Cornbread has occupied a regular spot on Southern dinner tables for centuries now. It’s normally an inexpensive bready staple that’s traditionally been bred to crackle and crumble its way into soupy sides like beans and potatoes. While there’s incredible satisfaction in using many iterations of cornbread to add flavor and texture to a plate, or to help clean the plate itself at the end of a meal, cornbread can be so much more.

I learned how to easily take cornbread to another level while visiting in the kitchen with an old friend, Martha Hall, during my days living in North Carolina’s colonial capital, New Bern. Martha made a more delicious cornbread that paired great with homemade chili beans. She called it “Corny Cornbread.”

While at first it sounds quite redundant, let’s think about the name. Most cornbread I’ve eaten includes the “corn” part more because of the cornmeal than actual kernels. Not so with Corny Cornbread. Kernels are baked right in, hence the “Corny part,” and the result is an extra burst of flavor and texture in each and every bite.

Perhaps even more importantly there’s one extra ingredient that gives this higher breed of bread an edge over its crumbly ancestors, and that’s sour cream. The dish could just as easily be called “Creamy Corny Cornbread,” because this method makes a cornbread so buttery and non-crumbly that you almost don’t recognize it as, well, cornbread. (In fact, cornbread purists will scoff at it entirely. And that’s fine. I like a creative kitchen where new concepts are embraced. You aren’t required to do the same.)

So, how is this Corny Cornbread assembled? Well, I’ll take liberties with Martha’s recipe by adding my own twist. I suggest you start with whatever cornbread recipe you prefer. You can mix from scratch with cornmeal, or you can do what we like in our house: Use a box of Jiffy. We love Jiffy’s sweetness and simplicity, so we start with the mix, needing only to add a third of a cup of milk and one egg. Then, you can add one cup of whole kernel corn (fresh is, of course, is the very best, and you can actually use cream corn if you really want to be bold, but you might need to alter the cooking time and methods due to the extra soupiness), and be sure to include a third of a cup of sour cream. Blend all of that together and pour into your cast iron skillet or baking dish and follow the time and temperature instructions of your recipe.

As usual, I suggest you take liberties with this #FoodieScore recipe, ensuring you create a plate to suit your tastes and make you happy. And as always, be sure to let us know what you think of your Corny Cornbread. Thank you, Martha Hall, for making cornbread cornier and better than ever. We believe these tricks can take cornbread quite literally from a side dish to the star of your meal.