Every self-respecting southerner has a good cornbread recipe. It’s about as versatile as a dish can get. You can make a simple, plain batch in a skillet or muffin tin and have a quick bread to serve with a meal that you doesn’t require the long wait for rising yeast, or you can gussy it up a bit and make the cornbread into a meal by itself. We’ve posted several cornbread recipes here at T2T over the years, and this version is one of my favorites.

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This cornbread recipe is stuffed full of crawfish boudin and Cajun flavor. Images by author

It starts with boudin, the meat and rice sausage that’s so popular down in Louisiana. You can make this one with plain pork or venison boudin, but we picked up some crawfish boudin while we were down south a few months ago.

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Remove the boudin casings and crumble the filling.

When it comes to cornbread, I like to use self-rising buttermilk cornmeal for ease and added flavor.

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Self-rising, buttermilk corn meal is easy to use and adds an extra layer of flavor to the cornbread.

I like to make my cornbread in a cast iron skillet that I have pre-heated with some form of fat or oil in the oven. My go to products for cornbread are lard, or, even better, bacon grease, but you can use vegetable oil or shortening if you prefer. The secret is to get the fat and the skillet all the way up to cooking temperature before pouring in the batter. This makes a nice, crispy crust on the bottom of the cornbread. I do this step with every batch of cornbread I make.

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When it comes to sugar in cornbread, most southerners agree that sweet cornbread isn’t cornbread at all, it’s cake. I enjoy a sweet cornbread from time to time, but I don’t think of it as traditional cornbread. I see it more as a dessert. This version doesn’t use sugar.

Like a lot of Cajun recipes, this one benefits from the Cajun Trinity of onions, peppers, and celery. The mixture adds flavor and depth to the finished dish. When you get your boudin, it will likely be stuffed into sausage casings. Just use a knife to slice down one side and crumble up the boudin filling.

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Sauté the peppers, onions, and celery to soften.

Add two tablespoons of bacon grease or lard to skillet over medium heat. Sauté the pepper, onion, and celery until soft. Add the crumbled boudin and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes to heat the boudin through.

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Add the crumbled boudin to the trinity.

Remove from heat. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Add ¼ cup of bacon grease or lard to a 12” skillet and place it into the oven to preheat.

To a large bowl, add the self-rising cornmeal and the eggs.

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Add the cooked pepper/onion/celery/boudin mix and the buttermilk. Blend well. Fold in the cheese.

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Fold in the remaining ingredients, including the cheese.

Remove the hot skillet from the oven and carefully swirl it to coat the entire surface with hot bacon grease or lard.

Pour in the cornbread batter and spread evenly in the skillet. Return the cornbread to the oven and cook for 35-40 minutes or until the cornbread is cooked through.

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Bake until the cornbread is golden brown and cooked through so that a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cut into wedges to serve. If I am serving this one as a stand alone dish and not a side with dinner, I like to top it with a drizzle of hot honey or jalapeño pepper jelly for a sweet and spicy combination.

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