The Simple Upgrade That Makes Ina Garten's Cornbread 'The Best Thing I've Ever Had in My Whole Life'

My tried-and-true cornbread recipe is Golden Cornbread. For years, it's been a family favorite, our go-to for a quick side on nights when we have dinner, such as chili, soup, or meatloaf. It's just 30 minutes from when I start making the batter to the moment I take it out of the oven—another reason it's a go-to dish. 

I didn't imagine ever feeling the need to make another cornbread recipe. Then I watched the latest episode of Ina Garten's "Be My Guest" with Jennifer Garner, and suddenly, I had a new way to make cornbread—Ina's way.

She made it for Jennifer, the host of the "Pretend Cooking Show," who exclaimed, "Wow! It tastes like the best thing I've ever had in my whole life."

"I put flaked salt on the top," Ina told her.

I was intrigued and headed to the kitchen.

Ina Garten’s ​​Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread

The ingredients in Ina's cornbread are the same as in the recipe I use but in different proportions—except that Ina's calls for butter while the recipe I use calls for oil. And she tweaks two things. The first tweak is that she browns the butter before adding it to the batter. The second is that she sprinkles flaky sea salt on top of the batter before the skillet goes into the oven. Both make a significant impact on the cornbread.

Ina's recipe uses unsalted butter, milk, eggs, flour, sugar, yellow cornmeal, baking powder, kosher salt, plus flaked sea salt for sprinkling. 

It's not difficult to make, but it takes longer than my go-to recipe for two reasons: The butter takes 15 to 20 minutes to brown, and the batter needs to rest for 15 minutes before being poured into the cast iron skillet to bake.

The extra time, if you have it, is worth it. The taste difference between my go-to recipe and Ina's is significant. The brown butter cornbread has a deeper, richer flavor and some prominent saltiness. It's a little sweet, savory, and salty—it hits all the perfect notes of something hard to resist. 

My go-to cornbread recipe is delicious but not as hard to resist. I'm not throwing the recipe out, though. With the extra steps in Ina's Brown Butter Cornbread Skillet recipe, there's more than a half hour of prep before it goes in the oven. The Golden Cornbread recipe is ready to eat in half an hour and is perfect for family dinner on busy nights. 

But if I'm going to bake cornbread for guests, I think Ina's recipe will be the one I use from now on. 

One final note: When a recipe calls for unsalted butter, many home cooks use salted butter if it's all they have. Don't do that with this recipe! Between the full tablespoon of kosher salt in the batter and the sea salt on top, you don't want any additional salt.