Skillet Cornbread Soufflé

Skillet Cornbread Soufflé in a Staub Cast Iron Skillet is my go-to side dish whenever we have BBQ’s. This recipe is also a huge hit when I bring it as a side dish to a potluck. The best thing about this cornbread soufflé is it’s very moist and tasty.

I enjoy learning about the history of food so here is a little research about cornbread soufflé. Skillet cornbread soufflé is also called spoonbread and it’s a hybrid of cornbread recipes that has evolved over the last two centuries. Spoonbread, a traditional Southern dish has a soufle-pudding like texture. The ancestor of spoonbread is a native dish called, “Awendaw.”  Awendaw is an area in Charleston, South Carolina, named after the Awendaw Indians who settled in the area. The main difference is that cornbread soufflé and spoonbread has cornmeal where as Awendaw uses grits in the recipe.  Some very fascinating history of cornbread! 

When I first tried this recipe at a BBQ many years ago, it seriously rocked my world. The cornbread soufle was cooked in a huge beautiful cast iron pot! I never imagined that cornbread soufle could taste so good. I generally am not a big cornbread fan because it’s usually too dry. Seriously, it was the best moment of my life. I do have to admit that I have a lot of those “best moment of my life” moments, all of the time. And that moment, when I first ate cornbread souffle, was one of them.

The key ingredient to making this skillet cornbread soufflé recipe is sour cream. I went right to work in my lab, (my kitchen), working to figure this mystery cornbread soufflé recipe out. Little did I know that it would be super easy to make. I originally wanted to make my cornbread soufflé recipe from scratch for this blog post but after a long day at the beach with my little “Sky Bear” my toddler, I decided to use my go-to recipe that I have up my sleeve, with Trader Joe’s Corn Bread Mix, and it’s just a little quicker, especially if you have an energetic toddler like I do! My sweet son is most likely having sweet dreams with the aroma of sweet cornbread wafting the air right now.

I used my Staub Paella Pan for this yummy recipe. It’s a great cast-iron skillet to have for this Skillet Corn Bread Soufflé, especially if you plan on making this cornbread dish recipe for a big group.  I usually make way more than what we are going to eat, for seconds, or thirds, and for next day meals.

I have several variations of this skillet cornbread soufle recipe and they all turn out great. For this recipe I used the Trader Joe’s Cornbread Mix, 15 oz box.

The recipe on the box called for eggs, oil, and milk so I increased each of the amount of ingredients slightly and addition to the eggs, oil, and milk, I added 1 4oz can of ortega green chiles, 16.oz of sour cream, and 1 can of corn. Those are the magic ingredients to making this cornbread soufle recipe super tasty. For this recipe, I doubled everything to fit in my 15 1/2 inch paella pan. But the below recipe is what you would use for a regular size 9 inch cast-iron skillet.