Don't Be Afraid To Add Fresh Herbs To Your Skillet Cornbread

Baking your cornbread in a cast iron skillet is already a step up from the baking pan, instilling a decadently crunchy, almost fried undercrust to contrast a fluffy tender crumb. A skillet also gives you the opportunity to infuse your cornbread with even more flavor by heating it with butter and seasonings before pouring the batter in. Kernel corn, jalapenos, and green onions are common ingredients to elevate skillet cornbread, but fresh herbs are the sophisticated upgrade you need to try.

Fresh herbs require little preparation, and they effortlessly add a unique, herbal, aromatic contrast to the sweet and savory flavors in cornbread. They also provide a nice pop of color to the otherwise monochrome cornbread crumb. While there are various ways to add fresh herbs to cornbread batter, Tasting Table recipe developer and pastry chef Katie Rosenhouse demonstrates the most creative and delicious technique in her recipe for honey sage skillet cornbread.

Rosenhouse uses whole fresh sage leaves to season and decorate skillet cornbread by pressing the leaves onto the buttered surface of the cast iron skillet before pouring the batter over top. Softened butter acts as the glue that keeps the sage leaves from moving with the addition of batter. That layer of butter will create a crispy golden brown crust studded with a spiral of forest-green sage leaves. After letting the cornbread cool, you can flip the skillet over onto a serving plate so your guests can see this culinary work of art before they taste it.

Sage and butter is a classic duo for a savory pairing as evidenced by the sage and brown butter sauces poured over gnocchi. Honey provides a floral sweetness to complement the earthiness of the sage and the corn. But, sage isn't the only herb, nor honey the only sweetener to use in cornbread. There are plenty of tasty combinations to try. For example, you could add fresh rosemary to this recipe for honey sweet potato skillet cornbread. This fruity cast iron fig cornbread would pair beautifully with thyme or tarragon. For a more savory take, add fresh cilantro to jalapeno and cheddar cornbread. Basil offers sweet and savory aromas that parallel and enhance the sweet and savory nature of corn bread.

The way you incorporate these fresh herbs into cornbread recipes doesn't have to be as aesthetic as Rosenhouse's sage cornbread. You can finely chop fresh herbs before adding them to cornbread batter, folding the diced herbs carefully into the batter so you get a crumb speckled with green. You could also bloom the flavors of fresh herbs before adding them to your cornbread batter by stirring them into the melted butter used in the wet ingredients. For extra depth, let the herby butter simmer a bit longer so it'll brown. Brown butter infused with herbs is an especially luxurious complexity.