Chorizo Cornbread

From Luke Joyner

Ingredients

1 pack loose chorizo sausage (the exact amount can be variable)

2 cups plus 1 tablespoon self-rising white cornmeal (get it in the south if you can)

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

1 cup liquid fat (you’ll get some of this from cooking the chorizo … the remaining fat should be canola oil)

1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Cook the chorizo in a cast iron pan (ideally 15″, but 12″ is OK) until broken up and browned. Remove all the sausage from the pan. Pour excess liquid fat into a one-cup measure, and top off the cup with canola oil. Without cleaning the pan (which should still be coated in a bit of fat, but no solids), put it immediately in your preheating oven.

Mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl, with a whisk, until fully combined. There should be no clumps of cornmeal.

When the oven is hot, remove the (empty) cast iron pan and place it on a medium burner. As quickly as possible, pour the batter onto the pan, getting all of it out with a spatula. Return the pan to the oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until the bread is firm and starting to brown on top.

If you have a broiler that can apply direct heat to the top of the bread, put the bread in this for a minute or two to further brown the top, carefully watching to make sure it browns but doesn’t burn. If not, just turn the oven to its highest setting, and leave the bread in the oven a few minutes more.

Remove the bread from the oven and let cool. It should be easy to remove from the cast iron pan with a spatula.

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Tags: chorizo cornbread, luke joyner