A plate of cornbread with bacon bits.

Cracklin Cornbread -Southern Style Cornbread

07/18/2018|, ,
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Are you looking for something to spice up your cornbread? How about bacon and or course cracklins’ (hog skins). We’re sharing an old traditional Southern dish that will give you a different take on plain cornbread.

Some tricks to this recipe –

#1 We’re using buttermilk in this recipe because I think it gives it a more traditional taste and you get a creamier texture to your cornbread. You can use any brand of cornmeal that you like. There is a fine-ground and a coarse-ground cornmeal. I like to use the fine-ground cornmeal.

#2 What makes a good Cracklin Cornbread? It starts with that bacon grease. So when you fry up that bacon, keep the grease, we’re going to use it later! The bacon grease gives it that good crispy crust on the bottom and also gives it a lot of flavor.

After pouring the batter into the preheated Dutch oven, I like to just sort of chop up the fried bacon or tear it and then throw it in. You can also dice it or slice it. However, I’m not going to mix it in, I’m just going to let it sit on top.

Cornbread is the easiest thing and easiest recipe to cook in a Dutch oven, but you can also do it right in your kitchen! This cornbread has a rich bacon flavor and cooking it in cast iron gives it a classic cornbread crust. Let’s dive in. Hope y’all enjoy!

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Cracklin Cornbread- Southern Style

Ingredients

  • 3 slices bacon
  • 2 cups cornmeal
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
  • 1 cup fried pork rinds chopped

Instructions

  • Fry up the bacon over medium-high heat, until crispy. Set aside, reserve the grease.
  • In a bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, baking powder, eggs and buttermilk. Whisk in 2 1/2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.
  • Pour about 2 - 3 tablespoons of the bacon grease into the bottom of a preheated 10-inch cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. *Note you may need more bacon grease than rendered from the cook bacon. You can add a little oil to the grease or fry up some more bacon!
  • Evenly top with the chopped pork rinds and press down slightly into the batter. Chop or tear the bacon up and sprinkle on top.
  • If cooking indoors, cook at 425 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and set.

Notes

Tip: If using milk instead of buttermilk use about 1 1/2 cups.

Watch the video to see how we cook our cornbread outside in a Dutch oven with the wind blowing. Once the top begins to cook and set, you can speed up the cooking by adding fresh heat to the top of that Dutch oven.

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