BBQ Chicken Cornbread Pie
The best kind of pie is when BBQ chicken goodness is sitting on a bed of fluffy, crumbly cornbread!
When Lauraās Sweet SpotĀ first posted this, I seriously could not wait to recreate this. I mean a cornbread pie base topped with BBQ chicken and lots and lots of melted cheddar cheese? Uh, yes please! I mean Iām not much of dessert pie person but if you throw a shepherdās pie or a cornbread pie my way, I will devour the entire pie without a problem.
The only change I made to this recipe is swapping out the store-bought corn muffin mix and using my go-to cornbread recipe from Georgia over atĀ Comfort of Cooking. Itās simple, easy and I have not found a cornbread recipe that I love more. But if youāre short on time, feel free to use the box mix. Julie does a wonderful job sprucing it up by adding some corn kernels. Genius, right?
When I made this, it was early Sunday morning and Jason was still sleeping. But once I finished taking the photos, there was a slice of pie just staring right at me. I promised myself that Iād wait until Jason wakes up but after 5 minutes of self-control, I took a fork and just dove right into the pie. I sat on the living room floor, next to the camera, next to the props (I just didnāt want to waste any time walking to the dining room table) and stuffed myself like there was no tomorrow. I even told myself that Iād just take a bite for taste-taking purposes but that didnāt work out too well.
Once I took that first bite of the fluffy cornbread topped with the sweet barbecue chicken with the ooey gooey melted cheese on top, a wonderful balance of flavors and textures, I knew that I had to finish the entire slice. Plus an extra one.
So hereās how you make this:
Letās first start by making the cornbread. Go ahead and mix up your dry ingredients.
Then mix your wet ones ā buttermilk, butter and eggs.
Stir in the wet to dry ingredients just until moist.
Pour it into a pie plate, smoothing out the top.
Pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes.
While the cornbread bakes in the oven, go ahead and cook up some chicken breasts to shred. You could also use some leftover chicken and shred them.Ā Be sure to sample a couple of chicken pieces. Itās for taste-testing purposes, right?
Throw the shredded chicken back into the skillet,
along with the onions and bell pepper.
Once the veggies begin to sweat a bit, throw in some garlic.
Then come the spices ā chili powder, cumin and of course, hot sauce.
Now weāll add the tomato sauce, Worcestershire and brown sugar.
Give it a good stir, making sure everything is well combined.
Top the cornbread with the chicken mixture. If you have some leftover BBQ chicken, I highly recommend using it in a sandwich topped with some melted cheese. It is to die for!
Add a liberal amount of cheddar. I might have added too much. But then again, thereās no such thing as too much cheese.Ā Now weāll pop it back in the oven but only until the cheese melts.
Slice, serve and eat!

BBQ Chicken Cornbread Pie
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
For the cornbread
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- ā cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9-inch pie pan or coat with nonstick spray; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and salt.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter and eggs.
- Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist. Add batter to the pie pan, smoothing out the top.
- Place into oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack; set aside.
- Preheat the broiler.
- Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add chili powder, cumin and hot sauce; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar.
- Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 5-7 minutes.
- Spread the chicken mixture evenly over the cornbread. Sprinkle with cheese.
- Place into oven and broil just until the cheese has melted, about 3 minutes.
- Slice into wedges and serve immediately, garnished with parsley.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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So good!! Made today for lunch. Will definitely be enjoying the leftovers this week!
I thought this was absolutely delicious. Some comments:
1. I had to cut the top off my cornbread layer as there was no way the chicken layer would have fit on top otherwise! Use a deep pie dish.
2. The cornbread was super sweet, I will definitely halve the sugar next time.
3. I could have happily had 2x the topping and less cornbread. The sauce on the topping was gorgeous!!
This looks great. I was wondering how the leftovers held up⦠did the cornbread get soggy under the barbecue chicken mix?
The cornbread is so thick, it actually holds up really well!
Can this be made in the slow cooker?? Thanks
Please understand that it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop/oven recipe to the slow cooker method without further recipe testing. I recommend using your best judgement to convert this recipe to utilize a slow cooker.
how do I cook the chicken to shred it
Pam, here is a great resource on How To Cook Moist & Tender Chicken Breasts Every Time.
Kamsahamnida for your great recipes. One question ā weāre in Australia. What do you mean by ātomato sauceā? Here, thatās store bought ketchup. Assume youāre talking more of a passata?
ab
By tomato sauce, I am referring more to passata, not ketchup.
I made (my version of) this tonight and it was great! Instead of the tomato sauce I used some bbq sauce that I made that needed to be used up. It was delicious! Thanks for the recipe! I will be making it again, for sure!
Made this for dinner and really liked it! I did make a few changes. I halved the butter and sugar for the cornbread and it still turned out tasty. I also was out of tomato sauce so I used a pizza sauce and Iām not sure if that affected the taste, but I ended up adding a splash of pre-made BBQ sauce to it because the my personal taste preferred a little stronger BBQ flavor. When I make this next time, Iām going to make a little extra sauce as well because I think more could be added to the top of the cornbread.
Can I freeze this? It looks soooo good!!
Unfortunately, I have never tried freezing this myself so I cannot answer this with certainty. I recommend using your best judgement for freezing and reheating leftovers.
Made this today. Loved it! Definitely a keeper. Thanks!