Navajo Cornbread with Cheese and Chiles—Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café

I’m usually pretty happy with my family’s cornbread recipe, except for the fact that it really isn’t cornbread.  It’s more like corncake.  There’s only a token amount of cornmeal in it.  Not that the family cares, but I do.  It just seems so wrong.  Unfortunately, no one’s been really happy with the other cornbread recipes that I’ve tried. 

This one, however, is different.  It cuts back on the sugar but makes up for that deficit with green chiles and cheese.  It’s hard to go wrong with that combo.

Navajo Cornbread with Cheese and Chiles

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

¼ cup melted coconut oil

1 can (8 oz) creamed corn*

1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles, drained

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 9” cast iron skillet or pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. 

In a small bowl, beat the eggs and then stir in the yogurt and coconut oil.  Stir the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture until just combined and only small lumps remain.

Fold in the corn, chiles, and cheese.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake 25–30 minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Serve warm.

Family reviews:  Most recipes for “hearty” cornbread leave a little to be desired.  When considering this cornbread, however, hearty isn’t the first word that comes to mind.  It’s good.  Different.  Flavorful.  An excellent accompaniment for soup, as we had that evening, or chili.  Aaron and I both really enjoyed it. 

*True confessions.  I'm not a recipe developer.  I adapt recipes to be food-storage friendly.  I didn’t have the creamed corn the original recipe called for.  And I was halving the recipe because there were only two of us for dinner that night.  And we were leaving to spend a long weekend with Ellie’s family.  So I only needed a half cup of corn.  I substituted ½ cup of smashed freeze-dried corn, slightly rehydrated, 1 tablespoon of powdered milk, and 1 teaspoon of coconut oil.  I’d say this replacement worked very well.