Irresistibly Smoky Cornbread Is Just One Overlooked Cooking Method Away

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As synonymous as cornbread is with barbecue, you don't often see it prepared with the star proteins. For one thing, cornbread is traditionally baked, not grilled, smoked, or even broadly cooked, strictly semantically speaking. But that does not mean that the oven is the one and only province of the classic side dish. So go ahead and throw that cornbread on the grill for something a little different at your next cookout.

The best cornbread is already made in a cast iron skillet — the very skillet that you can easily arrange right on your grill grates. You can most likely even use the same batter recipe that you would for any other kind. Heat is heat in this case, and, provided you can adjust for the necessary temperature, it won't make much difference whether you incorporate something like creamed corn to prevent the batch from getting crumbly, stir in a bit of bacon fat for subtle flavor and moisture, or crown it with something like vibrant jalapeño slices. The primary difference you'll detect versus a more typical cornbread is the warm, smoky notes it will gather via this somewhat unique approach; notes that also just happen to work wonderfully with grilled and barbecued meats.

Once you've got your cornbread batter all mixed, you just have to get it into the cast iron pan and onto the grill. But even that can pose a challenge, heavy as the pan is, and splashy as the batter can be. Unless you're some kind of champion body-building tightrope walker, it's best to transport the prepared batter and the greased cast iron to your grilling area and pour it in right there.

Grilling the cornbread is most easily achieved on something like a temperature-controlled gas grill rather than on a less-predictable charcoal one. However, the latter is possible if you create a multi-zone grill setup, much like you would for a properly cooked burger. In either case, you'll have to use indirect heat to ensure the cornbread doesn't burn, and grill thermometers like Weber's Instant-Read Thermometer Probe can be a huge help for reaching your intended temperature.

Hitting that sweet spot might be more straightforward with gas, but it can be done with some charcoal trial and error. Once your grill reaches a consistent 400 to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, the cornbread will finish in about 30 to 40 minutes (check that a toothpick comes out clean). It's always a good idea to start checking for doneness about two-thirds of the way through your projected bake time when trying a new technique, particularly one that tinkers with a somewhat unusual heat source. Once you've mastered the basics, you can incorporate all kinds of creative cornbread ingredients.