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cornbread by bing image creator
Cheapism / Bing Image Creator

Cornbread rarely comes in small portions. If you’ve made any lately, you might have ended up with more than you can handle. It’s not quite the same consistency as traditional bread, so what are your options when it comes to leftovers?

A lot, it turns out. Here are eight recipes to help make the most of your leftover cornbread, from soup to salad and plenty in between.

1. Baked Cornbread French Toast

a stack of french toast
french toast by pepperberryfarm ((CC BY-NC-ND))

I’m all about this recipe right here. It looks to me like we’re essentially making bread pudding with a custard-adjacent sauce. I will absolutely be trying this.

Recipe: My Sequined Life

2. Cornbread Strata

Homemade Funeral Potatoes Casserole with Cheese and Chives
bhofack2/istockphoto

Cornbread strata is somewhere between cornbread pudding and a frittata. This is a good vessel to channel your inner Bobby Flay and lean into Southwestern flavors, so consider getting wild with some beans, cheese, and cilantro. 

Recipe: Food52

3. Cornbread Dressing Fritters

Conch Fritters, Florida Keys
sbossert/istockphoto

Major originality points on this one. A hush puppy is simple enough, but I love the idea of upgrading this into fritters made of cornbread dressing (or stuffing, for those of you who use the word incorrectly). 

Recipe: The Buttered Home

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4. Cornbread Buttermilk Soup

cream of crab soup from The Local
Saron B. / Yelp

Asheville, NC-based chef John Fleer is famous for Appalachian cooking, and this cornbread buttermilk soup recipe is a great example of why. This is as comforting a creamy soup as you’re likely going to find, made with leeks, garlic, and plenty of buttermilk.

Recipe: John Fleer

Related: Got Leftover Chicken Stock? Here Are 9 Recipes You Can Make That Aren’t Soup

5. Cornbread Panzanella

delicious fresh classic italian salad panzanella with tomatoes, croutons basil and onion rings on a white plate on an old wooden table with ingredients, view from above, flat lay, close-up
from_my_point_of_view/istockphoto

The classic tomato and crouton salad is a perfect format for any leftover cornbread you’ve got, especially if the cornbread is already stale. You can make the bread into croutons by lightly coating them in olive oil and a little bit of salt, then baking them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes.

Recipe: Real Simple

Related: I Tried 8 Cornbread Mixes and This Was the Best

6. Cornbread Salad

beet salad with cornbread croutons
beet salad with cornbread croutons by thebittenword.com ((CC BY))

I like the fun, over-the-top nature of the “salad” shown in Southern Living’s recipe photo. The layers seem like the key. If somebody brought this to a BBQ, I don’t think I’d stop staring at it the entire time. 

Recipe: Southern Living

7. Chicken and Cornbread Casserole

chicken cornbread bake
chicken cornbread bake by Marco Verch ((CC BY))

There are so many different types of cornbread casseroles in this world, but you really can’t go wrong with a classic chicken-and-cheese combo. As with most chicken dishes, using the thigh will yield the tastiest results.

Recipe: Bread Booze Bacon

8. Cornbread Quiche

quiche from Quiche-n-More
Chef N. / Yelp

There’s nothing like good quiche. Cornbread can rule the morning if you nail it right, and this recipe with sausage, cheese, and plenty of spices looks perfect.

Recipe: Melissa’s Southern Style Kitchen

Meet the Writer

Wilder Shaw is a staff writer at Cheapism who has written for publications like The Washington Post