Sweet Onion Skillet Cornbread
This Sweet Onion Skillet Cornbread has a rather funny (or somewhat ignorant) story regarding its friend, the Vidalia onion.
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
- 1 (8 ounce) box Jiffy cornbread muffin mix
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with vegetable oil. Keep warm in oven while preparing the cornbread mix.
- Melt butter in a saucepan. Add onion, and cook about 5 minutes, until tender. Remove from heat.
- In a mixing bowl, combine cornbread mix, onion, egg, milk, sour cream, and 1/2 cup cheese. Carefully remove the hot skillet from oven, and pour batter into the pan. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
We have a little tiny town in Louisiana named Vidalia. For the better part of my life and once I began learning my way around the kitchen, I always assumed Vidalia onions came from Vidalia, Louisiana. And while some onion may, in fact, come from Vidalia, Louisiana it wasn’t until recently that I learned that Vidalia onions actually originated in Toombs County, Georgia. Over nearly 80 years ago! According to the Vidalia Onions website (yep, they have their own website), a man by the name of Moses Coleman discovered that some of the onions he planted had an unfamiliar sweetness to them. Back then, he struggled to sell such peculiar tasting onions. Once word spread, though the onions became highly sought after for their unique, mild and sweet flavor.
Now there’s a festival, a committee, and as I mentioned before an entire website devoted to the history of the Vidalia onion.
This cornbread could be called the Vidalia Onion Cornbread, but calling it the Sweet Onion Skillet Cornbread is basically the same.
The cornbread combines the sweet Vidalia onion with sharp Cheddar cheese to give you the most delicious cornbread! The bit of sour cream provides it some much needed moisture. No crumbly, dry cornbread on my watch.
I like to serve it with this Easy & Delicious Crock Pot Chili, or with Purple Hull Peas. It’s also really good with this Creamy Shrimp & Corn Soup.
So, so good!
