with back of spoon.
- Reduce oven to 375 degrees. Bake 20-25 minutes OR until golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean.
- Serve hot.
How to substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour for 1 cup of self-rising flour...
INGREDIENTS
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Sift together in a medium sized bowl. Use 1/2 cup for this recipe. Store remainder in a zippered bag. Refrigerate until ready to use.
I love your recipes..
Thank you!
Hello. A couple questions,
1. After cooking the cracklings in vegetable oil, do I add the remaining juice to the corn bread batter? Wouldn’t that make it soggy?
2. I haven’t made this in at least 25 years. I recall vaguely from memory using bacon fat. Can I use bacon fat to grease my skillet for baking the cornbread? Will it also absorb and flavor the cornbread?
Hi Angela! Thank you for asking. You inspired me to update the recipe’s instructions.
1. Frying processed/precooked cracklings in vegetable oil will season it. Plus, the drippings will make it slightly thick. Pour cornbread batter into seasoned HOT vegetable oil. The baked cracklin’ cornbread will be full of flavor, but not oily. The bottom/side edges will be crusty and delicious!
2. Bacon fat is excellent! Fry bacon. Remove from skillet. Leave 3 tablespoons (remove extra) of bacon fat and small bits of bacon. Make sure bacon fat is HOT before pouring in cornbread batter. Baking in HOT bacon grease (or veggie oil) will thoroughly bake bottom crust and all edges. If oil is cool or cold, the cornbread WILL be greasy, soggy, gross.
Some cuts of bacon have LOTS of fat. After frying bacon, I pour grease into a heatproof container. Return 3 tablespoons of grease to skillet and warm until HOT. Add 3 tablespoons of leftover to cornbread batter, stir, pour in HOT skillet, bake. Refrigerate leftover grease for another use.