Southern Fried Cornbread Patties Recipe
I’ve always lived in the South so any Southern recipe is kinda’ in my DNA. Well, this Southern Fried Cornbread Patties recipe is at any rate. As a child, this was a favorite at my Grandma’s house!
Grandma made what she called pepper patties. It was just fried cornbread with hot peppers chipped up in it. According to my aunt, it was her regular cornbread batter made a little thinner with extra buttermilk.
With the thin batter, the cornbread didn’t puff up too much. It fried up kinda’ flat and nice and crispy. Especially around the edges. I remember inspecting pieces before I took a bite in order to avoid the hot pepper pieces!
Now I want to emphasize that this is not hot water cornbread. There always seems to be some confusion there. Hot water cornbread is just plain cornmeal, salt, maybe a little sugar and hot water.
Southern Fried Cornbread Patties are exactly that. Cornbread batter that has been fried instead of baked. Now if you added diced onions and deep-fried you would have hush puppies. But this is skillet-fried cornbread.
The only variation that I make with fried versus baked is that I make the batter for fried thinner. Just like my grandma did. The recipe below is for cornbread so adjust the buttermilk to your liking.
Southern Cornbread Mix
This recipe uses ingredients that make up the cornbread mix. That’s the first 5 ingredients in the recipe.
In the South, we can buy a cornbread mix already made up. It’s cornmeal, flour, salt, and leavening. If cornbread mix is available in your area you can substitute that and just follow the instructions on the bag for making the batter.
Southern Fried Cornbread Patties Recipe
These Southern Fried Cornbread Patties are equally good with turnip greens or syrup for breakfast.
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal fresh, and preferably stone-ground
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons sugar optional
- 1/4 cup corn oil or plain vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Put the skillet on your stovetop to preheat.
- Combine the dry ingredients except for the baking soda in a bowl.
- In another bowl, mix the buttermilk and the baking soda.
- Set aside.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg with the sugar until combined.
- Add the oil and mix until combined.
- Pour this mixture into the buttermilk/baking soda, and mix.
- When the skillet is preheated, toss the butter into the skillet and let it melt.
- Meanwhile, pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix in as few strokes as it takes to just make the dough come together.
- Swirl around the skillet to get the butter covering the bottom well.
- Spoon the batter immediately into the pan. Allow the patty to brown well on the first side and then flip and brown the other side. About 5 minutes total time.
- Remove to paper towels to absorb excess fat. Repeat until all the batter is used.
Fried Cornbread Patties For Breakfast?
Got leftovers? Well in the South these Southern Fried Cornbread Patties are just as likely to show up on the breakfast table with syrup as they are for supper with turnip greens.
Just reheat, add a pat or two of butter and some syrup.
Jiffy Fried Cornbread
Is Jiffy corn muffin mix the same as cornmeal? Well, not exactly. If you check the ingredients list of Jiffy Mix the first ingredient is flour and it also contains sugar. Southern cornbread mix has no sugar and the primary ingredient is cornmeal.
Can I substitute Jiffy Mix for cornmeal? Absolutely. It’s not exactly the same but it’s probably close enough. Just follow the instructions on the box and fry it up!
Whether you use Jiffy Mix or not I don’t think you’ll be sorry if you give this Southern Fried Cornbread Patties Recipe a try.
Up Next:
These Southern Fried Cornbread patties are excellent with this potato ham soup. Give it a try too!
Potato and Ham Soup – Leftover Ham Soup Recipe
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