Grill Day-Old Cornbread To Bring It Back To Life

Cornbread is a classic side dish for barbecue and chili and also goes well with a variety of stews and other meaty entrees, but it does tend to go a bit stale the day after it's baked. How, then, can you revive your day-old cornbread? There are several different ways to go about it, with baking in the oven being perhaps the best way to restore its original consistency. The microwave, while less optimal texture-wise, may make for the easiest way to heat your cornbread in a hurry, although you can also use your air fryer, Instant Pot, or toaster oven if you like to give those other kitchen appliances an occasional workout.

If you're an aficionado of outdoor cooking, you could also try throwing your leftover cornbread on the grill. Slice it an inch thick, cook it for maybe two to three minutes on each side, then butter it and enjoy that slightly smoky flavor. If the weather is inclement or it's aesthetics alone you're looking for, you can also make use of a ridged grill pan to reheat your cornbread with the result being hatch marks sans smoke.

Once your cornbread really starts to get dry, the grill may not be your best bet for reheating it since it might crumble to bits and fall between the grates. Past a certain point, there's no reheating method that will really restore its original bread-like function, but at this point, the best thing to do is just to lean into the crumble and reduce that cornbread to crumbs. What, then, can you do with those crumbs? If they're on the large side, you can moisten them with broth and use them as the base for cornbread stuffing. (Here's a recipe for Southern-style cornbread dressing, since stuffing by any other name would taste as savory.)

If the cornbread crumbs are fine, they make a great coating for chicken, fish, or pork chops. Dip the meat in flour, then in beaten raw egg, and finally in crushed cornbread. While cornbread-crusted meats can be baked or pan-fried (or even air-fried or Instant Potted, if you insist), you could also cook them on the grill, thus allowing this tool to assist in your cornbread's second incarnation. If the crumbs show any sign of detaching and escaping through the grates, you can always borrow a tip used for keeping fish from sticking to the grill: Cook the breaded meat on a plank, sheet of foil, or citrus slices in order to create a barrier between crumbs and coals.