Monte Cristo Skillet
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With all the goodness of a classic Monte Cristo sandwich, enjoy this easy Monte Cristo Skillet recipe to make Monte Cristo flavors easy and accessible for the whole family!
This Monte Cristo Skillet was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 National Cornbread Festival. It caught my eye because I recently had my very first Monte Cristo Sandwich and absolutely loved it. Southern Living sent me to Charleston to do some presentations for the Taste of Charleston Festival. Have you ever been to Charleston? Oh my goodness gracious, is that a beautiful town! With every sight and sound I became more determined to bring my family back there someday so I could experience it with them (it is hard to enjoy a trip without the folks you want to share it with beside you).
As I’ve started traveling from time to time I’ve taken a queue from my adventurous counterparts at SL and started making it a point to try something new in each place if possible. In Charleston, I had my first Monte Cristo Sandwich and it was right up my alley. I ate it in the cafe of a beautiful hotel right downtown. The flavors were a unique combination for me: Ham, cheese, battered and toasted bread drizzled with a sweet fruit preserves and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. It was part lunch, part breakfast, part sandwich, part dessert, and all the way good!
So when Martha White offered to guest post I got to nosing around for what recipe I thought would appeal the most to everyone and as soon as this skillet came before my eyes, my heart just settled on it.
This recipe is quick to throw together and feeds six people. I like strawberry preserves with mine but feel free to use whichever you like best.
What You’ll Need to Make the Monte Cristo Skillet:
- Martha White Cotton Country Cornbread Mix
- cooking spray
- chopped cooked turkey
- chopped cooked ham
- shredded Swiss cheese
- eggs
- milk
- mayonnaise
- honey mustard
- salt
- pepper
- currant jelly
- powdered sugar
How to Make a Monte Cristo Skillet:
Prepare the cornbread batter according to the instructions on the package.
Bake cornbread mix in a 10 1/2 inch cast-iron skillet.
The cornbread will be thin and should look like this when baked.
Remove the cornbread from the skillet, and cut it into cubes when cooled. Wipe out the skillet with paper towels and spray the skillet generously with non-stick cooking spray.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the cornbread cubes in the bottom of the cast iron pan.
Top the cornbread cubes with the turkey, ham, and Swiss cheese.
In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon mustard, salt and pepper until well blended.
Pour evenly over ingredients in skillet. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until set and lightly browned.
Melt the currant jelly by warming it slightly in the microwave. Add one tablespoon of the honey mustard and whisk until blended.
Remove the Monte Cristo Skillet from the oven.
Cut it into wedges…
…sprinkle with powdered sugar…
…and serve with the currant jelly/honey mustard mixture! ENJOY this delicious cast-iron-skillet recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 6 oz. package Martha White® Cotton CountryTM Cornbread Mix
- Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
- 1-1/2 cups chopped cooked turkey
- 1/2 cup chopped cooked ham
- 1-1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons honey mustard divided
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup Smucker's® Currant Jelly
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
- PREPARE cornbread mix according to package directions, except bake in a 10 1/2-inch cast iron skillet (cornbread will be thin). Remove cornbread from skillet; cool and cut into cubes. Wipe out skillet with paper towels; spray generously with no-stick cooking spray.
- HEAT oven to 350°F. Place cornbread cubes in skillet. Top with turkey, ham and cheese. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon mustard, salt and pepper until well blended. Pour evenly over ingredients in skillet. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until set and lightly browned.
- MELT currant jelly by warming slightly. Add 1 tablespoon honey mustard; whisk to blend.
- REMOVE skillet from oven. Cut in wedges, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with currant jelly and mustard sauce.
One of my favorite Cast Iron Memories is of when I would go to visit my grandmother(Mammy) in Kentucky for the summer. She used her cast iron skillet everyday and just about every meal! One of my absolute favorite things she would make was Chocolate Gravy! Yes, you heard me CHOCOLATE!!!!! It was a special treat she would just whisk up for us! It was sooooo good served over her homemade biscuits and a glass of cold milk to wash it down! It is the simple things in life that are truly the best!
My mama grew up in hard times. Where they lived, in the mountains of NC, the terrain was rough, and the weather could get bad.
Back in the 1940’s there wasn’t much but love to keep a family going.
Mama used to tell me stories of her childhood…and one that sticks in my mind the best involves a cast iron cooking pans:
Food being scarce, they ate what they had. Grandma would get up way before dawn and start the wood stove to warm the icicles off the nail heads inside of the house before everyone else got woke up.
She’d make a modest breakfast for them, with homemade biscuits, and cooking whatever precious little meat they had in a cast iron skillet.
Then at “dinner time” (or lunch, as some folks say,) she’d feed everyone the “big” meal of the day, which usually consisted of dried beans that she’d cooked all day in a cast iron dutch oven, some sort of greens, and corn bread that had been baked in her cast iron skillet.
Almost every night, they had that leftover corn bread…they would crumble it up into a cup of the “likker” from the greens or in some buttermilk, which was a “treat” for them.
That was supper, and they were grateful for it!
My mother passed away in 2008. I inherited her cast iron cookware. She had skillets of all sizes, pots. Dutch ovens. I added these to my small collection. I use a skillet almost everyday. Each time I pick up one of these items I think about her. I have so many memories of her using these and I enjoy remembering the memories of her cooking and of her. I hope to pass these along to my daughter and grandchildren.
My late mother-in-law and her sister both gave me cast iron skillets that they had used so of course they were seasoned. What a blessing ! I also have a couple I received in a set as a wedding gift. I keep mine seasoned by spraying them with oil before putting them away in the bottom drawer of my stove. They get more seasoned everytime the oven is on.. Thats the way my Momma did hers, too. I use them a lot, love to make cornbread and of course biscuits in them. One of my beloved sons put one of my skillets in the dishwasher once and it did not hurt it at all, still seasoned and non-stick ! I like to say I am blessed among Southern cooks to have several seasoned cast iron skillets !!
I inherited my great-grandmother’s small and large iron skillets. My Maw Maw was a fabulous cook. I watched her cook fried chicken in the large skillet and corn bread in the small one. Those skillets hold a life-time of memories and good cookin’. Every time I use them I think of Maw Maw, how she taught me to cook, and how much she loved me–her first great-grandchild. Soon I will be teaching my little granddaughter to cook in those precious skillets so she will have cherished memories too–of cooking with her MiMi.
My family is originally from Eastern Kentucky – cast iron skillets – what else!! Daddy (87 years young)has been living in Florida for the past twenty years and I am in Arizona. When I go visit, one highlight is going to get (if he has run out, and to get some for myself to bring home) Martha White’s self-rising buttermilk corn meal mix, and buttermilk by the gallon – what a dream! He, of course, has to give me a ‘how to take care of his skillets’ lesson every time! Needless to say, that is how I season mine, but that is not important! We have fun making enough cornbread and hoe cakes for an army – and not one measure does he do! The stuff life is made of….
Side note – about 7 years ago, I found a cast iron wok at a flea market – what a dream! I can make fried potatoes like no other!!
Your post about your dad made me smile! =)
My mom cooks in hers on a daily basis. She make the best liver and onion gravy in them, besides her cornbread, pineapple upside down cakes, biscuits. Oh my the list just goes on and on. I personally don’t have one, but I am thinking of getting ,myself some. My sister has them and loves them just about as much as my mom : ) Thanks : )