Jennifer Garner Called This Ina Garten Dish The Best She's Had In Her Whole Life

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Since meeting in 2012, actress Jennifer Garner and television hostess-with-the-mostest Ina Garten have been friends. Despite their homes being thousands of miles apart — Garner lives in Los Angeles while Garten calls East Hampton, New York, home — the two women have collaborated multiple times on screen. Garner has sometimes been a guest on the Barefoot Contessa's programs. During one of these segments the actress gushed over Garten's Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread, which is an updated version of a recipe used by Garner's grandmother.

After taking a single bite, Garner said, "Okay, this is a whole other ball of wax. Wow ... it tastes like the best thing I've ever had in my whole life" (via Instagram). Garten's recipe comes together with ingredients like milk, eggs, flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, and kosher salt. However, one of her lead roles in the dish is played by butter, which gets slowly heated until browned. This produces a fragrant, nutty aroma and flavor.

Brown butter upgrades many recipes. (For example, it will give oatmeal cookies a toastier flavor.) However, it's not the only culinary trick up Garten's sleeve. After pouring the cornbread batter into a cast iron skillet, she sprinkles the top with flaked sea salt just before the dish is baked. Clearly, the actress was impressed, but Garner isn't the only one who loves this recipe. On Food Network's website it has a perfect 5-star rating from others who have made it.

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Judging from Jennifer Garner's reaction, Ina Garten's cornbread recipe is delicious on its own. But, it would also make an appropriate side for a number of other dishes, like chili and barbecue. Additionally, you could make cornbread stuffing, something the Barefoot Contessa used to stuff Cornish game hens. Of course, there are plenty of other pages you can take from the cook's book.

Always one to experiment with different flavors and styles, Garten has a highly rated recipe for jalapeno cheddar cornbread which is cooked in a baking pan and cut into squares before serving. She also makes sour cream cornbread. In that case, she uses a loaf pan, cuts the dish intro slices, and toasts them before serving with butter and jam for a breakfast treat.

Garten even has a take on cornbread muffins, which you can certainly do with her brown butter recipe. You would just place the batter in a muffin pan rather than a skillet and sprinkle the individual filled tins with sea salt. These would be easy to serve and could make great additions to a dessert or breakfast platter. Meanwhile, folks who want something spicier can try making our Mexican cornbread casserole.