How to Make Chef John's Hot Water Cornbread

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In this video, learn how to make Chef John’s Hot Water Cornbread. Follow along as we guide you through this simple yet delicious Southern classic. With just a few ingredients and Chef John’s expert tips, you'll create crispy, golden cornbread that's perfect as a side dish or snack.

Transcript

00:00Hello! This is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Old-Fashioned Fried Hot Water Cornbread!

00:09That's right! When I started researching this recipe, I saw people calling it the most southern

00:14of all the southern cornbreads, which I didn't really understand. But then I started making it,

00:20and it actually made sense. And it is definitely my favorite new way to eat cornbread.

00:25And to get started, we will mix up our dry ingredients, which of course will include

00:29some cornmeal. And we're supposed to use finely ground, but after some testing,

00:34I decided I preferred the texture of the medium grind, but either works. And then to that we

00:40will add some all-purpose flour, a little bit of sugar, some salt of course, and then we'll finish

00:47up with some baking powder, which is definitely not the same thing as baking soda. So double

00:52check you got the right one. And that's it. Once everything's in, we'll take a whisk, and we will

00:57whisk, and we will keep whisking until everything's thoroughly combined, at which point we'll stop

01:03and pour in the star of the show, some very, very hot water, as in water I've brought to a simmer in

01:09a tea kettle. And for two cups of cornmeal, I find about a cup and a half of water to be perfect.

01:15Although this really does vary recipe to recipe, right? Some use less for a stiffer dough,

01:21whereas some use a lot more, and they actually have to spoon this into the hot oil like a batter.

01:26But either way, we'll go ahead and take a spoon and carefully mix this all together,

01:30starting very slowly at first, so you don't splash out the water and burn yourself,

01:35and also throw off your measurements. And once we do have this all thoroughly and thoughtfully mixed,

01:40while this is still warm, we'll toss in the last ingredient, which is an optional chunk of butter,

01:46and we'll go ahead and mix that until it disappears. And no, not everybody likes to add

01:51fat to this dough, or if they do, they'll use something like bacon grease, or lard, or if you're

01:57one of these bearded hipster chefs, maybe some duck fat. But anyway, you decide. I mean, you are

02:03after all the valeries of making this with more calories, but either way, once we have everything

02:09mixed up, we'll go ahead and divide this into eight equal portions. And for that, I like to

02:14use this ice cream scoop, which is fast and easy, and a good way to keep these all nice and uniform,

02:20plus since we're already starting with a nice round shape, it's going to give us a head start,

02:24as we eventually form these into patties. Oh, and that parchment paper you see on the pan

02:29is not just to make cleanup easier. As you'll see, that's going to make it easier to pick these up

02:33once they're chilled. But before we pop these in the fridge, we'll go ahead and give them their

02:38final shape. And to do that, we simply lay a piece of plastic over the top, and then we'll lightly

02:44press these down until they're about three quarters to an inch thick. And then the final

02:48step here would be to smooth out the tops, just so these fry nice and evenly, and have a little

02:53more of a uniform look. So that's exactly what I did before I popped them in the fridge for about

02:59an hour, which is going to allow them to firm up a little bit. Although I should mention,

03:03you can transfer the dough right from the bowl to the fryer, which is how a lot of people do it,

03:08but I've tried it both ways and find this works out a little bit better.

03:12And that's it. With the help of the parchment paper, we will flip these over onto our hand,

03:16and then we'll head to the stove and transfer this into some 350 degree oil.

03:21But not directly, that's too dangerous. I recommend we use a spatula to lower that into the hot fat,

03:27which I probably should have oiled first to make it slide off easier.

03:31But anyway, no matter what method you use, as long as you don't burn yourself, you did it right.

03:36And unless you lay these on top of each other, you should not have a problem with them sticking

03:40together. But to hedge our bets, we can always poke around with the edge of the spatula to make sure.

03:45And that's it. We'll simply fry these for about three minutes per side,

03:49or until they've cooked through and browned up beautifully. And yes, of course, because I'm

03:54filming, one of them decided to puff up due to some kind of air pocket in the middle, which did

03:59not happen to any of the other ones, or in any of the test batches. But anyway, I can't even pretend

04:05to be concerned. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, you can totally shallow fry these in like

04:10just a half inch of oil, which I did for one batch, and it worked out fine. But anytime we deep

04:16fry, the more oil we have, the easier things are going to be. And that's it. After giving the second

04:21side about three minutes, I went ahead and transferred those onto a rack, at which point

04:26I fried up the other four. And as you can see, every single one is the exact same shape and size,

04:33except for those couple that aren't. But as they probably say in the South,

04:37close enough for cornbread. And then it wasn't easy, but I let those cool for about 10 minutes

04:43before I broke one open to go in for the official taste. And yes, I picked the puffy one,

04:49which was still perfectly fine and had a beautiful crumb. And that, my friends, is a very memorable

04:55cornbread experience. Okay, the taste is very familiar, but having that crusty, sort of crispy

05:01exterior surrounding the cornbread makes for something that's new and exciting. And if you're

05:06wondering, are these just larger, bigger hushpuppies? Well, I really can't answer that.

05:12But also, probably yes. Although in this larger format, it really is different texturally.

05:18But as far as the basic recipe goes, yes, it's very similar. And these really are nice,

05:23eaten warm just like this. Or of course, maybe slathered with some honey butter.

05:27But before we sign off, I did want to show them in their natural habitat,

05:32which would be broken open and stuck in a bowl of beans. Oh yeah, now that is a meal. Actually,

05:38probably a couple meals. But anyway, that's it. My take on old-fashioned fried hot water cornbread.

05:45This is an absolute must-make for any cornbread lover. And I really do hope you give this a try

05:51soon. So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,

05:55a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy!

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