A mildly sweet and spicy green chile cornbread made with blue cornmeal. The Medina Family of the Zia Pueblo, New Mexico (NM), makes this traditional cornbread for neighbors and guests of the pueblo's annual Feast Day in August. They double the recipe for Feast Day! It's easy to half or double this recipe.
*See Kitchen Notes for more information, substitutions and related links. Also, MJ provides her recipe adjustments for cutting the recipe in half.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the cornmeal and the wood ash.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients.
Mix the wet ingredients together and add to the dry ingredients. Combine well to incorporate wet and dry ingredients. Don't over stir, but do make sure that all of the flour and cornmeal is incorporated.
At the Zia Pueblo cornbread is usually cooked in a cast iron skillet. If this is what you use, grease the iron skillet with the oil. You could also use any oven-safe skillet or baking dish.
Pour the cornbread mix into the skillet and bake in pre-heated oven for 35 minutes.
If you prefer to use an Air Fryer, use an aluminum pan, Pyrex® baking dish, or silicone container and cook at 365°F for 20 min.
Blue cornmeal - If you can't find blue cornmeal, substitute with a fine ground yellow corn meal. Bill uses a Ute Mountain Ute Bow and Arrow blue cornmeal. The Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation is located in southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico and small sections of Utah. MJ used a Tamaya Blue from the Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico. Bill's cornbread is the beautiful blue cornbread in the top picture. MJ's (made with a different blue cornmeal and no wood ash), is the cornbread in the third photo which isn't near as blue as Bill's.
Wood ash - The wood ash is optional. It's purpose is to create a deep blue color and enhance the flavor of the cornmeal. Be sure that the wood ash you use is from untreated wood, possibly organic. There are a few sources of wood ash online.
Gluten-free Flour - If using a gluten free baking mix (which is pre-leavened), reduce baking powder to 1 teaspoon.
Cheese - A strong, salty cheese (cotija, Romano, Feta) is best, but you could also use a sharp cheddar.
Cooking Oil - Use oil if you are vegetarian, vegan, or just want to keep it healthy. MJ loves using bacon dripping for cornbread and baking the cornbread in a cast iron skillet. She melts the drippings in the cast iron while preheating the oven. Just make sure to remove the skillet once the drippings have melted so they won't burn.
Cutting the recipe in half (4 servings) - All in all it's pretty straight forward because most ingredients can be just cut in half. Here are the adjustments I (MJ) did NOT cut in half. For the dry ingredients I used 1.5 teaspoon baking powder, 1 large garlic clove (smashed/minced), and omitted the chile powder. For the wet ingredients, I used 3/4 cup buttermilk (not milk), 2 Tbsp. agave syrup, 2 heaping Tbsp. crumbled feta cheese, and 1/4 cup minced, roasted green chile. Baking time: Since it was a smaller batch, I only baked it for 25 minutes. As you can see, I did eliminate the chile powder because I added 1/4 cup roasted chile used in a whole batch. I also eliminated the wood ash because I didn't have any. Because of that, my cornbread did have a duller blue color than Bill's.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen