Easy Sausage Cornbread Muffins with Cheese

These easy Sausage Cornbread Muffins are so simple to make, with just 5 minutes of mixing once your ingredients are prepped! They're packed with juicy sausage, sweet corn, capsicum, cheese and green onions, then topped with a sticky chilli jam glaze. I love these for lunchboxes or for an easy breakfast!

About These Cornbread Muffins with Sausage

These sausage cornbread muffins are so easy, tasty and economical. They are loaded with corn and tasty, crumbled sausage and vegetables. Then we add a glaze of chilli jam on top to finish it off! They're great for breakfast, for lunchboxes or a picnic. They freeze well too!

I saw the idea for a Boudin cornbread on Instagram by HymelsKajunKitchen and it looked so good I wanted to try something similar. He uses boudin sausage which isn't easy to get here but I modified it to suit what we have and made them into muffins as well as a whole cornbread in a skillet.

Ingredients For Cornbread Muffins with Sausage

Flour - Plain all purpose flour is perfect here.

Cornmeal - Cornmeal is a coarse flour made of ground dried field corn (maize). In Australia it is sold as "polenta" and is either a medium or coarse grain. Do not use instant polenta as it is a fine grain. Polenta is also the name of an Italian porridge using cornmeal just to make it a bit more confusing!

Sugar - Caster or superfine sugar so that it melts in the batter easily.

Baking powder - To make these muffins light. Check that it is in date. Baking powder is activated when it comes into contact with liquid and heat.

Salt - Fine salt, again so that it dissolves well in the batter.

Smoked paprika - Stronger and smokier than sweet paprika. Can use sweet paprika too.

Garlic powder - Finely ground garlic powder, found in the spice aisle. Tip: Keep in the freezer to prevent it clumping!

Sausages - I made my first batch using some sausages I bought from Woolworths but they've started coating their sausages in a gelatin type of coating which is impossible to get off and also holds the sausage in place so it's hard to mash it up. I don't recommend those at all. I used a turkey sausage instead and I think it tasted better too.

Eggs - Large eggs. To help bind and give the mixture a rise.

Butter - I always use salted butter.

Milk - Whole or full cream milk. Can also use unsweetened, unflavoured milk substitutes.

Green onions - I've specified weight rather than number of green onions as they vary in thickness. This is around 1/4 of a bunch.

Onion - White, brown or red onion. Golden eschallot can also work.

Capsicum bell pepper - I like using red because of the colour but use any colour.

Corn kernels - Fresh or frozen (then thawed) corn kernels.

Cheese - Tasty or cheddar cheese, grated.

Chilli - Large red chilli for a mild spiciness and even distribution (small chillies can be hard to distribute in a large mix).

Jam - I used chilli jam to glaze but you can also use red pepper jelly or any sweet, spicy jam.

Video How To Make Sausage Cornbread Muffins

Sausage Cornbread Muffin Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Makes: 12 muffins

Ingredients Needed

For Cornbread Mix

• 100g/3.5oz plain all purpose flour
• 75g/2.6oz cornmeal/polenta
• 65g/2.3oz caster or superfine sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

For Rest of Mix

• 300g/10.6oz sausage (I used turkey sausages)
• 2 eggs
• 90g/3oz melted butter
• 1 cup/250ml/8.8oz milk
• 60g/2oz green onions, sliced
• 1/2 medium onion, peeled and diced
• 1 red capsicum bell pepper, de-seeded and diced (around 120g/4oz)
• 150g/5oz corn kernels
• 125g/4oz tasty or cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 large red chilli, diced (optional)

To Glaze

• 75g/2.6oz chilli jam or red pepper jelly

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 PREP - Preheat oven to 220C/440F fan forced or 240C/464F (very high). Line a 12 cup muffin tray with liners.

Step 2 CORNBREAD - Whisk the flour (100g/3.5oz), cornmeal/polenta (75g/2.6oz), sugar (65g/2.3oz), baking powder (1 tablespoon), salt (1.5 teaspoons), smoked paprika (1 teaspoon) and garlic powder (1 teaspoon) together.

Step 3 MIX - Skin the sausages (300g/10.6oz) and add to a bowl and mix with the eggs (2 eggs) until you get a loose mix. Stir in melted butter (90g/3oz) and then milk (1 cup/250ml/8.8oz). Ensure that the sausage is in small pieces. Mix in the green onions (60g/2oz), onion (1/2 medium onion), capsicum (1 red capsicum, around 120g/4oz), corn (150g/5oz), cheese (125g/4oz) and chilli (1 large red chilli, optional) and mix well. Fold in the cornbread mix and stir until just combined.

Step 4 SCOOP & BAKE - Scoop with a large ice cream scoop and fill the liners to the top in a dome shape (the ice cream scoop helps with this). Bake at 220C/440F fan forced or 240C/464F for 5 minutes, then lower heat down to 180C/350F fan forced or 200C/400F conventional and bake for 20 minutes.

Step 5 GLAZE - Remove the tray from the oven and glaze the top of each muffin with chilli jam or red pepper jelly (75g/2.6oz across all 12 muffins). Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes.

Substitution notes:

If you have a 250g/8.8oz box of Jiffy cornbread mix you can swap it for the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Just add smoked paprika and garlic powder and whisk in.

Personal Note

I had to send the doggies out of the kitchen when I was making these. I think the smell of me prepping the sausages awoke them from their nap. I can usually tell them to leave by pointing to Mr NQN's office but Teddy is a bit more persitent. Milo is the goodest boy and usually follows direction.

For the past few weeks, Milo has been scratching himself. Dogs often groom themselves so it's hard to know when it is an excessive level but we noticed it was when he would get up in the middle of the night and start nibbling on himself. It would never draw blood but he was just obviously itchy and uncomfortable. We tried medication and that works somewhat, but the second that we stop it comes back again.

So it was time for another vet visit. The vet concluded that every month Milo has to get an allergy shot and that has worked. But I hated the idea of this so I've started him on some marine algae Omega 3 drops and sensitive shampoo and that seems to have held things at bay. It has been 6 weeks and no more itching so I have my fingers crossed that it will hold. But if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like cornbread? Would you prefer it in a skillet or as muffins?