Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins
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These easy muffins are amazingly moist, crumbly and buttery. Perfect as a side dish, appetizer or snack! SO GOOD.
why i love this recipe
- Say goodbye to box cornbread mix and dry, dense cornbread – these muffins are amazingly moist + wonderfully crumbly and buttery
- Completely homemade, and so stinking easy to whip up
- No mixer required – simply whisk and fold until moist
- Perfect as a side dish (that you’ll want to serve with anything and everything), an easy appetizer or after school snack
- Guaranteed crowd-pleaser, great for party entertaining and holiday get togethers
- Freezer-friendly and reheats like a dream
is cornbread sweet or savory
Cornbread can be both sweet or savory depending on personal preference. Southern-style cornbread, for example, comes in so many different varieties and is typically made without sugar (more savory). These muffins, however, lean more towards the sweet cornbread category, sweetened by white granulated sugar and honey.
VARIATIONS
Bacon or sausage
Add crispy, crumbled bacon or sausage.
Cheese
Substitute a different cheese such as shredded Pepper Jack or smoked Gouda.
Herbs
Add chopped fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme or chives.
Vegetables
Diced and sauteed bell peppers, caramelized onions, canned green chiles, or frozen or canned corn kernels are all great additions.
Mild
For more mild flavors, especially for toddlers and children, skip the jalapenos and substitute scallions (green onions).
how to make these easy jalapeno cornbread muffins
- Spray or line a 12-cup muffin tin
- Mix the dry ingredients
- Mix the wet ingredients
- Pour the wet over dry, stirring just until moist (overmixing will lead to dense, dry cornbread) – stir in jalapenos + cheese
- Transfer the batter to the muffin tin and bake until golden brown
- Serve warm with softened butter or drizzled with honey (and freeze any leftovers for later)
tips and tricks for success
- Use buttermilk. While adding a slightly tangy flavor, buttermilk is a key ingredient here yielding light, moist and fluffier cornbread muffins. Using milk will lead to more neutral flavors and a drier consistency.
- Liners vs. spray. Prefer cupcake liners? Skip the spray and line the muffin pan with liners instead.
- Use fine or medium-ground cornmeal. Dependent on personal preference, fine or medium-ground cornmeal are typically the most popular options for cornbread. For a more smooth consistency, fine-ground cornmeal is ideal, but for more texture and grittiness, medium-ground is the way to go.
- Do not use cornbread mix. Cornbread mix is not the same as cornmeal. Cornbread mix comes pre-mixed with leavening agents.
- Avoid overmixing. Using a rubber spatula, stir the batter until everything is just combined and moistened with a few lumps here and there. Overmixing will lead to dense, tough muffins.
- Dress them up. Finish the muffins off with a drizzle of honey, enjoying them on its own as a snack or paired with a comforting bowl of chili.
- Freeze as needed. Cornbread muffins freeze very well and can typically last up to 3 months in the freezer.
pro tip
Buttermilk substitute
A quick and easy buttermilk substitute is creating your own buttermilk with whole milk and something acidic such as lemon juice or distilled white vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon acid (lemon juice or vinegar) to 1 cup milk, letting it stand for 5-10 minutes.
what to serve with jalapeno cornbread muffins
Tools For This Recipe
12-cup muffin tin
Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins: Frequently Asked Questions
If the seeds and membranes are removed from the jalapeno peppers before adding to the cornbread batter, the spice level will be relatively mild. If the seeds are left intact, the muffins will be on the spicier side.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
You can make one of our favorite cornbread stuffings, a holiday staple, or add them (crumbled) as a salad topping.
Yes! You can easily make cornbread in a skillet. Recipe here.
Yes! Once cooled completely, wrap each muffin in plastic wrap before transferring into plastic freezer bags (this will prevent freezer burn), squeezing out any excess air before sealing. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating at 325°F (covered in foil) until heated through.
Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
- ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda and salt.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter, sugar, eggs and honey. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.
- Stir in jalapenos and cheese until just combined.
- Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray. Place into oven and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Serve warm.
Did you make this recipe?
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These were amazing! The sweet and pepper combination were perfect! Especially mixed in with the damn delicious steak chili that was also amazing!!!!
can I use Jiffy cornbread mix? If I do, what would I omit from this recipe?
Thanks!
Unfortunately, I have never tried using the Jiffy mix so I cannot answer with certainty. Please use your best judgment.
I’d love to try this recipe for an upcoming family picnic. I’d like to add a little texture so I was wondering if it would be ok to add some bbq corn kernels to the batch. Would you recommend this and would the extra ingredient require adding additional cooking time?
Thanks and can’t wait to try this recipe!!!
What a great idea! But you may have to adjust cooking time as needed.
I had jalapeno cornbread in a famous restaurant in Miami Beach called Joe’s Stone Crab and it was delicious so I had to come here and look for a recipe. I am doing it tonight. I never thought of a jalapeno in a cornbread but it’s an amazing combination.
Hi! I just made these and sampled not one, but two (naturally, just to make sure I was tasting it right…. : ) and they are wonderful – just the perfect cornbread I’ve been searching for. The cornmeal:flour ratio is spot on, and I really think the spice and sweetness are so nicely balanced. Some recipes have too much flour or sugar. Thanks so much for the great recipe – I am planning on making these for my Food Science project soon. Should be an A plus!
***Forgot to add that you posted this recipe on my birthday, Feb 8th – this cannot be a coincidence!!! I LOVE cornbread!
I made these recently for a Chili Cook Off that I attended. They were the absolute hit of the event! I served them with honey butter….which is simply that, honey mixed with butter. Thank you for the awesome recipe….so very yummy! I also used your Steak Chili for the cook off and came in 3rd out of 9….If the cook off would have been for Cornbread Muffins, I would have snagged the Blue Ribbon for certain!
Hello Chungah,
New to your sight and I am truly excited. I too experiment with recipes and tweak them to make them my own. Making a Jambalaya tonight for my hubby and needed a recipe for the jalapeno muffins. Found yours, which looks amazing, but I’m going to use pickled jalapenos which I’m thinking would work ok…..what’s your thoughts.
That sounds amazing but I actually haven’t tried pickled jalapeños in this recipe so I can’t really say with certainty how it will turn out.
OMGosh! I made these Christmas and then again New Years Day. My husband, who is not a bread lover, LOVES these delicious muffins! His words were “This is the best damn cornbread I’ve ever eaten in my life. I think I’m going to cry”. Hahaha. Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe!! I’m going to pass it along. My friends and children can make it for their families.
Wide coverage of appropriate ingredients, sweet with hot. I would put the pepper on top but much prefer to split the muffin then apply honey. Not just any honey, organic and aromatic. I’m looking for something to go with chili, this looks like a winner!
I made these for Thanksgiving, and they were literally gone in five minutes. What a big hit!
Added a small can of creamed corn and baked them in a cast iron muffin pan that looked like small ears of corn while camping using the wood campfire. Made them to have with chili. Was awesome.
did you have to adjust any of the other ingredients by adding the creamed corn? I imagine you would have to bake a little longer
I made these three times now and each time I added something different. I added all color sweet peppers and corrot, corn and I also added some Jamaican hot pepper for extra spice…..so good.
These are delicious. The problems I had were my Jalapeno garnish sank into the muffins and the muffins came up over the pan too much. I had a lot of trimming.
I worry that your batter was not thick enough, resulting in the jalapeño garnishes sinking to the bottom, and that you may have also overfilled your muffin pan.
I made these today and they are delicious! We grow jalapenos and eat them in everything and almost at every meal. 😉 I love the sweetness of this with the hotness of the peppers combo…wonderful! I am having so much fun trying lots of your clever tasty recipes!!
These are great! I’m generally not one for spicy foods, but the sweetness in these balances out the spicyness of the peppers – YUM!
These look great. Did you use regular size muffin tin? Or mini muffins?
I used a regular-sized muffin tin.
How long should I cook if I make mini muffins?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I made these over the weekend. They were very very good. Thanks for sharing!
Just made them. First time that I had a cornbread anything. They are so good!!! thanks! 🙂
Tried these today. I halfened (is that a word) the recipe. So I had about 12 muffins. They were so good that I was going to make more. But I ran out of honey.
I had a dinner party last night and made these muffins. They were so easy and came out of my tins easily. I have never liked cornbread and I loved these. They were moist and slightly spicy. Even my caterer aunt was impressed. Thank you for that its rare
I’m so glad you enjoyed these! These are my favorite cornbread muffin recipe – I love it so much, I’ll skip over the main dish and just munch on these instead!